Chapter 11 Cole
“Remind me again, why did I let you convince me to do this?” I said, changing sweaters for the fifth time in the last ten minutes.
“Do what? Have a life? Be a normal person? Or are you talking about making you shower ’cause you stink?” Enzo asked, his tone dripping with sarcasm, paired with his biggest eyeroll.
I threw the previous sweater at his face in response.
“First, I don’t stink. You’re just being annoying because you think it makes you cute—”
“Hey!” Enzo groaned, and Lilian patted his shoulder soothingly. “I am cute!”
“He’s right, darling. He’s right.”
“Whose side are you on, woman?” Enzo bit back at her.
“Excuse me, I was talking?” I coughed.
Both mother and son turned to me, crossed their arms, and stared with a raised eyebrow.
They never looked like each other, but in that moment, they were like twins.
“You’re creeps,” I mumbled. “It’s your fault I had to do the stupid auction, and I’ve got to get through twelve, twelve freaking dates! What were you thinking?”
The fact Enzo smirked confirmed my suspicion that they’d been behind this whole thing. Not that I needed proof. It was clear as day. No one else had gotten twelve dates with anyone. Only me. And only after Enzo whispered something in Hwan’s ear.
“I don’t know, sweetheart. We were thinking maybe you need to go out there, seize the day, have some fun, get out of your rut,” Lilian said.
“I’m not in a rut!” I barked back as if on instinct, but we all knew that was a lie.
I sighed and took the sweater off. It had a snowman pattern with mistletoes and candy canes scattered in the mix. I didn’t want him thinking I was a nut for Christmas.
“I can’t believe he texted so soon,” Enzo muttered as I put on another sweater.
“Well, what do you expect when the poor guy has to get through twelve dates with me?” I grumbled, still trying to put my hands through the right holes.
“Poor guy indeed if he has to deal with grumpy Cole on all of them,” he replied.
“Please make an effort sweetie. It’ll do you a world of good to get back out there.”
I rolled my eyes, but thankfully they couldn’t see me since I was still in a battle with the sweater. A battle I seemed to be losing. Before I also lost the will to leave, I pulled the damned thing off and threw it at Enzo’s face again. It was the least I could after what they’d done to me.
“You think I’d be rude to a stranger? Please, you guys. I reserve that privilege for my family,” I told them, and Lilian laughed.
“Here, sweetie. Try this one. Simple sometimes is best.” She leaned down and offered me another sweater off the pile and handed me a plain forest green one.
“Great. Now I’ll look like a Christmas tree,” I said but grabbed it off her anyway.
“What else are we forgetting?” Enzo asked. “Breath mints? Cash? You need to pay on the first date.”
“He’s older,” I pointed out.
“So?”
I shrugged.
“Isn’t the older person supposed to pay on a first date?”
Oh gosh, now I was falling into the trap of calling this a date. It wasn’t a date. It was an arrangement. It was a situation we’d found ourselves in. Or I’d found myself in.
At least Samir had chosen to be there and participated in the auction.
He’d chosen to bid on me. And why on earth had he chosen to do that?
Did it mean he liked me? Was he just trying to help the sanctuary with his donation?
Yeah, that had to be it, right? He loved helping animals; he had a shelter himself, so of course that was what it was all about. It had to be.
He was so much older than me. Why else would he bid on a young guy? What could we possibly have in common? Hell, for all I knew, he wasn’t even gay and was just doing this for the goodwill of it all.
“Pfft,” I let out before I could stop myself.
Even I didn’t buy the last part. He had to be gay.
Queer, of some sort, to do this. Because he didn’t look at me as someone completely disinterested in me.
He looked at me as if he could want me. Not that I have any idea why a guy like him—mature, sure of himself, self-made man—would want to be with me, chaos incarnate personified.
“Earth to Cole.” Enzo waved a hand in front of my face, and I snapped back to reality.
“What?” I asked, brushing his hand off me.
“I said, do you have condoms?”
“Oh my God, Enzo!” I huffed and had to take a step back. “For fuck’s sake. What’s wrong with you?”
“What? What’s wrong with what I said?”
I shook my head and sighed.
Was he seriously asking that? Did he not know me at all? Did he take me for a guy who slept with someone on the first date? Even with Sandra, it didn’t happen until we’d been together for a month.
“Do you really think I’ll sleep with just about anyone on hello?” I told him.
“Well.” He shrugged. “Not on hello. At least buy the guy some wine first. It’ll loosen you both up.”
Even Lilian felt the need to flick her son’s head, and she wasn’t such a prude either.
“You guys are making way too big a deal out of this.”
“We are?” Enzo asked.
“Yes. You are. This isn’t a date.”
“It isn’t?” Lilian asked.
“No. It’s not. It’s… it’s for charity.”
Enzo smirked.
“Is that what you’ll say when you suck his dick? It’s for charity?”
“Enzo!” both Lilian and I said in unison, but Enzo didn’t seem deterred by our apparent shock. He was entertained by it, if anything.
“God, I hate you sometimes,” I told him.
“I love you too, bestie.” Enzo smiled from ear to ear.
I turned away from him before I punched his pretty little face in and retreated to the bathroom to take one good look at myself before I left the house.
“Gosh, I look awful.”
The dark circles under my eyes. The wrinkles on my forehead that were far too prominent for someone my age. My lips that gave away how long it’d been since I’d been kissed by how dry they were.
I shook my head.
Why the hell was I thinking about kissing all of a sudden?
This wasn’t a real date so there’d be no kissing involved. And that was how I preferred it. I didn’t need to complicate my life any further. It was already complex enough.
“Gosh, wish you were here, hon. You’d tell me what to do,” I whispered.
Though, I wasn’t exactly sure she’d appreciate me going out with another person seeing as she had been my girlfriend.
But she was my friend before that. And we were best friends first even when we were together.
She always knew what to do. Always. I was always a mess.
That was why I’d felt so lost without her.
The day Sandra died, I’d lost my companion, my daughter’s mother, and my compass.
It was the only thing that could steer me right.
“Wish me luck.” I sighed, and before I left the bathroom, I sprayed myself with some perfume.
When I returned to the living room, Enzo was there, holding my jacket up.
“You’re gonna be late. Come on,” he said.
And for the first time that evening, my friend was being dramatic. I was cutting it close.
I let him put my jacket on, and just as I was about to go into the bedroom and kiss my Ella goodnight, Lilian stopped me.
“Here, sweetheart. Wear this.” She held out a gold chain with a green crystal at the end that she offered to put on around my neck for me.
“Oh dear. Not another love spell,” I groaned.
Lilian smiled.
“Not a love spell, honey. Just some green aventurine. For confidence. And good luck.”
The last part gave me pause, and I stared at the round green crystal for a moment.
Is that you, babe?
Was she trying to reply to my wish by sending me a message from up above through Lilian?
I bit my lip and bowed my head so Lilian could put on the necklace for me, and as I walked out the door a few minutes later, I held the stone between my fingers, thinking of her.
Thought of Lilian’s words. Hell, even Enzo’s, minus the blowjob and condom talk.
Maybe I should make the most out of this… wild arrangement. Maybe that’s what Sandra would have wanted for me. Maybe it was her way of giving me some sort of guidance in an attempt to take back my life and do something with it.