Chapter 8
EIGHT
Kyle
Zara Bray is just as plain as the picture suggested, and there is no if about it. However, and that’s a big however, I freakin’ love her personality. She has this spark in her eyes when she gives me shit that just makes me want to tease her and not stop.
“I didn’t expect you to order a plain chicken sandwich at this restaurant.”
She looks down at her plate, like she is surprised that I commented on her food.
“This is what I always get when I eat out.”
The tone of her voice implies that I should’ve known that already. Considering we met for the first time less than an hour ago, it is my turn to be surprised that she’d expect that from me.
“You should try the steak sometime.” I point at my own plate. “A little variety won’t hurt you.”
My tone sounds a bit off putting even to my own ears.
“I’m really sorry,” I tell her. “It is none of my business, and we all have things we like or dislike, right?”
Zara’s eyebrows raise in surprise. She wasn’t expecting me to apologize.
Her lips tremble ever so slightly, like she is trying to fight back a smile.
In the end, she gives in, and I watch in fascination as the corners of her lips lift, transforming her face in a way that makes my heart beat harder against my ribs.
She is actually beautiful, and I am not sure how to process that.
I should be ashamed of myself for only noticing the most superficial things about her, like the fact that she has no makeup on, or that her hair just hangs around her face, obviously not styled.
There’s also the fact that her outfit is even plainer than my first impression of her, kinda baggy from what I can tell.
Zara pushes the plate away from her, then rests her forearms on the table, like she is about to speak in a business meeting. But the smile is still on her face, so I will take it as a good sign.
“Now that our stomachs are full, we should talk about this dating business.”
“Dating?”
My voice comes out at a higher pitch than intended, and I watch as the smile disappears from her face.
“Not real dating,” she assures me. “I’m talking about the Holidates . I…”
My head drops back, and I let out a laugh. “I’m an idiot, and you should get used to me acting stupid because I have no idea where my head went for a second.”
Zara stares at me with understanding, but I can tell that the excitement from earlier is no longer there. I had her a little loosened up, and now I managed to ruin the mood.
“I completely understand,” she says in her very proper way.
She looks away and clears her throat a couple of times, her shoulders back and fingers interlocked on the table.
“No, seriously.”
I stretch an arm across the table, with my hand stretched out for her to grab. But she doesn’t.
“I think you are adorable, and I would date you in a second if this was a real thing.”
That was supposed to be a way to save us from awkwardness, but instead, I only managed to make it worse. Her cheeks are now flushed, and she has a hard time looking me in the eye.
Unsure of what else to do to make her feel comfortable again, I bring us to the reason of our meeting tonight, which is what she wanted to do anyway.
“Okay, so you need me for a Fourth of July party, correct?”
Zara lets out a small sigh of relief, which I pretend not to notice.
“Yes,” she confirms. “Since it falls on a Friday this year, it’s nice not to have to worry about going to work on the next day.”
I frown at that. “I’m pretty sure most people take the day after off as well when it falls on a weekday.”
“That’s a ridiculous waste of vacation time,” she argues. “Besides, businesses depend on others showing up for work.”
“What is it that you do?” I ask, totally expecting her to say she’s a doctor or some other position that saves lives.
Zara sits up straighter and looks at me with a slight air of superiority.
“I am an accountant,” she says.
A snort of laughter escapes my chest no matter how hard I try to stop it.
“I’m pretty sure people will survive if their accountant takes time off on the day after a holiday.”
She is definitely offended. “I’ll have you know that I take my job very seriously. And I sure hope that if you ever need an accountant will be just as serious about taking care of your books.”
“I do have an accountant. No complaints.”
I have no idea why I’m still running my mouth about accountants. Also, I will say that her being one fits the overall image she tries so hard to project. After all, accountants are not famous for how much fun they are.
“Back to your point…” I pause and wink at her, loving the way she blushes and looks away when I do. “It is a good thing it’s on a Friday. We can party into the night and not worry that you have to work the next day.”
Her eyes widen in shock. “Party into the night?”
“Oh, I assumed it was that kind of party.”
Now I’m thinking I should’ve asked what kind of friends she’s got. If they’re anything like her, it’ll probably be some boring number. In that case, we’ll be done with it in two hours tops. This would be a great deal.
“It’s a party thrown by my brother’s friends,” she says.
“Apparently, they are scared of asking me out, so my brother dared me to find a date to show up with. We were actually supposed to go spend the weekend with my mother. But now she wants to do her own thing. She’s never done that before.
And she has a date. I didn’t know she was even considering dating… ”
She continues sharing all this information with me, and I have to say that I am surprised by how much she’s sharing with me. But it appears to be one of those things when once she started talking, she can’t stop. I try to keep up with everything, but I have a bit of a hard time with it.
“So is your mother going to be there with her date?” I manage to ask when she pauses to breathe.
“No!” She is horrified at the prospect. “She is going to a party that her friends are throwing. I didn’t even know she had friends like that. Why wouldn’t she tell me? Not to mention, she never even thought of what would happen to me. I always go back home for all holidays.”
My mouth opens and closes a couple of times.
I want to make every effort to respond, but I have no fucking clue what to say.
I didn’t see this coming. Not to mention, I am completely mesmerized by how alive she looks.
Her eyes sparkle, and I am so turned on, I want to grab her and march her out of here, then push her against the outside wall and kiss her until we’re both at risk of suffocating.
“I can’t believe I’m telling you all this,” she suddenly gasps in shock. “I never share anything about my personal life with anyone. Please don’t say anything!”
“Who am I going to tell?” I shrug. “We don’t have anyone in common.”
