At Sonny's Diner, Lincoln scooted across the booth until he was smooshed against the window. Oren and Alex slid in beside him, while Noah and Eric squeezed in beside Nate. They'd been discussing some social media promos for the shelter.
Corinne came by with menus. "Corner booth just opened up. More room if you want it." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder.
The guys looked at each other, then nodded and slid back out of the booth, heading for the corner.
Lincoln shrugged at Nate. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting a crowd."
Nate laughed. "Fine by me. I haven't had much guy time lately with the new shows in the pipeline." Nate and Kim's production company had taken off like a rocket. As much as he didn't want to, Nate capitalized on his fame as Qaaxaag, the alien character he'd played on the international mega super hit Daystar Rising. Before they met, Kim had been a local celebrity in her own right, with her web show 15 Minutes to Fabulous, devoted to all manner of crafts, cooking, and lifestyle tips and hacks that could be done in fifteen minutes. When the two of them joined forces, success was pretty much inevitable.
Lincoln admired Nate's ability to be perfectly normal in the face of overwhelming fame. "So yeah, anything you guys could do for the shelter would be awesome."
"Who's your social media coordinator?" Nate asked as they crossed to the bigger booth. "I'll have my assistant get with her."
"Alyssa. I'll get you her number." Lincoln pulled out his phone to find her number. After he gave it to Nate, he made himself a note to make sure the production company got some extra shout-outs as a supporter of the rescue.
Once they were settled, Corinne handed out the menus and took their drink orders. "Refills?" She pointed to the cups Lincoln and Nate had carried with them from their original table.
"Yes, thanks," they both answered. Luckily, they hadn't been seated long enough to have ordered their lunch.
Oren drummed his fingers on the tabletop. "I'm anxious to hear how last night went."
Lincoln blushed and perked up simultaneously. "I figured you would have had all the details by now."
Alex blew out a sarcastic breath. "We're not the Ladies' Society, you know."
The guys laughed and joked about how the ladies always seemed to know everything about everyone. In real time. It could be a little disconcerting.
By the time their sandwiches were delivered, the guys were coming back around to grill Lincoln about his date-not-date with Gretchen.
Lincoln tossed a fry into his mouth. "We had a couple of hiccups. When the road was closed and we couldn't go to Carmine's like we'd planned, I sort of panicked and offered to just call the whole thing off."
"Whoa."
"Kind of jumped the gun a little."
"Just go someplace else."
"Carmine's has the best shrimp ravioli." Alex added and everyone's attention turned to him. "What? They do. But anyway, go on."
"That was pretty much her reaction. She told me to work on going with the flow. We ended up going to Olive Garden and the same movie was playing in the mall theater, so we still got to see it, and we still had Italian."
Noah said, "Heck yeah, unlimited salad and breadsticks."
The entire conversation veered off into the obvious superiority of Italian food, and whether Olive Garden actually qualified as such. The consensus was not really, but close enough. And no matter what you called it, it was delicious.
"Anyway," Oren said, bringing them back to the topic at hand.
"Everything was good. I took her home and she said it was a great date. But then I read her comments on the form, and—"
"Form?"
"Comments?"
"Wait, like an evaluation?"
"Crimeny, you gave her a performance evaluation to fill out?"
"She actually filled it out?"
Lincoln held up a hand. "I told her it was completely up to her if she wanted to fill it out. I thought it might be helpful, in case she had some things to say she didn't want to say directly to me."
"I can't decide if it's stupid or genius," Nate said.
Alex said, "A little of both, I think."
"Anyway," Oren said, "what about her comments?"
Lincoln shifted uncomfortably. "It's awkward."
Noah chuckled. "A survey is awkward. What was on it, anyway?"
The rest of the guys murmured their agreement, which made Lincoln feel even more embarrassed. Why had he given her a form to fill out? And why, why, why had he ever mentioned it to these guys? "Never mind," he muttered.
"No, no, come on. We're here to help you."
He pulled a long sip of his soda. "Okay. It was basically just a bunch of questions about how I did on the date. Did I dress okay, did I act okay, did I do anything inappropriate, that sort of thing. And almost everything she said yes, yes, yes, no feedback on anything. But there was a question about how I made her feel on the date and that's the one that kind of went off the rails."
"Uh oh."
"What happened?"
"What did she say?"
He held up a hand against the flurry of incoming questions. "I don't know. I mean, I kind of… here. I'll just read it to you." He pulled out his phone, opened the form, and read her response to them. When he finished, he said, "I never expected her to 'manage' my emotions or whatever. I just wanted her to let me know what I was doing wrong since I've obviously never been very successful at dating."
The guys pondered her response and dissected it as they ate their lunch. In the end, they all arrived at the same conclusion.
Lincoln needed to follow their sage advice and everything would work out fine.