"So, when's the third date? The big one." Jeremy winked at me. He was screwing with me and I had no choice but to play along if I didn't want to be exposed.
"Tomorrow," I said.
"Yeah?" Shaw asked. "Wow. No performance pressure or anything?"
"Dude," I said. "She's a lady."
"Yeah, she is," Jeremy said in an over-exaggerated tone.
I barked out a laugh. "You guys are assholes. I don't kiss and tell."
Jeremy reared back. "The hell you don't! Remember Charity?"
Shaw's mouth split into a grin. "Oh yeah. Charity of the bubble gum body spray?"
"Once," I said, though I couldn't help but chuckle. "And it was too weird not to share." I held up a finger. "Not anymore."
"We're still going to ask you, though," Jeremy said as he elbowed me.
"Please don't. Back to the drone. What about a drone?"
"I want to send one up into the storm and see what's going on up there," Jeremy said.
"During the storm? It will crash."
He shook his head. "I'll wait for the rain to calm down."
"What kind of camera?" Shaw asked.
"Probably my Go-Pro."
"What if it doesn't come back?" I asked.
"Do you have a ladder?"
A chuckle burst from me. "If you want to lose a good camera, go right ahead. But you're going to have to volunteer your own gear."
"In the name of science, I shall. Let's meet back here tonight at seven and we can see what happens." We chatted about what to bring and went our separate ways. On my way out, I locked eyes with the grumpy barista and she made kissing noises at me.
I flipped her off and a surprisingly sweet laugh burbled from her. Grinning, I walked out of the building and made my way over to my parent's house. It was dinner night.
Yay for me.
The Sterling Inquisitiondidn't have long to wait. It began as soon as I asked my sister to pass the potatoes. She did but before she'd fork them over, she asked how the mysterious woman who smelled like strawberries was doing. This was not good, not good at all, because Cherry did not smell like strawberries and if my family remarked on it while she was here, this could set her off all over again. Cherry smelled like winter. Cold and stiff.
I snorted to myself as I dished out an appalling amount of food onto my plate. This was what I wanted.
So why was Maron still stuck in my head like an earworm I couldn't stop singing?
"She's fine," I said. When in doubt it was best to stick with honesty. They had no idea I wasn't talking about Cherry.
My brothers were grinning at me. They usually knew when I was bullshitting. But there was no way they knew about this. They were just interested in the fact that I had a woman.
"I looked her up," my sister said casually.
I gripped my fork so hard it snapped in half. "Oh?" I said, calm and cool and collected as I sat the remnants of the destroyed tableware down. "And why would you do that?"
My sister looked at the mangled fork and then me. "Because it's natural to stalk your potential sister-in-law?" she said slowly, her voice lilting at the end like she wasn't sure if she was asking or stating.
