Chapter 20 – Kylie
twenty
Kylie
I pull into the parking garage and head toward my parking spot, swinging in. Grabbing my phone from the middle cupholder, I take my purse from the passenger seat before getting out.
The sound of my heels clicking on the cement floor echoes in the almost desolate parking garage.
I walk to the elevator, pressing the button and holding my purse with both hands as I wait for the elevator.
Stepping in and pressing the button to my floor, I walk to the corner and wait for it to go to the lobby, where it fills with four people.
I have to squeeze out when the doors finally open to my floor.
Walking into my apartment, I take off my heels at the door and put my purse down on the small table I have added fresh flowers to.
I bend to smell the white roses before heading to the kitchen.
Stopping by the living room and grabbing the remote to turn on the television before anything.
It’s something I started doing when I moved in here.
The silence is almost too much for me to bear, but the television playing in the background makes it feel a lot less lonely.
I head to the fridge, looking inside and thinking that a nice bath sounds like a perfect thing to do on a Friday.
I think of grabbing something to eat before taking a bath when my phone rings.
Rushing back over to the front door where I left my bag, I pull open my purse and take my phone out when I see it’s Ariella calling me. “Hey,” I say, answering it before it goes to voicemail.
“Kylie,” she says my name and I swear I can hear her smile while she does it, “I’m so happy I caught you.”
I make my way back over to the fridge, opening it and grabbing the bottle of wine. “Just in time,” I tell her. “I was about to pour myself a glass of wine and then, dare I say,” I walk to get a wine glass, “take a long bubble bath.”
She groans, “That sounds magnificent.” I laugh when she says that. “But I’m actually calling you for a favor.”
I stop with the wine bottle in midair. “Listen, Ari, I love Jagger, I do. He’s like the cutest little drool monster I’ve ever met, but I just…
” I start to say. “I’m not really the babysitting type of person.
I’m a ‘Hey, do you need me to hold him for a minute?’ Sure.
I’m the “Hey, do you need to go to the bathroom? I’ll watch him.
’ I’m the “Oh, you are fifteen and want to sit on my couch and scroll on your phone and not talk to me? Amazing.’ I just don’t know if I can actually be responsible for him. ”
She bursts out laughing. “I’m not calling you to babysit.”
I sigh, “Oh, good. The last time he saw me, he threw up on me. In. My. Newly. Washed. Hair.”
“In his defense, I think he ate some dairy and he only does that to the people he loves,” she says.
“Well, he could have loved me less. Lexi had to wash my hair out in the sink and then lend me a sweater, which I still haven’t returned. It’s cashmere, so I guess I owe him in the end.”
“Okay, well then, since you say it like that, he’s calling in his IOU,” she jokes nervously.
“Oh my God, what is it?” I put the bottle down on the counter, not sure I really want to hear what she has to say. My pulse picks up speed.
“Well, I set someone up on a blind date,” she starts, “and the girl who was supposed to meet him just bailed.”
“Okay,” I reply, not following where she is going.
“I feel so bad for the guy because, apparently, he was really looking forward to it,” she rattles on.
Then like a light bulb goes on in my head, I gasp, “I’m not going on someone else’s date.” I slap the counter beside my glass.
“It’s not like the guy knows who you are anyway, so it’s not like it’s someone else’s date. He is none the wiser in all of this, so to him you are the original girl.”
I close my eyes and shake my head. “Ariella,” I say her name, “you set up this couple and one of them pulls out, and you think I’m going to go out with this guy, who doesn’t even know he’s being stood up?”
“It’s fine,” she says, as if, “just think of it as a free dinner.”
I burst out laughing. “I think I can afford my own dinner, but thanks for that.”
“Kylie, please,” she pleads. “What? No,” she says, and I hear Jaxon on the other side of the phone.
“Give me the phone,” he demands, and the rustling starts on her end as he pulls the phone out of her hand.
“Kylie—” he says my name with animation.
“No,” I cut him off.
“You have to do this for me,” he whines.
“But do I?” I’m not really asking him.
“This is the last time I ever let her talk me into doing something like this,” he hisses, and I don’t know if he’s telling me or Ariella. “I told her this was a bad idea. I told her we should mind our business. I told her no one does blind dates anymore.”
“They don’t,” I confirm to him.
“Yeah,” he says, “they meet on Tinder.”
“Only to fuck,” I fill him in, knowing he’s never in his life had to be on Tinder.
“Seriously?” he asks.
“Yes, listen, whatever dating app I am on, I have to see the guy, that is as blind of a date as I can go. I need to know who I’m going to be meeting before I just show up.
Look at Michael and Jillian,” I mention Lexi’s cousin, Michael, who was at a restaurant when Jillian walked in and thought that she was his blind date.
Surprise, she wasn’t, but they ended up hooking up and then she got pregnant.
“I mean, is that really a good example?” Jaxon asks me. “They are still together, and I think they have like four kids.”
