Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Raya
Forty-eight unread messages.
Frankly, I expected more.
I start my car, ignoring the four missed calls, and go straight to the text thread, which is still buzzing with activity.
Hart Sisters Group Chat
Poppy
I’m sorry . . . you’re on a WHAT?
Eloise
A WHAT, Raya? Why were we not informed?
Poppy
You know she silenced her phone.
Eloise
She’s not coming back till after the date.
Poppy
El, we’re standing in the kitchen together. I can see you sending me these texts.
Eloise
I know but this is more fun.
Poppy
You have guacamole on your cheek.
Eloise
Poppy
Ray, who’s the guy? Who are you dating? Where did you meet him?
Eloise
Is there a photo? How’d he ask you out? When do WE meet him?
Poppy
Game night is still going on if you want to swing by on your way home!
Tiny meatballs and girl talk!
There’s a short break from texting, then they pick it back up again.
Eloise
Let’s just keep texting until the buzzing of her phone gets too annoying.
Ray.
Raya.
Ray-Ban.
X-Ray.
Tell us about the guy.
Poppy
EL. She’s going to hate us!
Eloise
Tell us.
Psst.
Poppy
Just answer so she’ll stop.
And we are going to need details
Eloise
Can’t stop, won’t stop
And we won’t sleep till we get them deets.
Poppy
Text when you’re on your way!
I click the phone off, knowing full well they’re not kidding. If I don’t answer their questions immediately, they will show up at my house tonight.
I start my drive and weigh my options. I have so much work to do—but it’s not quite 8:00 p.m. I can stop by Dallas’s house, explain to my sisters that I met Justin—where? What am I going to say? I can’t tell them about my experiment. And I don’t want to lie. I’m a terrible liar.
I click my phone open, find Justin’s name, and hit the call button.
“Raya?” he says when he answers. “This is a nice surprise.”
The cocoons in my chest don’t even budge.
“Sorry to disturb you,” I say, tone short. “Just a quick question. How should we say we met?”
There’s a half-a-breath of a pause before he comes back with, “How about this: I saw your photo on a reply you posted on the app, and I reached out. I was very forthcoming and not creepy at all, stating in gentlemen’s terms that I think you’re lovely, and I’d like to take you out for dinner.”
I laugh at his formal response, but decide it’s perfect. “I don’t want to make it sound too clinical, but my sisters are known for turning everything into a fairytale.”
They tend to forget that not all love stories have a happy ending.
“Embellish as you see fit,” he says. “Just let me know if you change any details.”
“Okay, thanks,” I say.
“Have a good night.”
I hang up, realizing it’s already starting. We’re already a team. A united front. Two partners with a common goal.
Good plan, Raya.
I pull into Dallas’s driveway behind Eloise’s car, get out, and walk to the door. I ring the doorbell and wait for the inevitable barrage, like Hobbes tackling Calvin when he gets home from school.
I’m also trying not to freak out about all the work waiting for me when I get home. I’m behind, and I hate being behind.
I pull out my phone and check my to-do list, noticing the start of a headache in my temples. Maybe Dallas can spare two Advil.
The door opens and both Poppy and Eloise grab my arms and pull me inside. “You have a lot of explaining to do!”
“You didn’t even text us back,” Eloise says.
“Well, I’m here now,” I say. “But I can’t stay. Just figured it would be easier to, you know, get this over with.”
They both stare at me. “I’m sorry—‘get this over with’?” Eloise crosses her arms over her chest. “You have two adoring sisters who are merely asking for every single detail of your love life as it unfolds, and you act like this is a chore? I’m offended.”
I roll my eyes and look at Poppy. “I was promised tiny meatballs.”
She giggles and motions for me to follow her.
I slip my coat off and hang it on a hook by the door.
I’m not dressed for game night. While my sisters are both wearing sweatpants and hoodies, I’m wearing an off-the-shoulder black top with flowy, wide-leg white pants and pointy black heels.
This realization makes me even more excited to get home and change. These shoes are killing me.
I walk into the kitchen just as Finn walks in from the other side. We both stop. His eyes meet mine, widening as his gaze quickly scans my body, lingering on my bare shoulders. He doesn’t say a word.
Eloise looks at him, then at me, then back at him. “You good, buddy?”
I’ve made eye contact with him dozens of times, but there’s something different about the way he’s looking at me now. Something I can’t quite place.
And even though I want to look away—I can’t.
The butterflies burst out of their cocoons and are flapping around inside my entire body.
“You look—” He nods, and I brace myself for some ridiculous and embarrassing flirty comment, surprised when he says, “You look really pretty, Raya.”
For a second, the rest of the room goes quiet, almost like we’re the only two in here.
Oh.
“Thank you . . .” I say quietly, only slightly aware of the little knowing glances between my sisters.
“You should wear your hair down more often,” Finn looks at me seriously, no trace of his usual casual smile. “It’s really nice.”
