Summer Love in the City (Summer Instalove)

“Well, I know the only men I’ll be meeting when I’m away are going to be the dads of the

kids I’m looking after,” Laura laughed, “But I promise to smile at a couple of guys when I’m

picking up sunscreen and other stuff for my trip, okay?”

“That’s a start,” Kate agreed. “Be open-minded. Look around at possibilities. That’s all any

of us can do.”

I noticed that Becca was tracing patterns with her finger around her necklace, as she

always did when she was a million miles away.

“It’s not as scary as it sounds,” I said, reaching out to pat her arm. “If you’re not feeling it with a guy, you walk away. Easy.”

“How do you know if what you’re feeling is right?” she asked. “I mean, I’ve seen lots of cute

guys that I’ve wanted to talk to, but you know…that whole terror of rejection thing is pretty

intense.” She tried to laugh.

Kate nodded, thinking. “I guess when the nervousness about losing him is worse than the

nervousness about saying something stupid, you have to jump in.” She shrugged.

“Don’t forget,” Laura said, “we forget most of the details of conversations, and only recall

the overall impressions. Everyone trips over their words, and nobody is nearly as smooth as

they want to be. But people only remember the broad strokes of a meeting, not the details.”

Kate gave her a sideways glance until Laura shrugged. “Psychology classes.”

We all laughed as the drinks arrived. “Thanks so much, Sherrie,” I said. “You know us too

well.” Along with the two lemon drops were two shots of ginger ale so that we could all

have a drink together.

Raising our glasses, Laura said, “To Joanna’s adventure tomorrow. Let’s hope she finds a

nice guy to flirt with, even a little.”

“To all of us finding a summer flirtation,” I said.

“To learning how to at least speak to guys,” Becca giggled.

“To everyone using their heads while losing their hearts,” Kate said, raising her glass to the

chandelier over us before we all drank.

“It’s going to be so strange not seeing you guys every week,” Becca said softly.

“Well, I’ll still be here,” I said, trying not to sound grumpy about it.

Kate nodded. “You’re being responsible. Saving for a car is a big deal – we’ll need you to

drive us around someday,” she laughed. “Don’t worry, you’re going to find ways to have