20. Kiara/Colton
twenty
Kiara/Colton
Kiara
“E eep! He’s on.”
A collective gasp emanates from my group of friends. Chloe and Grace are sitting on the vanity, while Willow leans over my phone, crowding me.
“He’s like… surreal gorgeous,” Willow points out.
I look at the dreamy yet rugged face with soulful eyes. If I had to describe everyone’s fantasy man, this would be it. Although to be honest, Colton’s features superimpose in my mind’s eye when the words fantasy boyfriend form in my brain. “Yeah, that’s kinda sketchy,” I answer Willow.
“What? He’s perfect!” Willow gasps, like she has a vested interest in this guy.
“Getting cold feet?” Grace asks.
“More like, lukewarm,” I answer.
“Why?” Chloe asks.
“He’s just… too perfect.”
“It’s only a picture,” Chloe says. “He probably chose a good one. Let’s hope he did.”
“He is surreally gorgeous,” Grace admits. “Let me text Ethan to run a reverse search on him.” She points her phone at mine and snaps a photo of the guy’s profile pic. “You can never be too careful.”
Colton
Noah places his hand on my wrist. “Before you type anything stupid, let’s do a little research on how to approach this. Have any of you losers ever been on a dating app?”
“Sort of,” I admit while my friends shake their heads. Then Justin adds, “Only for hookups.” At the looks we throw him, he adds, “What? I never led them on. Can’t help you with building a connection on an app, though.”
“The girls are onto something,” Ethan mumbles. “Dude, where’d you get that picture?”
Noah interrupts him. “Alright, here we go,” he says, reading from his phone. “First, compliment her profile, but nothing relating to her physical aspect.”
“What does her profile say?” Justin asks.
I didn’t even look. But I do now. “Says she’s looking for a casual but fun connection.”
“That’s not her profile,” Noah says. “What does she like to do? Says here the next thing to do is ask her questions about herself.”
“That’s pretty basic,” Justin mumbles. “People don’t know that?”
“We know what she likes to do,” Chris jokes. “Boss people around, give nicknames, invent ways to put maple syrup in everything she makes.”
Trying to focus, I look at Kiara’s profile again. I’ve memorized it. For the life of me, I still don’t understand why she wrote, When life hands you lemonade, question the lemons.
Does she think she’s going to attract guys with that? I’m not complaining, just—
“That’s hilarious,” Chris says, now looking at her profile over my shoulder. “She’s a real funny girl.”
“What’s yours say?” Noah asks.
I huff. “I don’t remember,” I mumble.
“Come on, dude. Just click back to your profile.”
I do, and show him the screen, the words grating so bad I don’t want to read them out loud.
Ethan interrupts us. “Guys, we got a problem. The girls are onto something,” he repeats. “Grace asked me to do a reverse-image search on your—”
“Did you find something?” Grace asks, sneaking up on us. I shut down my app. “Awww you guys are cute! Everyone’s researching the guy. So, what’s the verdict?” she asks Ethan.
He frowns at his phone. “Guy is legit. Lessee… LinkedIn, over five hundred connections.” He makes a face and Grace swats him playfully. “That’s good! That’s all we need.”
“What are you guys up to?” I ask Grace with a scowl. She’ll sense something’s up if I don’t show interest.
“Just… helping Kiara with something,” she says as she leaves.
Kiara
“He’s legit,” Grace says as she comes back. “What’s up? You look like someone killed your cat.”
“He went offline,” I explain, looking at my phone. Next to the profile picture, the heart that symbolizes whether the person is online or not is now barely visible instead of red.
Grace hoists herself back on the vanity. “The guys were so cute. They were all looking at their phones, searching for this guy. Lemme tell ya, you don’t need brothers with a group like that.”
“What did they say?” I ask, curious what Colton’s reaction was. I’m kind of dreading it, to be honest. I used to ask him for feedback on my dates, but with everything’s that’s gone down between the two of us now, it doesn’t feel right this time.
Grace blushes slightly. “I kept it vague. I think my brother has a thing for you—didn’t want to rub it in his face. I texted Ethan the basics, so he’d know it was serious. He might have shared.”
Guilt with a side of almost-shame settles in my ribs. Colton didn’t need to know this. Not yet. He’ll find out eventually—the perks of living in a small town, amply demonstrated by the Bitch Brigade convening in the bathroom. But this is early stages after a roller-coaster weekend for the two of us. Emotionally and otherwise.
