Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
KAIRI
“I’m lactose intolerant,” Hayden says when we reach the ice cream cart, “but I saw you eyeing this, so I figured you wanted some.”
I feel myself deflate inside as I look back to the ice cream menu. Part of the fun of getting ice cream is having someone to get it with. If Hayden is lactose intolerant, I’ll be eating ice cream all alone for the rest of my life—or worse, he’ll want to go on sorbet dates.
”Thanks,” I mumble before looking up at the cart attendant lady. “I’ll take the caramel crunch in a cup.”
”Coming right up,” she replies as she grabs an empty ice cream cup and begins scooping the flavour. “That’ll be four dollars.”
She stares at Hayden expectantly, but he just stares back.
“One second,” I say as I reach into my purse and pull out a five dollar bill. “You can keep the change.”
She narrows her eyes judgementally at him. “Women should not be paying on a date,” she chastises as she takes the money from me, but he looks unfazed.
“That’s okay,” I tell her as I grab a napkin and spoon from the cart top and take the ice cream from her, Hayden sticking close.
“I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t pay for that,” he says minutes later as we continue walking through the gardens. “I think the whole idea that a man has to pay for things on a date is a bit outdated and unfair. Don’t you?”
“I don't mind at all,” I say, “but I think it’s quite romantic when a guy treats his date,” I mumble before putting a spoonful of ice cream in my mouth to stop from saying more.
“Romantic?” He smirks. “You must like reading romance. How difficult was it getting through my self-help book?”
“Not difficult at all actually,” I say, giving him a forced smile.
Hayden has been one big disappointment from the moment our date started. He seemed so interesting at the coffee shop when we first met, asking all the right questions, but today he’s really letting his true self shine.
Typical of a man to think that just because I enjoy reading romance, that anything outside of that genre must be difficult for me to get through. As if I’m incapable of reading anything else.
“Really?” He asks, slowing to a stop. “Was there anything in particular you liked or hated about it?”
I open my mouth to answer, but I’m caught off guard when I spot three familiar bodies, in the world’s worst disguises, hiding behind a willow tree and peaking out at me.
“It’s okay if you didn’t actually read it, Kairi,” Hayden continues when I don’t answer. “You don’t have to lie.”
My attention snaps back on him and I understand what Maliah means now when she says people give her the ick, because right now that’s exactly what Hayden is doing.
I read his book, all about overcoming failure and achieving success. It was alright, definitely not worth putting on my Bookstagram account, but he is clearly doubting me so I might as well give my review directly to him.
“I liked the second half of your book, where you wove in the law of attraction for achieving success,” I finally answer. “It was very inspirational.”
His eyebrows lift in surprise and he begins to walk again. “You know about the law of attraction?”
I scoff. “Doesn’t everyone by now?”
He nods. “Fair, but why didn’t you enjoy the first half?”
I glance over at him, noticing how focused he is on me right now, as if I’m giving him something valuable. I wonder if that’s what it’s like to be an author—constantly searching for feedback.
“It was a very narrow viewpoint on how people should handle failure and all the complicated emotions that come with it,” I say, scooping up more ice cream. “You essentially wrote that people should just get over it and move onto something bigger and better.”
”And?” He asks, sounding almost defensive. “What’s wrong with that?”
I laugh, not surprised in the slightest that I’m losing my appetite for this ice cream right now.
“Well, that’s easy to do if you fail at something you don’t care about,” I say, looking around for a trash can to toss my barely touched ice cream into.
“But if it’s failure or a setback when it comes to your dream, or your passion—something you really care about—then I imagine it would be much more complicated to just get over it. ”
He nods, surprising me. “You’re right.”
“I know,” I say, lifting my head high.
When he laughs and looks in the opposite direction, I sneak another glance at Maliah, Eliana, and…is that Colton with them?
“You’re very confident,” he says again, rubbing his bottom lip with his thumb. “I like it.”
I force a smile and wonder if it’d be rude to end our date here. I can tell he isn’t the person for me, and with my friends spying on us I’d rather not waste their time along with mine.
