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Charlotte walked through the cider bar, her gaze darting around as she looked for her sister. Fortunately, it appeared Julie wasn’t working tonight.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, Charlotte took a seat at her friends’ table on the patio. Sierra and Amy were already there.
“Hey!” Amy said. “I haven’t seen you in a while. I can’t believe I couldn’t come last time. Sounds like it was exciting!”
“Yeah, I guess it was exciting,” Charlotte said mildly.
The table next to them was loud. Dammit. She might get a headache that had nothing to do with caffeine withdrawal.
“So, how were your practice dates?” Nicole asked, sliding into the seat beside Charlotte. “You told me you went on two, but you didn’t give any details. And I want details.”
“Dinner was fine, and then we went to a baseball game last weekend.” Charlotte shrugged, but she expected her friends wouldn’t be as calm.
“He took you to a baseball game?” Sierra’s loud voice rivaled the volume of the table next to theirs. “You haven’t been to the Roger’s Centre since—”
“That’s right. But it turned out okay. I enjoyed myself.”
Sierra, Nicole, and Amy all gave her skeptical looks.
Luckily, the server came around to take their orders, but as soon as he was gone, Nicole said, “You enjoyed yourself? You weren’t thinking about Brad?”
“Oh, I was. But I told Mike about it, and then, I dunno, it was okay. We even witnessed a proposal at the game. Unlike me, she said yes.” Charlotte chuckled at the memory.
“I think she likes him, don’t you?” Sierra turned to Nicole.
“Yeah, I think so,” Nicole said.
“No,” Charlotte protested. “I don’t like him...that way. He’s my friend. Sure, he’s attractive, but—”
“I think you do like him that way,” Amy said.
“And you actually told him about Brad and had a good time at a Jays game,” Sierra said. “That has to mean something.”
Charlotte shook her head. “I assure you, it means nothing. Except that we’re friends.”
“And you think he’s super sexy and want to sleep with him,” Nicole added.
“I said no such a thing.”
“It’s in your facial expression.”
Charlotte schooled her face into a scowl.
“You should date him for real,” Sierra said. “As I told you last time. None of this practice date nonsense.”
“But he’s helping me with dating,” Charlotte said. “He really is. It’s good for me to be comfortable spending time one-on-one with a guy. I’m feeling much better about the prospect of dating now. I’ve discovered that not all men are colossal jerks, but I’m not interested in him, I promise. He’s a good teacher.”
“Mm-hmm.” Nicole still sounded skeptical. “What has he taught you?”
“How to sexily bite my bottom lip, for example.”
“Julie and I were the ones who taught you that.”
“But I didn’t practice with you, and when I went to try it with Mike, I bit my top lip instead.”
Nicole burst into laughter. “And then he set you straight?”
“Yeah, he spent a while teaching me how to do it properly.”
“You didn’t need Mike for that. I could have provided further assistance if you’d asked.”
“I bet he enjoyed watching you bite your lower lip,” Sierra said. “It probably turned him on, and that’s why he was happy to practice.”
Nicole nodded. “Did he give you kissing lessons, too, Charlotte?”
Charlotte hesitated. “No.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“No, really! He didn’t. He just kissed me on the cheek after our first date.”
“And by ‘kissed me on the cheek,’ you mean, ‘stuck his tongue down my throat’?”
Charlotte attempted her best death glare.
“Sorry,” Nicole said. “You’re too much fun to tease. I’ll stop, but it does seem as if you like him, and I always thought this plan to practice dating was foolish.”
“Where’s Rose?” Sierra asked. “She’s not here to defend her idea. Not that she thought Charlotte should go on practice dates with Mike, but the love lessons were her suggestion.”
“Rose is on holiday with her family for the long weekend, remember?”
Their ciders arrived, and Charlotte contemplated going on holiday with her own family...and immediately drank a third of her cider.
She hadn’t particularly enjoyed family vacations as a kid. Her parents had insisted on cross-country road trips so they could see as much of Canada as possible, but Canada was a freaking enormous country, and being trapped in a car for days with her parents and little sister had not been her idea of fun.
And now? It would only be worse.