I absently reach up and tug on a strand of my hair, skin electric and feeling weird and goose-bumpy, unsure what to do with what sounded like a genuine compliment.
Then I come to my senses and frown. “Finn, did you hit your head? What is wrong with you?”
“Let’s go, uh, into the guest room.” Eloise grabs my hand and pulls me out the door. Then to Finn, “We’ll be right back.”
On my way out, I catch a glimpse of him turned to Poppy, with a questioning look on his face. It almost reads, Was that okay?
What is happening?
I march down the hallway behind Eloise, waving at Dallas and Gray who are both lounging on the couch, playing a video game.
“I’m wearing heels, could you slow down?” I struggle to keep up with my youngest sister, who is being really, really forceful.
She closes the door of the guest room once we’re inside, and I close my eyes, trying to remember everything Justin and I planned before I face the interrogation.
But when I finally look at her, it’s not Justin she asks about.
“What was that?” Eloise hisses.
I frown. “What was what?”
“That—” she flails her hands around, like she’s trying to pluck the perfect word from the air— “tension between you and Finn.” Her eyes practically bug out.
My frown deepens. “What are you talking about?” But the words sound hollow, even to me. Because I felt it. Every second of it. The nerve endings in my body are zapping around like live wires. If I wanted to, I could close my eyes and feel it all over again.
But I do not want to.
There’s a sharp knock-knock at the door, and Poppy slips in.
“Raya, what the heck?”
I hold up my hands in a what? gesture.
“Don’t pretend with us,” Poppy says. “We were just there, two seconds ago. You stopped him dead in his tracks.”
“Oh, come on,” I defend. “That’s just how he is. He’s—you know, flirty.”
“That was not flirty,” Eloise says. “That was—” she shudders. “That was hot.”
I drop onto the edge of the bed and take off my shoes, mentally praising the Lord to finally get them off my feet. “If you say so.”
Who am I kidding? It really was hot.
What am I supposed to do with that?
Eloise jumps onto the other side of the bed, and Poppy sits in a big chair in the corner.
“The way he looked at you stopped you dead in your tracks too.” Eloise has that smug I dare you to disagree look on her face.
“In case you’ve forgotten—I was on a date tonight,” I say. “And I’m so tired. And I still have a ton of work to do. I just came here to answer all your questions about Justin.”
“Whoa!” Eloise exclaims. “Justin?”
“Who is Justin?!” Poppy asks.
“The guy I went out with,” I say, like, duh.
“Okay, but what about Finn?” Eloise asks. “Because if some hot guy was looking at me the way that man just looked at you—”
I turn and give her an incredulous look. “Eloise. You’re dating Grayson Hawke. And in case you didn’t know it—he looks at you like that every time you’re in a room together.”
“Ha! So you admit there was a look!” Eloise points at me, like she’s caught me in a lie.
“I have to go.” I stand, but Poppy pushes me back down onto the bed, then lies down so I’m sandwiched between them.
“We’re sorry. We know we can be a lot.” She pauses. “And by we, I mean Eloise.”
Eloise reaches over me and smacks Poppy, but also smacks me at the same time.
“Okay,” I move to sit up again, “I’m not about to be in the middle of—
“Tell us about Justin.” Poppy gently puts a hand on my shoulder and pushes me back down.
“Yeah, and work can wait,” Eloise says. “Do you ever sleep?”
“I think I could sleep right now,” I say, laying my head back on the pillow.
For a brief moment, I flash back to a memory: the three of us, up late.
We’re maybe middle school age, laying on an air mattress just like we are now.
Eloise wanted an air mattress because she thought it would be like a bounce house, and the first night we got it, we lay shoulder to shoulder, looking up at the ceiling where we had stuck glow-in-the-dark stars.
It was us three. Always us three. Poppy and Eloise, being their goofy selves, and me, the center, the glue, holding everything together.
“After you tell us about this guy,” Poppy says, snapping me out of the memory. “We really are excited for you. It was just, you know, that whole display out there threw us for a loop.”
“I don’t know who this Justin guy is,” Eloise says, “but does he look at you like that?”
“Finn is a flirt,” I say, a bit exasperated. “And he’s too young.”
“He’s only like three years younger than you,” Poppy says.
“Four.”
“Three-and-a-half,” she corrects me, squeezing my arm. “And that’s nothing. It doesn’t matter at all.”
“He’s a really good guy,” Eloise says.
“Guys. Stop. You know how I feel about hockey players,” I say.
“Dallas and Gray haven’t changed your mind?” Poppy asks.
I sigh. “Justin is more . . . my type.”
“Boring?” Eloise snorts.
“Smart, successful, and self-made,” I say. “We have the same priorities. We want the same things. He . . . gets me.”
My eyelids are heavy as my sisters discuss the “priorities” that should matter, and then they begin to debate the kind of guy they each think I need.
It all starts to fade into the background until everything goes quiet, and soon I don’t hear anything at all.