Chapter 6
Six
Thomas
“There’s leftovers in the fridge, you can help yourself,” I call out to Eric.
He pauses his video game to look at me. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Yeah, I …” It’s been a week since the last book club and the meeting is tonight, but a different idea pops into my head. “I have a date. It’ll just be an hour or so.”
“A date? Don’t rush on my account. I’ll be fine for a few hours,” Eric says.
“Great, I should get going.” I take a deep breath when the front door is closed behind me.
I don’t like lying to Eric, but if it gets him off my back about dating, it could be worth it.
I drive to Words to Live By and park a bit away to get in my steps.
I keep thinking about my little white lie as I walk, and it must show on my face because when I run into Angelo by the door, he looks me over.
“You okay?” Angelo asks.
“Yeah, just a bit of a guilty conscience.” I fidget with the hem of my jacket. “I told Eric I was going on a date rather than going to a book club. I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Angelo laughs. “Were you embarrassed about admitting you were going to a romance book club?”
“No, nothing like that. I just thought maybe if he thought I was going on a date he would worry less about me needing to get back out there.”
“That makes sense. I don’t think there’s any harm in it.” Angelo holds open the door, waiting for me to pass through before following. “You wanna grab a coffee or anything before we head to the meeting?”
“Sure, I could use a little pick me up,” I agree. We make our way over the cafe. There’s enough time, that we don’t have to worry about being late to the meeting. Angelo recognizes a few of the people from last week’s meeting and calls out a hello as we get closer.
“Angelo, Thomas, great to see you again. Glad we didn’t scare you off.” Rebecca gives Angelo a hug and waves in my direction. She already has a drink in hand from the cafe. “See you in there,” she says as she heads for the back room. Angelo gets in line, and I follow him.
He calls out his order to the cashier, and I break in before he can pull out his wallet. “And a medium peppermint mocha.” I slide my card into the machine, beating Angelo to the punch.
“You don’t have to do that.” His cheeks light up with a bit of a blush, and for a moment I think about moving closer and stealing a kiss.
I brush off the thought. Must be all the thinking of dating. Having those thoughts about Eric’s teacher is a sure sign I should probably get out there and hook up rather than going after him. Angelo is off-limits. “Don’t worry about it. Consider it a thank you for introducing me to the book club.”
We get our drinks and walk to the meeting.
There are already a few people in the room, helping set up the chairs.
I join in grabbing a chair and helping to set them in a circle.
We only read the first half of the book for this meeting, and it was surprisingly hard for me to stop in the middle.
I wanted to keep reading and see what happened next.
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten hooked on a book, but it was a nice change of pace.
Lately, the only reading material I frequent are papers related to my job.
“What did you think?” Jessica asks me as she takes a seat.
“It was fun,” I admit. “I’m looking forward to reading the rest.”
“Me too. I can’t wait to see what Alex and Henry get up to,” she agrees.
Janice takes her seat as the rest of the group filters in. I sit down next to Angelo, and the other seats fill up. “I loved the scene with the cake,” Paula starts us off.
“The first kiss was aw,” Jessica holds her hand to her chest. “Amazing. I loved it.”
Most of the group agrees, giving the book an overall rating of four to five stars so far.
The whole meeting has my mind drifting from thoughts of Eric to focusing on the book and actually enjoying myself for a change.
If there happens to be a stray thought of how charming Angelo looks when he sweeps his hair out of his face, I’m completely ignoring it.
I won’t deny that he’s good-looking. His dark hair is naturally curly, and despite how short it’s cut, a lock or two manages to fall into his eyes.
After mentioning it during the last book club, I looked up the movie for the book, but I haven’t watched it yet.
Seeing the actors they cast for Alex and Henry; I couldn’t help but think that Alex and Angelo look similar.
Of course, Angelo is older than the young heartthrob, but they share similar Latino features.
If I thought about Angelo as Alex during the steamy scenes, well, that doesn’t really matter, does it?
The book club finishes up with plans to meet up again next week once we’ve finished the rest of the novel, and I find myself walking next to Angelo.
He slows to a stop as we get closer to the door.
“I want to ask you something, and it’s totally okay if you say no.
I just got to thinking and,” Angelo shakes his head.
“I’m probably crazy for even thinking this. ”
“One way to find out,” I tease. “Just ask me. You’ve got me curious now.”
“My school does a holiday party for all the teachers. I don’t have a date, but I was thinking maybe you’d be willing to go with me?
As a friend, I mean,” he rushes. “Not that I’d be upset if people assumed we were dating, but I thought you could help me avoid some of the questioning about my love life since you’re in a similar boat. ”
“Which is it?” I ask. “Am I going at your friend or your ‘boyfriend’?” I raise my hands in air quotes.
His cheeks color again, and I already know I’m going to say yes. “The second one.”
“When is it?”
“This coming Saturday at five. I can pick you up, I mean, if you’re up for it.”
“Sounds like fun here,” I pull out my phone, tapping the screen to make a new contact. “Put your number in. That way we can go over details, and I can send you my address.”
“You sure?” Angelo asks as his hand reaches out for my phone.
“I’m in. It’ll get me out of the house, and it gets Eric off my back about dating. He doesn’t have to know it isn’t a real date.”
Angelo laughs as he quickly taps in his number. “Alright. Send me a text so I have your number, and we’ll figure out the rest of the details. Thanks for sparing me the comments of my coworkers.”