Less Than Three

Chapter 17: And We Were Falling, Falling ...

Brady had left a million texts by the time I got home and plugged my phone into the charger. I grabbed some cheese chunks and a water, picked up the phone, and started to call him when it vibrated in my hand. That always freaks me out. It was Dave calling. That freaked me out more.

"You talked to her that quick?" I asked. "What did she say?"

"Um, no," he said. "I thought I'd call you first. To, uh, get more pointers on the pirate stuff."

"Just call her, okay? When she answers, tell her you had a great time with her tonight, and you wondered if she'd like to, I don't know, get some pizza or something?"

"Pizza. Check."

Did I say pizza? Like that's unique.

"Then maybe after the pizza you could go for coffee. And hey, after that, why don't you walk her down to the park? You could do that star popping thing. That was perfect."

"You like stars?"

"Who doesn't?"

"I had a great time tonight."

"Me too." A vision of Dave with the lip thing going on popped into my head but I shooed it away.

"So." He drew in a breath. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to get pizza or something?"

That was exactly the way he should say it, all sexy/growly-like. He must have kept talking while I was thinking how a voice like that was just the thing to get a girl in the mood because, next thing you know, I heard something about chai and stars.

"Madison's more of a cappuccino kind of girl," I corrected. "And don't tell her about the star popping. Let it be a surprise. Girls like surprises."

"Surprises?"

"Yes. And gifts."

"Like flowers?"

"Flowers are a nice touch but it might be a little much for a first date. You wouldn't want to scare a girl off by making her think you're madly in love with her or anything."

"It would scare you off?"

"Me? Maybe. No, probably not. But I'm not Madison."

Dave sighed. "Nope. You're not."

"Don't be so nervous about it. It's fate, I tell you. Everything will work out. I promise."

I figured I had time to talk to Brady before Dave called back with a report. He answered on the first ring. "Hey beautiful," he said.

"Right."

Brady hurried to run through all the usual excuses. They included:

1. It's not what you think.

2. Nothing happened.

And the old standby:

3. We're just friends. I swear.

Twenty minutes later, he was still going.

"All right, already," I told him. "I believe you." And really, I did.

11:59 PM If anyone can understand how a friend relationship could get misinterpreted as something ... more ... it's me.

I thought we might finally get off the phone then. Surely Dave had already set up the date with Madison. I wanted to hear how it went. But no. Brady had something else to say.