“When I first met you at the coffee shop,” Hayden says, sliding his hands into his pockets. “You were there with another guy.”
I look past him again and my eyes land on Colton, who’s taken off his glasses and is staring back at me.
”I was,” I say, distractedly.
Why do I feel like I’m betraying him by being here with Hayden? We’re fake dating, and the whole point of our love coach arrangement was for me to date people, wasn’t it?
I straighten as Colton begins walking towards us, waving off Maliah and Eliana’s grips on his arms as they try to pull him back.
“I kinda thought he was your boyfriend, to be honest.”
“He is,” I say, glancing at Hayden for a quick moment before looking back at Colton again as he nears.
“Wait,” Hayden chokes out, “you have a boyfriend?”
“She does.”
My insides feel like they’re melting in the best way as Hayden turns and looks up at Colton, hovering behind him.
“I’m Colton,” he says, holding out his hand.
Hayden stares down at it then glances back at me with the most confused expression I’ve ever seen.
“Why are we here?” He asks, ignoring Colton’s outstretched hand completely. ”Why are we on a date?”
”A date?” Colton asks, retracting his hand and moving to stand next to me. “She’s just here to return your book, bud.”
His hand wraps around my waist and pulls me in, giving me a little squeeze. I press my lips together, not daring to speak as Hayden’s eyes bounce between us.
“Kairi?” Someone shrieks excitedly.
I glance up and watch Maliah and Eliana rushing over, their disguises now removed.
“Oh my gosh, it is you,” Eliana says when they reach us. “What a coincidence to find you here, too.”
“Friends of yours?” Hayden asks, turning back to me and still not bothering to introduce himself to any of them.
He sure makes it easy for me to turn him down without feeling any guilt.
“Yes,” I say, pressing in closer to Colton’s side, “and we should probably get going. Thank you again for lending me your book, Hayden.”
We wave him off and begin walking away from him in hushed silence towards the parking lot.
“You looked like you needed a rescue,” Colton whispers, pulling me in closer. “I couldn’t just stand by and watch you suffer through that.”
”You were right about that,” I whisper. “He was a horrible date, and now I’m questioning my taste in men.”
When we reach the parking lot, Maliah shoves me into the front passenger seat next to Colton and her and Eliana quickly climb into the back.
“I think we should go to the Burger Shack and decompress from such a stressful day,” Maliah announces.
“I am dropping you two off at your bakery, Mal,” Colton says, angling the rearview mirror so he can see her. “Kairi and I need to talk.”
“We do?” I ask, voice pitched higher than normal.
“We do,” he replies with a firm nod.
I glance at the girls in the back and they look at me with wide eyes as Colton pulls out of the parking lot and heads toward Maliah’s bakery. When we arrive, I say bye to both of them and they mouth good luck as they climb out.
“Okay,” I say, patting my thighs when they close the door. “What did you want to talk about?”
”First, I want to apologize for cancelling our dinner plans last week,” he says. “I owe you a make up date.”
“Oh.” My cheeks grow warm and I push a loose curl behind my ear. ”Okay, what did you have in mind?”
“Want to go to the drive-in theatre at the edge of town tonight?” He asks, almost sounding nervous. “We can bring blankets and pillows and watch it out of the trunk of my pickup truck.”
I stare at him, a million thoughts racing through my mind, because the whole point of the dinner date he cancelled on was so that we’d be seen on an actual date around town to fuel the fire of our fake relationship.
But a drive-in theatre, at the edge of town, in the dark won’t allow for many people to see us.
This wouldn’t be a fake date, this would be real. I know I should say no and keep that boundary we put into place, but a part of me wants to go. To see what it could be like to feel like his real girlfriend for a night. To see if I can make sense of the weird reactions my body has around him.
“As long as we bring snacks,” I whisper, “then I’m in.”
He turns to look at me, relief written all over his face. “Deal,” he says with a nod.
My stomach feels like a million butterflies just broke free from their cocoons and are desperately fluttering around, but all I can do is smile back at him as we drive towards the grocery store.