Perfect Alli: July 20

Alli: July 20th

I went to pick up Sarah this afternoon to go shopping. She wanted a new birthday outfit for when she meets her Internet guy for the first time on Friday and she asked for my help picking it out. She’s so funny. I’ve never seen her like this before, all excited and tongue-tied. I hope the guy doesn’t disappoint.

I walked in the front door of her parent’s house without knocking, because that’s what I’ve been doing since high school, and I literally faceplanted into Thor’s rock hard chest. His arms wrapped around my shoulders, steadying me. Wow, he smelled good. My gaze drifted to his gorgeous face and our eyes met.

“Hey.” His carefree voice resonated through his chest.

“Hi.” I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there in his arms in silence. It felt so good until he dropped his hold on me and stepped back.

“Um, yeah.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m waiting for Jeff. Are you here for Sarah?”

I nodded. “We’re supposed to go shopping. It’s her birthday on Friday.” Awkward.

“That’s right, the big reveal date. I tried to convince her the guy is probably a troll, but then he goes and gets her into a sold out concert. At least the troll’s got connections.”

“You should come with us. I bet we could add one more person to the list. It’s probably no big deal.” My mouth just went off on its own. Damn. Did I sound desperate? I had no idea if we could get him in.

“I can’t. I’ve got plans,” he said rubbing his fingers across his forehead as if he was embarrassed.

Did he have a date? Had he moved on that quickly? Just as I gathered enough courage to ask what his plans were, Jeff walked in from the kitchen.

“You ready?” he asked. He glanced at me with an insincere smile, calling upstairs to his sister, “Sarah, Alli’s here.” Then they were out the door. Gone. I resolved to ask Sarah what she knew, but I didn’t want to come off overly interested. I had all afternoon to bring it up.

It was two hours later before I found the right time to ask. Maybe it wasn’t exactly the right time, but it was as good a time as any other. Sarah and I had just sat down with our packages at a Cariboo Coffee. She’d found the perfect jacket to wear on her date. Though with the ninety degree days we’d been experiencing, I wasn’t sure how long she would be leaving it on. But she liked it so much that I didn’t want to mention the heat. I couldn’t deny she looked sexy and buoyant in it, and half the battle with fashion is finding what makes you confident.

“Hope that wasn’t too awkward seeing Thor this morning. I would have warned you, but I didn’t know he would be there.”

“It was fine.” I shrugged, taking a sip of my iced chai tea. “I asked him if he wanted to join us for your birthday celebration.”

She fidgeted in her chair and I added, “Don’t worry, he has plans.” I thought she was nervous because she might have to ask her Internet guy for another ticket, but that wasn’t it. I was just about to ask Sarah if she knew what his plans were when she spoke.

“I know,” she said softly, glancing down at her coffee and then back up at me, hesitating. “I thought that we should invite him too, but Jeff said that Thor has a date on Friday.”

“With who? He’s not getting back together with Nora, is he?” I was going to call and bitch him out if he was letting his cheating ex-fiancé back into his life.

“It’s not Nora. It’s just some girl he met.”

Of course, he met someone new. That’s what his body was built for. I sipped my tea and took my phone out of my purse to check my messages. Nothing. I glanced up to find Sarah watching me.

“You’re OK with him moving on, right?”

“Yeah.” I lied. “You know me. I’m not going to have time for a relationship once school starts.” I swallowed a few gulps of my drink, trying to rid my throat of the knot lodged there. It was what I wanted, right? My career comes first. The rest of the afternoon I tried to erase Thor’s date from my head, but I couldn’t. I knew I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Copyright 2015 Susan Schussler