Page 119 of So Much More
“I can deal with that.”
“So about tomorrow …”
“Yeah?” I hold my breath as I wait for her to tell me if I get to meet Emily.
“How about you meet us at a park near our apartment around nine? We’ll let Emily play for a while to wear her out, and then there’s a diner nearby where we can have brunch.”
I beam at her. “Sounds perfect.”
* * *
Andrea gives me a ride back to Shannon’s, and as soon as I arrive, he gives me some privacy so I can call Randall from the kitchen phone. Then I get ready for bed and join him in the living room, where he’s watching Johnny Carson and drinking a Coors from the bottle. He turns the volume down as I settle onto the couch.
“Everything go well with the sister?”
“Amazingly well. It’s like we were … well, separated at birth, which we were, in a way.”
“I guess you’re right. That’s great you get along so well. So does that mean you passed the test to get to meet the niece?”
I tell him about our plans for the next day. “If you can take me to the park, Andrea says she can bring me back here afterward, since we don’t know what time that will be.”
“Works for me.”
“Great. Thanks for being my chauffeur.”
“It’s my pleasure.”
“So tell me about this kinda-sorta girlfriend you mentioned earlier.”
“Her name is Christi—with an I, mind you—and she’s an interior designer. Her office is in the same building as the engineering firm where I work.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Why does it matter that her name ends in an I?”
“She likes everyone to know that, for some reason, so I thought I’d pass along that little nugget of information.”
“Sounds to me like you’re making fun of her.”
“Maybe a little.”
I laugh. “So this isn’t a serious thing?”
“Not yet. Like I told you before, I’ve never been serious with anyone, because I never had the desire to be until recently. Is Christi the one? Eh, maybe so, but probably not. We’ve gone out four times now, and I’m not any fonder of her than I was at the beginning, so that probably means something.”
“Could be, but you never know. If there’s nobody else you’re interested in, there’s no harm in dating her for a while longer to see if you do grow more fond of her. Just be honest with her about your feelings and your intentions, whatever they may be.”
“Thank you for the advice, wise one.” He tilts his bottle toward me, and I tilt an imaginary bottle back at him in a “cheers” motion. “What about you and Randall? Is that serious?”
I try to stifle my smile, but I can’t. “It is.”
His eyebrows raise. “I see that smile. Do you love him?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Is he the one?”
“I think so.” I press my lips together and then say. “Shannon, I have to tell you, when I was talking to you a couple months ago, I was also kind of seeing him. It wasn’t anything official, but we were spending quite a bit of time together. I should have told you that.”
He shakes his head. “You didn’t need to tell me. We weren’t dating.”
