Chapter Twenty-two
Cole
He had planned such a Laila-specific day. Long—well, ninety or so hours—before they’d decided to play the game they were playing. The idea had begun percolating as he watched joy radiate from her at the Friends apartment building, and then every aspect of the maps he’d studied and the YouTube clips he’d watched late at night in his maid’s quarters had been with the singular focus of creating a perfect day for her. At first, he’d been unsure whether the day could possibly translate to a first date sort of day, and the truth was that it wouldn’t have if the date was with anyone in the world besides the one and only Laila Evangeline Olivet. He had no doubt there were other women in the world who would have enjoyed the things he had planned. But for a first date? For a first date, he would have been viewed as coming on way too strong. Or, quite likely, a needy psycho who was so desperate for love that he would accept nothing less than wearing the woman down into such a heap of exhaustion that she wouldn’t notice when he moved a duffel bag of his stuff into her apartment at the end of the night.
But Laila? Laila was going to love it. True, he hadn’t anticipated her wearing a dress when he first mapped out the day. He’d seen it as more of a jeans sort of day for them both, as most days were for the two of them. But now? Good luck ever convincing him that she hadn’t been born to wear that dress.
As for all the other stuff, he knew that they would each choose to ignore the inconsistencies he’d created by morphing Laila’s once-in-a-lifetime New York City birthday celebration with her best friend into a totally normal blind date with a stranger who probably wasn’t a serial killer.
“I don’t know if you’re a big fan of romantic comedies . . .”
“Are you kidding?” They were hopping on the J train at Canal Street like it was the most natural thing in the world. He loved how good they’d gotten at riding the subway. “I love them.”
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure.” They grabbed two empty seats in a mostly empty car. “Fire away.”
She adjusted the hem of her dress and Cole fought the temptation to focus on her knees by observing and interpreting the smirk on her face. The one that clearly said, Yeah . . . as if there’s a secret I don’t know.
“I actually really love them too.” Laila’s eyes grew wide, and he delighted in being able to surprise her with something she hadn’t known after all. “My best friend is obsessed with them, and sure, at first I was just humoring her, I think. She sat through movies I wanted to watch even if she had zero interest in them, so it was only fair. But somewhere along the line, I don’t know what happened. So help me, it brings a tear of joy to my eye every single time Jennifer Lopez convinces some guy to leave his girlfriend for her.”
Laila laughed. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“I appreciate that.” He looked up at the display screen to make sure he was keeping track of their stops. Only one more until they got off.
“What made you think about rom-coms?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. New York, I guess.”
She sighed. “Yeah.”
It would have been so easy to kiss her right then. To pick up where they had left off before Drea interrupted them that morning. There was room to spread out, but they hadn’t made use of the space. They were side by side, arms touching, one more subway stop to go. But he’d only known this woman he was on a date with for approximately fifteen minutes now. It seemed a bit too soon for a gentleman to make a move.
They sat in silence to their stop, and then, as they began walking uptown, he asked her where she had grown up. Once again there was a slightly awkward smile as she thought through how to tell him about things he already knew. She began by telling him a few geographical specifics. The elevation. The location. An isolated area no one had ever heard of set between a bunch of places people paid a lot of money to visit. The population. The weather. She was in the middle of a sentence about Township Days when she stopped in her tracks on the sidewalk and her jaw fell open.
“Harry and Sally ate there.”
Good. She’d spotted and instantly recognized Katz’s Delicatessen. He’d been hoping it would happen that way. “That’s right. Huh. That’s pretty cool. Well, since we’re here . . . what do you say? Want to go in and . . . grab a bite?”
He’d almost said, “Do you want to go in and have what she’s having?” Thankfully he’d caught himself. That was another one of those fine-line things. To his best friend? Hilarious. To a blind date, twenty-five minutes in? Creep alert.
“I mean, I’d love to, but you said we have time-specific places to . . .” Realization dawned. She looked down at her feet and cleared her throat before whispering, “Yes, please.” Her grin spread across her face as she raised her head to meet his eyes again. “Thank you,” she mouthed to him.
“Hey, I hear they have good pastrami.” He winked at her and she laughed—warm and rich and so full of joy.
Was it any wonder Laila’s birthday was his favorite day of the year?