“Who’s Cameron?” I asked.
“This cute barista who works in this coffee shop where I grab my morning bagel before work,” she said, sounding excited. “We’ve been making eyes at each other for weeks now, and he finally plucked up the courage to ask me out.”
“How much do you like this coffee shop?”
“Why?” Her tone suggested she knew where I was going with the question.
“Well… You might have to choose
a different one if things go south with you and…”
“Cameron.”
“Right,” I nodded. “With you and Cameron.”
“I don’t think they will,” she said confidently. “He just might be the one.”
I sighed. “You say that about every new guy you meet,” I reminded her.
“This time, it feels different.”
“You’re a sucker for pain, aren’t you?” I shook my head at her.
“Look who’s talking?” She shot me an accusing glance.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Melody adjusted her speed on the treadmill and slowed down to a walk. I followed her lead as I wiped the sweat from my brow.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please don’t tell me you’re referring to the dinner I had with Jake a few days ago.”
“Oh, so it’s Jake now, is it?” she said, in a teasingly suggestive voice.
“I just slipped into calling him Jake during dinner,” I said. “I may have started it with the email, actually… Can’t quite remember.”
“Who cares,” Melody said impatiently. “The point is that you effectively went on a date with your boss. So you can’t exactly lecture me about dating my barista because coffee shops are still a whole lot easier to find than jobs these days.”
“True as that may be,” I said. “You are wrong about one thing—it wasn’t a date.”
“If it looks like a cat and smells like a cat…”
I guffawed with laughter. “Is that even the expression?”
“Who gives a fuck,” she said. “You get my point.”
Still laughing, I shook my head at her. “Honestly, it wasn’t a date.”
“He took you to a restaurant for dinner,” she said. “A fancy one that’s really trending right now. The choice of restaurant says a lot about the night.”
“I think he just likes the food there.”
“He dropped you off at home,” she pointed out.
“Because it was late, and he was being polite.”
“He could have called you a cab if that was the intent,” Melody said, raising her eyebrows at me.