The Blind Date Agreement

Seven (part 1)

By the time I get home, I'm so exhausted with everything that happened I fall asleep right away; I don't even tell Emi or Kalani how it went. Saturday morning, I message them in our group chat and tell them it was terrible, but invite them to come over or visit Boscoe's pop up art exhibit tonight and I'll give them details when I see them.

Kalani replies instantly and says that Ralph, Daphne's friend we met at the cliff, is throwing a party tonight, so we're all going there instead. I didn't really want to go, but my friends are going and I don't want to be left out, even if Kalani tells me I'm fifth wheeling them.

At work, every time the door opens, a small part of me hopes the pink team will walk in. This both confuses and annoys me since Jay and I are not friends, and last night changed nothing between us. I only get to talk to Kalani for a minute when she pops in the bakery after her sister's soccer game—the entirety of which I use to rant about how she has horrible taste in men for me—but Jay never shows. A few members of the pink team come in with their parents before the end of my shift, but I don't dare ask them where Jay is. Besides, I don't care about Jay's whereabouts, I just want to repay my debt to him in ice-cream. Yes, that's all I want.

Now, sitting in the back of Emmett's white Tesla squished between Daphne and Emi, I tell them all about the date. Every horrible detail.

"You were not going to climb out the window!" Kalani says, twisting from the passenger seat to look at me.

I pull out my phone and show her the video I sent to Jay of me standing on the counter and the open window.

Emi, Daphne, and Kalani all erupt into laughter.

"You really were going to jump out the window!" Emi gasps between fits. "I'm so proud of you, that's the type of behavior I encourage."

"It was really that terrible?" Kalani asks, trying to hold in her laughter.

I fix her an incredulous look. "He brought his mom, Kalani. His MOM! On a first date! And she called me a slut!"

She holds her hands up with her palms facing me. "Okay, okay, you're right. That sounds awful."

"But the bathroom window!" Daphne giggles. "What about the heights thing?"

I would've been willing to jump off that damn cliff if it meant getting away from Arthur and Barbara. Maybe. "It was the first floor of the building, it wasn't bad."

"Why didn't you leave from the front door?" Emmett asks. I catch his eye in the rearview mirror and get distracted by their color.

"Carina?" Kalani prompts.

"Oh." I shake my head. I need to get over this. "Just reliving the awfulness. And because I would've had to walk right by the table to leave. They would've seen."

Emmett frowns but keeps his eyes on the dark road. The highway is busy for ten pm on a Saturday, but it's not unusual.

"Why didn't you tell him it wasn't going to work and leave?" Emmett asks. I can hear the disapproval in his tone. "It would've been mean if you left out the window, and you tricked him by making him think something was wrong with your mom with a fake phone call. You should've just been honest about the situation."

His disappointment is obvious, and my heart sinks. He's right. That probably was inconsiderate of me. It seemed like a good idea at the time—a great idea, actually—and my accomplice didn't think the fake phone call was a bad idea. But then again, my accomplice was Jay, and that should've been my first hint that I wasn't acting fairly. I was feeling good about my actions, even amused by them and proud of my acting skills, until right this moment, where Emmett is looking at me like I've failed him.