Push to the Limit (the sixth book in the Glee series)

Chapter 13: Friday Night Fights

"So you mentioned there was an event at your club tonight?" asked Brooke as she took a drink of her wine. At this point in the evening, he had successfully had half of his dinner with her and they had told each other all about their weeks, their interests, and their jobs. Just when he feared they were going to run out of conversation topics and the night would end in awkward silence, she came up with different questions or stories to freshen things up and it was back to lively talking.

"Yes," he answered this question with a smile. "My friend Bree—"

"The designer Marley lives with," she interjected.

"Exactly," he responded, glad that Brooke was as good at listening as she was at talking. "She is doing this huge fashion show there with all these great models. Hoping to get investors for her company by showing them the new line she's been working on, which is really inclusive to women of all sizes. And men, too. She's done amazing work and I wanted to help but when you said you had a free night... Well, I just couldn't say no."

She grinned but said, "I wish I would've known about this before we made the plans. I would've made sure you went to your other commitment instead."

"And miss this?" he asked with a joking outraged look on his face. "Nonsense!"

As Brooke laughed, she responded, "We could've had our date at the club. I like fashion and drinks."

"True," Ryder nodded. "And I thought about that but I would've had to be working and all my friends would be harassing us and... This is better. Just the two of us, getting to know each other."

"I'm glad you see it that way," she told him. "I was actually a little surprised that you were texting me the last couple of days and that you accepted to go on this date because... I don't know, you didn't seem very into it when we met. I felt like I was getting your number out of, like, pity or something. And then you called and you didn't seem into it... But after that, it was strange how into it you became."

"Too into it?" he frowned. "Man, I always do that. I can't help myself from coming on too strong, too fast."

"No, no," she assured him. "You're coming on just hard enough, at the right speed. I just meant... It didn't seem like you wanted to go out with me at all when we met. I thought maybe you were doing it as a favor to Marley."

"Are you kidding?" Ryder asked her. "I felt like you were the one doing her a favor."

"How so?"

"Well..." he hesitated, not sure if this was the best thing to talk about on a first date. "I'd been feeling a little down lately... I had this girlfriend and—I saw that!"

"Saw what?"

"You looked down when I brought up my ex. You're thinking, 'Oh boy, this is a deal breaker, he's talking about his ex.' Aren't you?"

Brooke hesitated so Ryder looked away in disbelief and she said, "No, it wasn't that. It's just... I've dated guys on the rebound and I don't want to be rebound girl."

"I don't do rebounds," Ryder let her know. Then he added, "Ok, I did rebound off of her in high school to this other cheerleader and—"

"Wait, high school?" Brooke stopped him. "You have totally lost me now. Is your ex from high school?"

"Yes and no," Ryder said. "That makes it sound like I've been hung up for years which I guess I have but... Ok, see I knew I shouldn't have brought this up to begin with. I'm such an idiot and now I've ruined this date."

"Wait, no, stop," she told him. "Stop the freak out. We're on a date. And yes, it's not very clever to talk about exes with your date. But... Since this seems to be something you want to get off your chest and I'm not a fan of surprises... I want to hear about it."