“Oops!” Willow says, pointing to my phone. “He’s back on!”
Sure enough, the heart next to his name is no longer grayed out.
Colton
Once Grace is safely back in the bathroom, Noah gestures for my phone and pushes his glasses up his nose as he resumes the study of my profile. “‘ I’ve been told forever might never come, and I’m good either way. ’ Okay, that’s… cute and… girly.” He frowns at me, a what-the-hell look on his face. “‘ Foodie. Cars. Sports.’ That’s more like it. ”
Clicking my phone back to the chat function, I explain, “Willow thought it would work on Kiara. Clearly she was right. Means I’m serious but also open to casual. Since Kiara doesn’t know what she wants, we’re covering our bases,” I add, hoping the guys don’t ask me follow-up questions on Kiara’s wishes in terms of romantic involvement. There is no world in which I tell them she’s a virgin, and no alternate reality where they discover what she asked of me. “Kay, question. Um… so something about lemons, maybe?”
Chris and Justin both grunt their disapproval.
“What? How ’bout, ‘Hi there, totally dig the lemon thing—’”
“ Dig ? Nobody says that!” Ethan looks horrified.
Kiara
“He messaged!” Willow screeches. You’d think she’s the one potentially dating too-hot-to-be-real. “Read it!”
“Shouldn’t we go back to the table? It’s kinda rude, disappearing like that,” I say. Who knows how long a chat with this guy is going to take?
“Are you getting cold feet?” Grace asks. “It’s totally normal. Just see what he has to say.”
I take a deep breath. “Okay. Here goes. ‘Totally dig the—’ ”
“Eww,” Grace says. “Who even says ‘dig’ anymore? How old is this guy? Ask him how old he is.”
Willow tuts. “It’s on his profile. Don’t be rude. He’s probably nervous.”
This whole dating app thing was a mistake. I don’t want nervous. I don’t want to be nervous. Yet here I am huddled in a public toilet so I can plot with my besties how to get a guy. I’m just going to get this over with and go back to dinner with my friends. All my friends. I’ll read the whole message, shoot an answer, and forget about it until tomorrow. “ ‘Hi there, totally dig the lemon thing, and I want to know more. I’m not sure where to start, though. How about thank you for hearting my profile?’ ”
“Awww,” Willow coos. “That’s so sweet. Right?”
It is sweet. I guess? I type an answer.
“Guys, we should go back there,” Grace says. “We’ve been gone a while. The men are gonna wonder what we’re doing.”
I raise my eyebrows. “I don’t hear anyone knocking on the door. They don’t seem worried.”
“Why don’t we continue this at the table? Ask the guys what they think? It could be fun,” Chloe says.
Colton
The answer flies right onto my screen.
That’s a very sweet thing to say. The lemon story is a long one.
Shit. Is she planning on spending the evening in the bathroom? I look up, but the group of women is filing back to the table, Grace in front, Kiara with her gaze glued to her phone, then Chloe, and finally Willow, who’s making the cut sign over her throat, her eyes rounded at me.
I stand to go to the bathroom and pass the girls. Kiara’s scent and her total ignorance of my presence drive me wild in too many different ways. I don’t like what I’m doing, but it’s too late to back out now.
Once safely in the men’s room, I type my answer.
Kiara
His message is polite, even kind. But it feels a little like he’s giving me the brush off. “ I’d love to hear a long story, but I’m out with my friends. Can we continue this conversation at another time? ”
The heart is still red. I type, Sure, and the heart grays out.
Grace is leaning over my shoulder, reading my phone. “What a dick,” she says. “He hearts your profile, asks you a question, and then he says he doesn’t have time for a long conversation?”
“He’s with friends,” I explain, feeling defensive.
“So are you,” Grace counters.
“Who’s a dick?” Colton asks, pulling a chair out and seating himself. I’m relieved he wasn’t there just now, when my girlfriends told the guys that I was on a dating app and a cute guy was interested in me. I expected more overreaction from my male friends, to be honest. Granted, Grace had given them the down-low and they’d already researched him.
“No one,” I answer Colton.
He grabs my phone—why am I still staring at it? And stares right at the profile of the guy. “Yeah well, you get on a dating app, you gotta expect dicks,” he says as he gives me my phone back.
“That’s very funny.” I smirk at him. Something passes between us when our eyes lock. He’s not as resentful as I expected. And I’m more mortified than I care to admit. But when a shadow plays in his irises, I avert my gaze.