The diner entered its afternoon lull, and I took the opportunity to move toward the back of the restaurant to take a breath. I caught Josh glaring at me as I walked past the table, but I couldn’t bring myself to really care about his reaction.
I got myself a glass of sweet tea and leaned against the wall, taking out my phone to check my messages. There were a couple from Deacon, and that brought a smile to my lips. I took a quick selfie of blowing a kiss to him and sent it through.
Next came Lauren’s invitation to go to dinner with her. I was well on my way to being exhausted when the shift came to an end, but there was no way I was turning down that offer. I loved any chance I got to spend time with her. Especially the occasional opportunity to be just one-on-one with her. As much as I liked Harleigh and Desiree and their men and children, and as much fun as I had when we were together as an entire group, it was a different dynamic when it was just Lauren and me.
Lauren had become my closest friend, and I felt like she was the one who understood me the best. This made it nice to be able to hang out with her and just talk. I quickly sent back a message accepting the invitation, and she sent back a GIF of an excited, dancing woman that made me laugh.
It was only a couple of moments of levity before I had to head back to work. But my heart wasn’t in it. I spent the rest of the shift just going through the motions and waiting for the day to end.
Lauren had sent me details about where to meet her for dinner, and as soon as I was clocked out, I rushed home to change before driving to a little taco restaurant we loved. This was a place where we had shared many a late-night dinner filled with gossip and venting.
She looked much happier and less on edge when I walked in than she had during those meals. Wearing a flowy dress that seemed to embody her more relaxed state of mind, she stood up from the table and gave me a big hug. When we stepped apart, she gestured at the table.
“I ordered chips and guacamole,” she said.
“Perfect.” I grabbed a chip and loaded it up with the thick, chunky avocado dip.
It was incredibly delicious, and I let out a happy groan. Lauren laughed.
“You sound like you had a long day at work,” she said.
I giggled, trying not to let any of the bite out of my mouth before I could swallow it.
“I like that I can communicate things like that to you purely through sound effects,” I said.
She nodded. “You can take the girl out of the diner, but you can’t take the post-diner stress syndrome out of the girl.”
“I’m going to stitch that onto a pillow,” I said. “But, yes, that was a very long day. It was a mess. And Josh came in.”
“Josh?” She gave me a quizzical look as she scooped up some guacamole on her own chip.
“The guy I went on that date with before Deacon asked me out,” I said.
“Oh.” She nodded. “Yeah. That’s right. He came into the diner?”
I nodded. “Yeah. With three of his friends. He tried to play it off like it was some big coincidence that he came in when I was working, but it really felt like he was just putting me on display. Like he’d brought them in to show me off.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t that great of a date,” she said.
“It wasn’t. It wasn’t like it was terrible or anything; it was just a whole lot of nothing. We haven’t even talked since then. But then there he was, trying to flirt, and then he really had to nerve to ask me out again. Right there at the table in front of the other guys.”
Lauren groaned and rolled her eyes. “That’s awkward.” She looked up at me with widened eyes, pretending to be really interested in what I was going to say. “What did you tell him?”
I chuckled and told her about the conversation. The embarrassing story transitioned into us talking about Deacon. I told her all about my weekend with him, blushing like crazy when I hinted at our incredible night together. My heart fluttered thinking about how happy I was with him and how well things were going.
It helped my happiness even more knowing Lauren also thought we had something special. It was fantastic validation, helping me to feel reassured I wasn’t seeing things that weren’t there.
19
DEACON
I’d just seen her Sunday afternoon, but by Tuesday morning, I was already missing Rebecca too much to keep waiting to see her when she was at the tattoo shop next. First thing in the morning, I sent a group text out to all the guys asking if they wanted to meet up for breakfast at the diner before we headed into work.