She fans her face with the napkin. “Thank God for that. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”
With all my blood now pulling into my dick, I can’t think of anything else I could say that would make her feel better.
I never imagined in a million years that I’d be this attracted to the mousy girl I found on the Holidates app.
I’m fairly sure this could be karma for me teasing my friends about finding their significant others on there. And speaking of that…
“Maybe I should tell you about the event I need you to attend with me.”
Zara stares at me with a lost look on her face as she cups her adorable cheeks with both hands. It takes her a minute to process what I just said. That’s fine with me since I need some time to regroup as well.
“Yes,” she exclaims, her hands dropping from her face. “Tell me!”
“It’s for a wedding,” I start.
She frowns in confusion. “I thought the Holidates was to get a date for a holiday, hence the name.”
That’s something I didn’t think about, and she has a point.
“I guess it’s okay if at least one of us has a holiday related event, right?”
Zara takes her time responding. Now I feel like we’re doing something illegal. But I’m pretty sure the people who invented the app don’t care. We don’t have to submit legal documentation about the holiday we need a date for.
“I guess you’re right,” she finally says, and I can breathe again. “So tell me about this wedding.”
Needing a bit of time to regroup, I grab the glass of ice tea that the waitress brought for me at some point. Apparently, I can’t notice much when Zara Bray is around.
“Well, there’s not a ton to say about it,” I tell her. “My buddy, his name is Ray, is marrying this posh girl from Boston. She told me I had to bring an appropriate date, so… here we are.”
She rests her elbows on the table and leans forward, totally invested in what I’m telling her.
“How did you find out about the Holidates ?”
“Oh,” I laugh. “Funny story. Ray actually met his future wife on that app.”
Zara frowns. “I thought this was not a dating app.”
“It’s not,” I agree. “But not like they can control who people fall in love with. In fact, I know two other couples who met through the Holidates .”
She leans back, pressing a hand to her chest. “This is very worrisome, Kyle.”
I snort. “Worrisome how?”
“Well…” She puffs her lips when she lets out all the air from her lungs. “I was under the impression that this was a serious app, where people could connect for the sole purpose of helping out with attending a party where the other person doesn’t want to show up alone.”
“Exactly,” I point at her. “So why worried?”
She leans over the table again. “I’m not looking for a love match,” she whispers, looking around, probably concerned that someone could hear her.
“I’m not looking for a love match either,” I assure her. “So problem solved.”
“Not really,” she huffs in annoyance. “You said you know…” She pauses to count in her head. “Three couples who met on the Holidates app?”
“Yes,” I nod.
“But only the one couple is getting married, right?”
She sounds like she’s scared of the answer I’m about to give her, and I hate that I have to disappoint her like this.
“Well, technically, they’re all getting married.”
Zara gasps. “What?”
“Ray and Hayden are getting married first. But our other friends, Cal and Evie, have been living together for a while now, so I’m sure that’s coming soon.”
“What about the third couple?”
“That would be Ray’s father and his fiancée. I don’t know them that well, so I have no idea when the wedding is. But they are engaged for sure, I know that.”
Zara continues staring at me like I just fell from the sky. She is not happy with any of what I just told her.
“That’s just terrible,” she murmurs.
Her reaction to all of this is throwing me off. For one, it’s not like she and I are about to get married. For two, who cares what other people are doing? It’s their life, let them live it.
“It’s not that serious,” I shrug. But that seems to be the wrong thing to say.
“Marriage is very serious,” she snaps at me. “When you get married, you commit to the other person and any children you may have together. People can’t just leave a commitment like that and not look back.”
By the time she is done speaking, my eyebrows are up into my hairline. This conversation is too deep for me, and I don’t know how to respond. I came here for some boring dinner with the boring girl I found through a random online service that’s definitely not into any love matches.
Now, I am sitting across someone who is possibly a bit off her rocker, making me wonder if I should just say that this won’t work out, then continue looking.
“I apologize for my sudden outburst.”
My eyes fly to her face. She looks genuine when she says that, but I’m not gonna lie, this whole thing is too damn weird.
“So I need a date for the Fourth of July party,” she continues without waiting for me to acknowledge her words of apology. “And you need a date for a wedding. Am I correct?”
“Uh…”
Should I just leave and cut my losses? Her eyes beg for my help.
“Yeah, that’s correct.”
“When is the wedding?”
I run a hand over my face before pushing the hair out of my eyes. I wish Alex was here with me to slap some sense into me. I obviously need help. I should stop drinking. Every time alcohol is involved, I end up in a goofy situation.
Except that I’ve been sipping on an ice tea, no alcohol involved.
“The wedding is in a couple of weeks.”
“Oh, that’s great.” I am a little scared of how excited she sounds. It’s a bit fake. “The wedding is a couple of weeks before my party. So we’ll have to see each other two more times. After tonight, I mean.”
I lift the glass of ice tea and bring it to my lips. I start drinking and don’t stop until it’s empty, in an effort to avoid having to say any words.
“Two more times,” I murmur.
She licks at her lips nervously, which is really not good for me. All I can picture is her kissing me with her lush mouth. Or wrapped around my…
“Is there anything else you need to know about me?” She breaks the spell when she asks.
After seeing the picture of her that I texted him, my friend, Alex, declared that Zara must be a sociopath. He couldn’t tell me why, but that’s just the vibe she gave off to him.
The main problem I see with that is that I am super attracted to her, despite the fact that I can definitely tell she’s a little crazy.
This whole talk about people getting married and subsequently divorced kinda scared me a little.
But shit, if she offered to come home with me tonight, there would be no hesitation on my part when I said yes.
This is complicated already, and we still have to see each other two more times.
Two. More. Times.