The Assignment

Shit. How did I not remember that? She’d told me she picked her niece up from her mom’s after work every day.

“Of course. I’d forgotten that you have her on weeknights.” I tilted my head. “When do you not have her?”

“Friday night.”

“You want to get dinner Friday, then?”

She looked down at her feet a moment. “I…actually have a date Friday.”

Feeling deflated, I swallowed. “Really? Good for you. Someone you met on the app?”

“Yeah.”

“Where’s he taking you?”

“Not sure yet. We’re meeting for drinks, then deciding on dinner after.”

“Okay, so you’re busy Friday. How about we hang out Saturday?”

The silence was deafening.

Aspyn chewed her lip for several more seconds before she finally said, “I don’t think so, Troy. I appreciate that you want to be friends. I really do. But I’m just not there yet.”

So there was more to this than her just being busy. She really didn’t want to hang out with me. I certainly wasn’t going to be an ass and push it. I did have some pride. But this sucked.

“Okay. Fair enough.” I took a couple of steps back, feeling like I had a giant letter L slapped across my face.

This girl had gotten to me lately. And I couldn’t figure out why. Was it because of our past? Or was I just into her despite all that? Normally, I could let a rejection roll off my back. But it felt different this time.

She took her keys out. “Have a good night.”

“You, too.”

I stood in place, watching her drive away.

Instead of getting in my car and heading home, I decided to go back inside to hang out with Nonno while he ate his dinner in the dining room.

I found him and settled in next to him, but we didn’t talk much while he dug into his meal.

Finally, my grandfather interrupted me in the middle of a daydream. “Why the long face?”

I grabbed a fork from a spare place setting next to him and took a bite of his pasta. “It’s nothing.”

“You and Miss Aspyn seemed to be getting along better today.”

“Smoke and mirrors,” I mumbled.

“What are you talking about?”

“We were doing great until she rejected me out in the parking lot. I asked her to go to dinner with me—not on a date, just as friends.”

Nonno chuckled. “You expect me to believe that?”

“It’s true. I know she wouldn’t want to date me. I just want to make things right with her, maybe get to know her on a platonic level after all the shit in the past.”

My grandfather cracked up.

I narrowed my eyes. “What?”

He wiped his mouth. “I’m old, but I’m not blind, kid. You like staring at her ass more than I like McDonald’s ice cream and Sinatra.”

“You think I like her? I’m not looking for anything more than just being her friend.” I rubbed my temple. “Of course she’s attractive. But that’s not what this is about.”

Nonno pointed his fork at me. “You kiddin’ yourself or something? Of course you like her. She’s a beautiful girl—in that natural way, too. And she’s a decent, strong, independent woman. Very sweet. What’s not to like? Even though you two have a history, that’s in the past—has nothing to do with today.”

Mindlessly twirling some more of the pasta around my fork, I said, “There is something more to it than just wanting to hang out with her. I have this nagging feeling that I need to prove I’m not a bad person. I’m not sure where it’s coming from.”

He nearly choked on his food from laughing. “It’s coming from below the belt.”

I rolled my eyes and dropped the fork. He wasn’t going to believe me. I could understand why he doubted my intentions. Admittedly, I did like staring at Aspyn’s ass, but I wasn’t trying to get into her pants. Or her scrubs. Not to sound like a dick, but I had no problem getting laid, if I wanted to. I didn’t need to resort to groveling over some woman who hated my guts in the hopes that she’d sleep with me.

That said, I had thought about what it would be like with Aspyn. I might have fantasized once or twice about how that energy between us would translate to the bedroom, what it would be like to make her lose her mind to the point that she no longer cared whether she hated me.

“The way you two go at it?” my grandfather said. “I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if it all comes to a head one day. She’s invested in you. It might not seem like she likes you, but you get to her. Usually if someone doesn’t care, they’re ambivalent. She might have told you no because she’s afraid, not uninterested.”

“Well, my ego is certainly happy to eat up that theory, Nonno.”

He chewed. “So, she just told you flat-out no when you asked her?”