Lauren said, “Come with me back to my office. Victor? Can you keep an eye on things in the cat room for a minute?”
Paige followed Lauren through the backrooms to her office, her heart in her throat. She was about to get a lecture. Lauren had pulled her back here so she could yell without doing so in front of customers. “Lauren, I’m so sorry.”
“Are you okay?”
“What?”
Lauren frowned. “That guy was really rude. I’ve never seen you lose it like that. I just wanted to know if you’re okay.”
“I…” Paige took a moment to do a quick assessment. Her heart was pounding. “Yeah, I’m okay. Or I will be in a few minutes.”
“Who was that guy?”
“Just some dude I went on a Tinder date with, like, a month ago. Did you hear everything?”
“Most of it. So he just showed up here? Wow, stalker much?”
Paige let out a breath. Her heart was starting to slow to its normal pace as she realized Lauren wasn’t really mad. “Are you upset I made a scene?”
“Not your fault. You didn’t invite that guy down here, did you?”
“No, of course not.”
“I mean, Evan’s here all the time. I suppose it would be hypocritical of me to tell you not to let your friends drop by during business hours.”
“I didn’t. I haven’t seen that guy since the one date we went on.” Paige sighed. “Why do I attract these losers?”
Lauren raised an eyebrow. “Dunno. I mean, I’m hardly one to talk, but I’ve wondered if true love could really be found in an app that treats dating like a game.”
“I know.” Paige rubbed her forehead. “I live in hope, I guess, but I think I’m, uh, looking for love in all the wrong places?”
Lauren cracked up at that. “I mean, stranger things have happened.”
Paige was tired of all of it, though. She said, “I want to fall in love. I want to get married. It was all well and good for you to swear off romance and then meet your husband, but it doesn’t work that way for all of us. I figured the best way to find a partner was to put myself out there, but all I meet are these guys I have nothing in common with. Why is it so hard?”
“I don’t know. We live in a city of over eight million people and yet it seems impossible to meet any of them.”
“Well, that’s true.”
It hit Paige then that guys like Trevor were not who she should be dating, but guys like Josh. Josh was mature and sexy and had a real job and his own apartment. Not that there was really anything wrong with guys like Trevor who were pursuing their dreams and trying to do something creative with their lives; they just weren’t the sort of partner Paige wanted at this stage in her life. But she’d had more fun eating and talking over takeout Italian food in Josh’s office last week than she’d had on all the dates she’d gone on this year, which mostly proved that she really had been looking for love in the wrong places.
Although, still, Lauren’s brother.
Paige cleared her throat. “You’re totally right. I’m sorry for bringing drama to the café.”
“It’s okay. Not your fault. I totally understand why you snapped.” Lauren smiled. “What were you thinking about just then?”
Paige must have done something with her face while she’d been thinking about Josh. “I was just… I think this has really shown me I have to change something. I guess it all starts to feel like a habit after a while.”
“Yeah. I worry about you sometimes. I mean, I can always be counted on for the bail-out phone call, but I would like for you to meet a nice guy and not make that phone call anymore.”
“Me, too. You’re right. I’m too old for this nonsense.”
“It’ll happen, Paige. You’ll meet the right guy. And you deserve someone amazing. You’re smart and you work hard and you’re such a good person.Ilove you, just, you know, not in a pants way. But some guy out there will love you in a pants way and it will be awesome. I know patience is hard, but he’s out there, you just gotta…wait for him to show up.”
What if he had already arrived? Paige bit her lip to keep from blurting out anything and nodded.
“I bet he’ll show up when you least expect it,” Lauren added.
