19. APRIL
APRIL
Josh showed up at the door in a pair of dressy shorts, loafers, a navy-blue polo with the buttons undone, and his hair styled in that perfectly-messy, slight-wave look.
Every one of my lady muscles squealed. He cleaned up nicely.
Not that I was unfamiliar with seeing him dressed up.
He wore suits regularly for game days, but this casual yet, dressy unbuttoned polo and thick forearms? Yeah, that suited him.
“Ready?” He wiggled his brows at me.
“No.”
“Come on.” He grabbed my rolling suitcase from the front door.
“Have fun,” Nora called from the living room. “Lots of fun.”
I glared at her, telling her to shut it. She simply laughed harder.
“I can pull my suitcase,” I huffed, chasing him down the corridor. How does he walk that fast?
“I know.”
“Did you put the directions in the GPS?”
“Don’t need them.”
“No need to be macho here. I am not in the mood to get lost, because yet another man won’t stop for directions.”
“Projecting much?” He stopped dead in his tracks when we got to the parking garage. “Over there.” He nodded toward the matte-black electric SUV with deeply tinted windows.
“You drive an electric?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Josh didn’t seem to be an environmental kind of guy. I expected him to have some rebuilt gas-guzzling muscle car. He loaded our bags into the trunk, muttering, “Why is everyone always surprised?”
He opened the door for me and I slid across the buttery leather fabric. “Thought you’d be more into a sports car.”
“I don’t need a fancy car. I live within walking distance to work or we fly out. Besides, this is easier than having to find a gas station downtown.”
He wasn’t wrong. The closest one is at least ten blocks away, and in Toronto traffic, you’d run out of gas before getting there these days.
“What do you drive?” He eyed me up and down, as if trying to gage what kind of car I’d have. “Big white SUV.”
“Ha.”
“How about a Cooper?”
I snorted. “Me? In a Cooper? Yeah, right. Not even sure my entire ass would fit into it.”
His gaze dropped to my waistline, as if he was sizing up my ass. He licked his lips and I shifted in my seat, locking my knees together, because the way he was looking at me had set off a low hum where it shouldn’t be.
“It’d be just fine.” He winked before turning back to the windshield and pulling out of the spot. “So, no Cooper and no SUV. Hmm.”
He genuinely looked perplexed. I giggled to myself, knowing there was no way he was able to guess, because I didn’t own a car.
But this seemed like a fun way to pass the time, besides it wasn’t often I stumped him.
We drove through the city street rather quickly since it was the weekend and still early in the morning.
After about fifteen different guesses he groaned at me. “April, seriously. Unless you have some exotic, imported car, I must have said it already.”
“I told you; it was none of them.” I grinned wide.
“Why won’t you just tell me? Is it some sort of secret?”
I laughed. “No. There’s just nothing to tell.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t own a car.” His head whipped around; his eyes were wide as if it couldn’t be true. I nodded at him.
He coughed, or snorted? Not sure what kind of sound he made. “How is that possible? How do you get around?”
I tapped my feet together. “These puppies. Or transit.”
His mouth dropped open and then shut again. He stayed silent for a good, long minute.
“That’s all it takes to keep you quiet? My lack of a vehicle?” I chuckled awkwardly.
“I just, I mean—the no car thing.” He acted as if it was unheard of. “But what about visiting family. Like for your Papi’s party. How would you have gotten there?”
“Wes.” I froze the minute it slipped out of my mouth. Josh nodded his head, keeping his eyes on the road, but I noticed his grip on the steering wheel tightened. “Or I’d have rented a car.”
I was not exactly sure why he was so annoyed at the mention of Wes, but by the way his brow creased and his lips tightened, he was not a fan.
They had only met once, when we first started dating.
It went okay, though Josh seemed cold, but he played it off as not being in the mood after losing the game.
I hadn’t thought much of it then, but now I wonder if there was something more. He grunted something unintelligible.
“So, thank you, for offering to drive.”
“No worries,” he said, but kept his eyes on the road.
There were a few minutes of silence as we got onto the highway. I played with my phone and answered a few of my mom’s nagging texts. I assured her I was on the way; I wouldn’t be late and yes, in fact, Josh was with me. That ended the swarm of messages and it was relaxing.
“Tell me again, who do I need to know? I don’t wanna fuck up.”
“You won’t be expected to know everyone.
But he has two friends, Milton and Harvey.
They have known each other since childhood and were thick as thieves from the stories they tell.
They have been through it all. College, Army, marriage, kids,” my voice fell when I said, “widowing and yet, they are the last three standing of their circle. Harvey’s on his second marriage, to the lovely Lily.
They met at the senior’s dance and that story will be told no less than three times. ”
Josh concentrated, as if he was taking mental notes while I gave the lowdown on each person. My expectations weren’t that he’d remember every detail, but maybe a name or two would jog his memory.
The longer we drove, the more my nerves kicked in.
Josh and I were great at filling the conversation, so that wasn’t it, but somewhere in the back of my mind, doubt was creeping in.
Could we pull this off? Maybe? I’d known there was chemistry between us, no doubt about it, but was it enough?
Did I care how much we could make-believe this fake relationship?
Yeah, a little. And aside from just wanting to stick it to May, it felt like maybe there was more to it than that.