“Listen, Jaxon,” I say, picking the wine up and pouring some in the glass, “I would love to help you but—”
“I will name our next child after you.”
“Oh, for the love of—” Ariella demands. “Give me back the phone. It’s me again.”
“Hey.” I chuckle.
“You have nothing to do tonight,” she reminds me, her voice and tone like a firm mom voice. “You said yourself you were going to take a bath.”
“Which means I have something to do.”
“It’s not even five o’clock,” she fires back at me. “You can take a bath and still be at the blind date by seven.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Well, it’s time for you to do things you don’t want to do, and this is one of them,” she retorts. “Get out of your house and go meet this guy.” I groan inwardly. “And at no time do you say that you were not the girl who was supposed to go.”
“Ariella, what if the two of them already talked about the date and then I show up? I’m all like ‘Hi, it’s me.’ And then the guy thinks I’m about to boil a rabbit for him.”
“Okay, that sentence is a lot to unpack,” she says. “Go take a bath. You know, clean up whatever areas need to be cleaned up, just in case you go to all the bases with him.”
“She can’t sleep with the guy,” Jaxon interjects right away. “Under no circumstance can she sleep with him.”
“What?” I ask shocked, and he takes the phone back.
“Kylie,” he says my name, “you can’t sleep with him.”
“Then I’m not going.” I roll my lips when he groans, and I know this is killing him. “If sex is off the table, is there any reason why I should even go?”
“Kylie,” he groans again, “if your brother finds out I set you up on a blind date with this guy and then you end up sleeping with him, he’s going to kill me.”
“I’m a grown-ass woman,” I remind him. “If I want to go on a blind date, I’m going to go on a blind date, and if the two of us hit it off and end up doing the horizontal tango, that isn’t anyone’s business.”
“Can you just leave out the tango all together?” he asks. “Besides, what if, and hear me out. What if you do the whatever it is you called it and then you can’t get rid of him? Then I have to beat him up, so he’s going to be broken hearted and beat to shit.”
“This is why you don’t set people you know up on blind dates,” I state very matter-of-factly. “This is why.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m just saying, this is a good lesson for you to learn.
” He growls. “Okay, fine,” I concede, thinking, Why the fuck not?
Why shouldn’t I go out on this blind date?
Am I really going to sit at home, waiting for Knox to show up again?
Fuck no. “I’ve got to go. I have to exfoliate things. ”
“I can’t talk to her,” Jaxon says, probably throwing the phone at Ariella. “I hope you are happy with yourself,” he scolds her. “She’s going to ruin this man, and he doesn’t even know it.”
I can’t help but silently laugh when Ariella comes back to the phone. “What did you say to him?” she asks in a whisper. “He just stormed out of here.”
“I said I was going to exfoliate things,” I tell her. “Send me the restaurant so I know what to wear.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she chants over and over again. “The reservation is under my name, Ariella, and it’s at seven thirty.”
“I hope you know I’m very hungry and very thirsty.” I don’t bother letting her answer me before I hang up the phone.
I take my glass of wine and make my way to the bathroom, where I step into the shower instead of the bath. I also don’t exfoliate anything. The last thing I’m going to do is sleep with this guy, especially since I’m the backup.
I head into my closet after I finish drying and curling my hair.
I may not want to go out tonight, but I’m going to make sure I put my best foot forward.
I move the hangers one after another, going between wearing a dress or wearing jeans.
I opt for the dark blue jeans, thinking it’s less formal and harder for me to get off in case he melts my panties.
Turning to make my way over to my tops, I think about maybe wearing a long-sleeved button-up shirt, but that is for business and not flirty enough.
I instead grab a lace bodysuit top, with a built-in black bra.
I put the bodysuit on before sliding the jeans on and take a look in the mirror smirking when I notice how perfectly the jeans fit before I bend and roll them up once at the hem.
I then walk over to my shoe closet and head straight for the heels I was thinking about pairing with the outfit.
I slide my foot into the sandal, adjusting the band across my foot and the ties around my ankle. The heel is steel and has YSL on it. The shoes absolutely kill my feet, but they make the outfit. I rush back into the closet and grab a black blazer, slipping it on and pushing up the sleeves.
I head back to the bathroom to put the finishing touches on the soft makeup I applied.
Spraying perfume on my neck and then on my wrists, I then put on my silver Rolex and two silver bracelets.
I grab the diamond earrings Kirby bought me when I graduated from college and decide against putting on a necklace and leave my neck bare instead.
I take a final look in the mirror, applying my lip gloss.
“Well, if this doesn’t knock him on his ass,” I smirk, “I don’t know what will.
” I tuck the hair behind my ear. Turning off the light in the bathroom, I snatch up my phone before heading out the door.
The nerves hit as soon as the phone buzzes and tells me that my ride is here. My stomach flips up and down and all around as I push out of the lobby, heading to the black Escalade that is waiting for me. My hand goes to the handle of the back door, pulling it open. “Here goes fucking nothing.”