“Are you sure?” Brenna said. “I mean, of course, you could use my truck, but are you sure you don’t mind?”
She was trying to play it cool, but I could see that she really liked the idea of me giving her mom a ride.
“One hundred percent,” I said. “I’ll take Rylan with me. He loves going into LA, and I would love for your mom to meet him.”
“Thank you!” she said. She picked up her phone. “I’m going to text my mom real quick and let her know.”
We began to eat the food, and both of us were indeed dipping our french fries into our milkshakes.
“Why are you smirking?” Brenna asked.
“Do you really want to know? It’s a story about the last date that I went on.”
“Tell me,” she said.
“All right. A while ago I was set up by some people at work. Rylan was away at a school retreat, so I figured it wouldn’t hurtto go out. I had been texting with the girl, and she told me that she was very low-maintenance and wanted a low-key evening.”
“She called herself low-maintenance?” Brenna asked, raising her eyebrow suspiciously.
“Exactly. However, I took her at her word and planned a drive up the coast, dinner at the Surf Shack, perhaps a walk on the beach, and then I would take her back home.”
“Sounds like a fun date,” Brenna said.
“I thought so. However, when I went to pick her up, she was dressed up for a night on the town. Don’t get me wrong, she looked beautiful. But she had clearly spent a lot of time getting ready, and it became very clear to me that her definition of low-key and my definition of low-key were very different.”
“Oh boy,” Brenna said, taking a bite of her hamburger.
“Yes. But I remembered that she had insisted she was low-maintenance and low-key, so I didn’t deviate from my plan. We drove up to the Surf Shack, and there she was, wearing a mini dress, high heels, a face full of makeup, and some fantastic jewelry. The rest of us were dressed just like everyone else.”
“Oh my goodness,” Brenna said, covering her eyes with her hand.
“What happened after that?”
“Well, she was clearly mad. She kept asking me if I was serious. I pretended I didn’t know what she was talking about. I asked her what she wanted to eat, and she said she didn’t care and to just order her anything. So I ordered her the exact meal that you and I are eating right now.”
“Of course,” Brenna said. “Because it’s the best meal.”
“Yes. Exactly. You get it - I was doing a very kind thing.”
Brenna laughed.
“Well, we got the food, and she still had a disgusted look on her face, but she did eat. However, when I dipped my fries into my shake, that was the final straw for her. She threw her handsin the air and shouted how it was absolutely appalling that I would act that way, especially given the fact that I was rich and well-known. She screamed that she only agreed to go on a date because someone had said I was an eligible bachelor, but she never wanted to see me again.”
“Oh my goodness,” Brenna said. “She actually said all of that?”
“Yes! I simply said okay and then I drove her home. We were silent the entire time and I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Did your friend at work ever say anything? The one who set you up?”
“No, he never mentioned it. I knew he must have heard her side of the story, but I wasn’t going to say anything about it either and I just let it go. He never tried setting me up again, though, so I guess that’s good.”
“I guess so,” Brenna said.
“So that is why I was smirking. I was reminded of that as we were eating.”
“That’s a great story,” Brenna said.
I laughed. “Yeah, I think so too.”
