“What can I say? I’m looking for a sugar daddy.”
“Says the girl who wouldn’t even let me pay for dinner.”
The spell that was broken by that idiot who mistook Cassie for the ex-girlfriend has returned full-force. They’re staring at each other again, and even though she loves sushi and hasn’t had it in ages, she can’t wait for the meal to be over so she can walk close to him on the street and maybe get that kiss she’s been thinking about.
“Thirty-six,” he says.
“Oh my God, you’re so old,” she teases him.
“Considering more than half my patients are geriatric, I usually don’t think I am.” He takes a sip from his water. “But right now… on a date with a twenty-six-year-old… yeah, feeling a little old. When I was in high school and taking the SATs, you were a kindergartener eating paste.”
“Uh, I never ate paste.”
“You think I can’t recognize a paste-eater when I see one?”
She laughs. She likes the smile that plays on his lips when he teases her. He’s very sexy. And so what if he had a serious girlfriend right before her? Everyone’s got a past.
Chapter 7: The Ex
I don’t entirely know how I got here.
One minute I was staring at the tiny avatar of Joel on the screen of my phone, and the next minute, I’m riding the D train into Manhattan. I didn’t have a plan in my head—not really. Mostly, I want to reassure myself. I want to take a peek into the restaurant and find Joel there with his buddies, and know he hasn’t found someone new.
But what’s the point of that? Joel doesn’t want me back. He made that quite clear when he asked me to move out of our former apartment if I couldn’t cough up the rent. He’s willing to try to be friends, but that’s the best I can hope for.
Then again, it’s been nearly six months, and from what I’ve heard, he hasn’t been dating. That says something, doesn’t it?
When I get out of the subway, the sun has fallen in the sky and I throw on the sweater I had wrapped around my shoulders. Joel was the sort of gentleman who would always give up his jacket for me when I was cold. He would see me shivering and laugh. Don’t you ever bring a jacket? Then he’d wrap his own jacket around me, and it would feel warm and big and smell like his aftershave.
Sometimes I forgot my jacket on purpose so he’d give me his.
If I ever saw him do that for another woman, I don’t know what I would do. It would break me. That’s why we can’t be friends.
When I get to the restaurant, my heart is pounding, although I’m not sure if it’s from the brisk walk or from what I’m scared I might see. I approach the restaurant, doing my best to be inconspicuous. That’s not hard for me. I am not someone who attracts much attention.
I peer through the glass windows of the restaurant, ready to duck out of sight if I’m spotted. Please let him be out with Pete or Jim. I squint at the tables and…
I don’t see him. He’s not in there.
I whip out my phone. I open the WhereAmI app, and see the avatar of Joel has left the restaurant. It’s hovering about a block away.
I should go home. Maybe grab a bite at a restaurant then take the train back to Bensonhurst. Or maybe I’ll send Lydia a text and see if she’s free—I haven’t heard from her in ages. That’s what I should do.
Except instead I start walking toward Joel’s avatar.
I see them when I get to the corner. Joel isn’t out with the boys. He’s out with a woman. If I wanted to reassure myself, I have done the exact opposite. And…
She’s beautiful.