“I can’t imagine going on vacation with my family,” Sierra said, voicing Charlotte’s thoughts. “My parents would spend the entire twelve-hour car ride or plane trip critiquing my life choices, from my job to my clothes.”
“Cam and I travel together,” Nicole said, “but with our parents, it would be weird. They wouldn’t enjoy having us around anyway, since they like to be able to make out whenever they want. But it’s different for Rose.”
They all nodded and were silent for a moment.
“Anyway,” Sierra said, turning to Charlotte, “when are you and Mike going on your next ‘practice’ date?” She used air quotes around “practice,” which Charlotte decided to ignore.
“Tomorrow.”
“Where are you going?” Amy asked. “If you need ideas for dates, I have tons.”
“He has something in mind,” Charlotte said.
“He’s putting a lot of effort into these practice dates,” Sierra said. “Very interesting.”
Charlotte threw up her arms in exasperation. “Can we talk about something other than my practice boyfriend?”
“Now he’s your practice boyfriend, not just your practice date?”
“Did he like the outfit I picked out for you?” Nicole asked.
“I asked him if it was acceptable,” Charlotte said, “and he said yes.”
“I’m sure ‘acceptable’ was the word he used.”
He’d said “beautiful,” something she doubted she’d forget, but she wasn’t giving her friends any more ammunition.
“Alright,” Amy said, “I’ve got a question to ask you all about my wedding favors.”
Amy pulled out her phone, and Charlotte shot her a grateful look.
Her friends hadn’t gotten to tease her about men for many years, and it appeared they were making up for lost time, just because she was dipping her toe back into the dating game.
She hated to think of how much they’d tease her when she went on a real date.
* * *
“How was your date the other week?” Mason asked. “Did she like Anne’s?”
“Yeah.” Mike took a sip of his beer. “It was a good spot for a first date. Thanks for the rec, by the way.”
It was the Saturday of the August long weekend, and he and Mason were at a bar in the west end. Drinking beer, talking about nothing in particular. There was a baseball game on the TV above the bar, and it made Mike think of Charlotte.
“She objected when I ordered semi-sweet cider. And pizza with cantaloupe on it.”
“Pizza with cantaloupe, eh?” Mason said.
“And prosciutto and ricotta cheese.”
“That does sound good. Maybe I’ll make some tomorrow. Got nothing else to do, and I always wanted to try making pizza dough from scratch.”
Mike shook his head. “Why? It’s so easy to buy pizza. You don’t have to fiddle with yeast.”
“I don’t understand why people are so scared of yeast.”
“I’m not afraid of it. Just don’t see the point in using it myself. Like I don’t see the point of this.” Mike flicked Mason’s toque.
Mason laughed. “Don’t you dare insult my toque.”
“I’ll stop with the insults when it’s November, I promise.”
“So, you like this woman, even if she doesn’t approve of fruit on pizza.”
“Yeah, it’s going well.”
Mike wasn’t going to tell Mason the truth about Charlotte and how she wanted dating lessons. He didn’t want to seem too weird.
“You got another date lined up?” Mason asked.
“Tomorrow night.” Mike paused. “Cody’s up at the cottage with his parents for the long weekend. Why are you in the city?”
“To hang out with you and make pizza from scratch, what else? But seriously, my parents are in Europe right now, so I can’t go to Guelph to visit them, and the weather’s not supposed to be nice for the rest of the weekend anyway.”
Mason didn’t ask about Mike’s family. He might wear toques in the peak of summer and have questionable taste in ice cream—and seriously, who had questionable taste in ice cream?—but he was a good guy who didn’t try to push Mike’s boundaries.
A few years ago, Mike had told his friend a little about his past. I had a fucked-up childhood and needed to spend years in therapy. I no longer talk to my parents because all they do is make me feel bad about myself.
Mike wasn’t interested in sharing more than that.
No, he’d rather talk sports and food. He had a good life now, and his past didn’t affect him much anymore.
Aside from the fact that you’ve never really had a girlfriend.
Mike looked up at TV and remembered how hard Charlotte had laughed when they’d witnessed that proposal at the ballgame.
Tomorrow. He would get to see her again tomorrow. At Nautilus.