“Yup.”
“And the thought of them with another man makes you have vivid fantasies of punching the other guy in the face?”
Liv paused. “Bennett? Do you want to protect this girl?”
“Yes,” he answered immediately.
“Would you be willing to sacrifice something you wanted if it meant making her smile? Does her smile brighten up your entire day? Is it torture to imagine not seeing her for a long time?”
Baffled, Bennett nodded along with every one of her statements. “Yes to all of that. How did you know?”
Liv sighed dramatically. “Oh boy. Bennett, congratulations!”
“For what?” He made a face. “I haven’t done anything yet.”
“On the contrary, you’ve already done the most important thing. You’ve fallen for someone.”
Bennett thought about it and objectively compared all the facts. The things he’d outlined to Olivia and the laundry list of scenarios she’d presented did seem to point to one conclusion. For the first time in a long time, Bennett Alexander had a crush.
And a date.
?
On Saturday, it wasn’t until after lunch that Bennett remembered why the day was special. Katie was taking him on a practice date. No, he corrected himself. You are taking her on a practice date. Or maybe even a real date.
Ever since his talk with Olivia, he’d been thinking about the time he spent with Katie. They had fun together and she never seemed exasperated or annoyed by his quirks. There had been several occasions where he’d done his usual routine of drifting off into musings and instead of taking it as an offense, Katie always seemed mildly amused by him.
He liked her. And he wanted her to like him back.
Not that he had any idea of how to go about making that happen. After all, he’d hired her to teach him how to hit on a woman. How was he to know that he’d end up wanting to hit on his teacher? Now they were going on this practice date that suddenly felt more real than any real date he’d ever been on.
The entire thing was a tangled mess and he had half a mind to cancel the whole thing.
Just the thought of that made him scowl. He might be awkward but he was no coward. He was taking Katie on this date and he was going to make it the best damn date ever.
How, well, he hadn’t worked that part out yet. But he had a good idea of who to call to get it all started. His younger brother Nick was a self-proclaimed “clothes-whore” and was married to a high fashion model. If anyone could handle this situation, it was Nick. And he wasn’t as nosy as the others. Okay, he was but at least he wouldn’t try to run a background check on Katie the way their brother Elliot would.
Nick answered after several rings. He sounded suspiciously out of breath when he did. “Hello? Bennett?”
“Yes, I’m here. Is this a bad time?” He sincerely hoped that it wasn’t because he only had a few hours until it was time to pick up Katie.
“No, it’s fine. I’m just … Well, never mind that. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Well, actually no I’m not fine. I, um, well it seems I have a social commitment this evening and I’m not sure what to wear.”
Nick didn’t say anything for a moment. “What kind of social commitment? Meeting an old friend, business-related, what?”
“Not business. It’s personal.” More silence. “Okay, fine. I have a date. With a woman.”
More silence then Nick said, “I’m coming over,” and hung up.
Bennett sighed.
By the time Nick arrived, Bennett was convinced that he should have asked his brother to meet him at the mall. Everything he owned looked like it belonged at either a wedding or a funeral, not surprising since those were usually the only places he wore suits.
Without saying a word to him, Nick walked straight through the laboratory and up the stairs and into Bennett’s bedroom. Bennett jogged to catch up. When he got there, Nick stood staring at the bed where his two choices were laid out.
“This is sad, big bro. Really sad. You’re lucky I anticipated this and came prepared.”