Chapter 9
nine
The second the bathroom door clicked shut behind me, I turned on the water and stripped off the outfit Gina had painstakingly chosen for my first date. The curls she had given me were already limp from the cold wind outside and smelled like a little bit of garlic from the restaurant.
Soap couldn’t scrub that out of my memory, but I gave it my best shot.
By the time I emerged from the shower, wrapped in my pajamas and robe, hair damp and hanging limp, I felt marginally more like a person again.
Gina’s bedroom door was cracked open and dark. She must’ve gone to bed already. Her work had required early morning wake-up calls this past week.
I padded quietly into the living room, expecting it to be quiet.
It wasn’t.
Josh was there stretched out on his sofa bed, remote lifted to pause the screen in one of his old hoodies. The TV volume low and a half-empty glass of water on the coffee table in front of him.
He looked up when he heard me. “Hey.”
I blinked, caught slightly off guard. “Hi. I thought you were out for the night.”
The apartment was cast in a low glow from the television and light above the stove.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your decompressing time.”
He shook his head. “Decompressing time?”
I shrugged.
“How was your date?”
“Oh, that.”
Josh cocked his head. “I take it, it didn’t go well?”
“It was … short.”
His eyes remained snagged on me, not moving to return his full attention to his television show, which … I had been wanting to see actually. A new sort of drama-thriller combination everyone had been talking about online.
I pointed at the screen as I made my way toward his couch bed.
I dropped into the old armchair next to it.
Gina and I found the plush chair at the thrift store not too long after we moved in.
The floral pattern was a little tacky, but it was one of the first things we got together to decorate.
Plus, I’ll never forget the two of us complaining and laughing the entire climb up the stairs to the apartment.
Josh glanced at the TV, but didn’t really seem to be watching it anymore. “You okay?”
I looked at him. “I will be,” I said honestly. “I think I just expected to feel something different tonight. I thought maybe the first date would make me excited. You know, give me that stupid butterflies feeling that people talk about.”
“And it didn’t?” he said.
“Not even close.”
“Sorry.”
I shook my head. “Can I watch with you?”
Josh was still looking at me, scanning me in my layers of loungewear.
One episode, and then I’d call it a night.
“You got it. Want me to catch you up on what’s happening? Or we can just restart it. I’m not that far in.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
I sighed with a nod, sinking lower into the chair. “That would be amazing.”