“Honestly?”
“No, lie to me.”
I roll my eyes. “You’ve got an even smarter mouth than she does.”
“Give her time.” Ruby’s smirk is back.
“Honestly, I have no idea. She’s got me puking up my emotional guts one night, then she’s running away the next. And I don’t exactly have a lot of free time right now. Even if she was into me—”
Ruby brushes away my words with a wave. “You find time when it’s the right person.”
There is no way she’s speaking from experience. Not the girlfriend who’s getting squeezed in before a tee time. But her relationship is none of my business.
And actually, mine is none of hers, which she somehow keeps making me forget. “I probably need to have a conversation with Sami about this before you and I start breaking it all down.”
“You’re not wrong. But if you want to even get her to have a conversation, you’re going to need a game plan.”
“Okay, but I try to avoid the words ‘game’ and ‘dating’ together.”
“Oh, really, Mr. Fake Date Me?”
“Ruby.” I shake my head.
“Yeah?”
“You’re the worst.”
“So say my brothers.”
“Fine. What’s your game plan?”
“When Sami decides to explain why she’s got reservations about you, you’re going to find that it comes down to a very specific issue for her: being seen and accepted for who she is and what she has to offer. The how and why she got there are for her to explain, but that’s the bottom line. So that means . . .” She looks at me, waiting for me to fill in the blank.
“See and accept her for who she is? I already do that.”
“Talk is cheap. You’re a lawyer. What’s your evidence?”
“We hang out on the balcony and talk at night a lot.”
She cocks her head. “Do you now? Interesting.”
That’s it. After an awkward silence, I ask, “More?”
She nods.
I realize I don’t have anything else to offer as evidence since I don’t think Sami will be thrilled if I get into the kissing. Themakeout.
Ruby points at me and snaps when my silence goes too long. “You see the problem?”
“I do.” The fake dating doesn’t make my case, and that’s the only other evidence I have.
“How are you going to fix it?” Ruby demands. “I have the answers, by the way. But it’s only going to count if you come up with your own.”
“I need to start showing up for the things that matter to her.” It gets tricky here because I can’t say that Sami’s got a secret identity.
“Like her shows?”
“Yes. Her acoustic sets.”
