The Introvert's Guide to Online Dating (The Introvert's Guide 1)

Clearly, I’d been wrong.

But because I’d been a fucking child when we’d texted, she probably thought I was at my place with Cora.

Was she at hers with Max?

She’d made her intentions clear. She planned on taking him home.

Which she could do.

She could do what she wanted with whoever she wanted.

She’d made that abundantly clear to me.

I paid for the drinks and grabbed the tray to take it back to the table. There was not enough beer on this tray for my foul mood. Cora hadn’t deserved my mood tonight, and I shouldn’t have been an asshole and invited her out when I knew I couldn’t treat her the way she deserved to be treated.

I had her address. I’d send her flowers or something to apologize for it not working out and for my bitch of an attitude.

It was the least I could do.

“Are you still arguing about it?” I slid the tray onto the table and grabbed my bottle. “We’ve been doing this for months. Nobody wins.”

“He’s got a point.” Seb swigged his beer. “Nobody ever wins this argument. Especially not by the time Oliver gets involved.”

I snorted at the mention of his soccer coach. Oliver was Dylan’s friend, and he’d rescued him from a shitty job on the East coast. He was great at what he did, but fuck me, he’d argue the soccer-slash-football thing until he was basically a Smurf.

Then he’d tell us about how American owners are ruining ‘the beautiful game.’

That was one not even we could argue with.

Mostly because we didn’t want to fall down that rabbit hole or we’d end up wearing blue dresses and answering to the name Alice.

“How’s the climbing wall?” I asked Seb.

“It’s good, yeah.” He nodded. “We’ve had those few test runs, and it seems to be going down well, especially with older kids, so I think I’ll bring a guy in to teach rock climbing. If it’s popular, I’ll get a couple of bigger ones for an outdoor area.”

“You’re gonna need more acres soon.”

He fought a smile. “Negotiating with the farmer for another twenty. He’s got some mountainous terrain that he can’t use, but we can, so he’s willing to discuss selling more off.”

“I wanna rock climb,” Josh mused. “Think we could come crash it one day?”

“You’re there every day.”

“Working. It’s not the same. Besides, if I fall and break my ankle on the job, the boss has to deal with it. If it’s on my own time, it’s on you.”

“Ah, friendship. Isn’t it great?” Dylan said dryly. “By the way, did anyone see Tori and London come in?”

I stilled. “She’s in here?”

“Over there.” He jerked his head in her direction, and we all looked.

Josh tilted his head to the side. “Their date can’t have gone well.”

“I’ll go ask.” Seb got up with his beer before I could stop him, and I watched with mild horror as he weaved his way through the tables and the people until he got to them.

“Motherfucker,” I whispered, much to the amusement of my so-called best friends. “This is why we never told you.”

“Might have been a mistake admitting it.” Josh bobbed his head in agreement. “Now you’re gonna have about ten pairs of hands getting involved.”

“I don’t want anyone to get involved. There’s nothing to get involved in.” I glanced over at them and caught Tori’s eye.

Something flashed in her gaze, but before I could pinpoint the emotion, she dipped her head, letting her dark hair fall from behind her ear.

It blocked my view of her face entirely.

Especially when she very pointedly turned her back to us.

“Nope,” Dylan said brightly. “Not a bloody thing, eh?”

***

Tori and London had left the bar shortly after Seb had spoken to them. As far as I knew from my sister’s texts this morning, our entire friend group knew we’d been hooking up, and it sounded like the girls were on a matchmaking mission.

My friends were doing much better.

They were trying to control the matchmaking.

The last thing either of us needed right now was to have that going on. I really hoped my friends were able to reign their respective partners in, or I was going to have to hop in my truck and start driving.

I had no idea where, but I would.

I hadn’t quite managed to swallow all my misery last night in beer, so today’s plan was to work it off instead. Since I didn’t actually have to work, I was going to hike.

There was something about hiking the trails around here that made me feel better.

ME: Are you working today?

KINSLEY: Nope. My Saturday off. Why?

ME: Wanna hike with me?

KINSLEY: Can I listen to my book and only talk to you to judge you?

ME: As always, yes. You at Josh’s?

KINSLEY: Home. I’ll meet you at the foot of Peak Place in half an hour.

ME: We’re going higher than Peak Place.