Page 37 of All for Love

MERCEDES

“Thank you so much for agreeing to do this,” Ellora gushed, tightening her grip on my arm as we walked down the block to the bowling alley. “I’ve been trying to score a date with Josh for weeks. Weeks!”

“Weeks, huh?” I pretended to be shocked, letting my free hand fly to my chest and clutching it like I was about to have a heart attack. “That’s terrible. I can’t believe it’s been weeks.”

She laughed. “Enough with the theatrics. He lives in my complex and I see him all the time, so the weeks have felt like months.”

“I hear ya.”

Frankly, it’d been less than one full week since Sunday night, but it already felt like it’d been months. I could hardly blame her for being excited about scoring a date with a guy she’d been pining over for almost a month.

“Are you ready for this?” she asked, glancing at me as if she’d heard my thoughts. “I mean, this will be your first date after Kody. How are you feeling?”

“Excited,” I fibbed. “I told you I was done with him, right? He and I and the thing that never was are done. I’m moving on with…”

“Ben,” she supplied helpfully. “His name is Ben.”

“Right.” She’d told me that, but the only man’s name reverberating through my head was Kody’s. “How much do we know about this Ben?”

“Uh, that he’s single and Josh says he needs to get out and meet someone. You need to get out and meet someone too, so who knows? Maybe you’ll hit it off.”

“Maybe,” I said, but I doubted it.

Kody and I had to be done, but that didn’t mean I was ready to be. It also didn’t mean that I was ready to meet… Ben. Right. That’s his name. Remember it this time.

Ellora pulled me up short when we stopped in front of the bowling alley’s doors. “Are you sure?”

“No, but it doesn’t matter. I already said yes and you begged me to come, so here I am. It’s a little late to chicken out now.”

“True, but promise me you’ll give him a chance, okay?” She looked drop dead gorgeous in her jeans with a vibrant pink, drop shoulder cardigan and golden hoops in her ears, but right now, she also looked like she might just burst into tears. “Why do I feel like I already need to apologize?”

“You don’t,” I said, pulling back my shoulders and pasting on a bright smile. “Come on. Let’s go. You’ve had a crush on this guy for weeks and you’ve finally got a date with him. We don’t want to keep them waiting.”

I gave her arm a gentle tug and pulled her into the bowling alley with me. Come hell or high water, I was going to be a supportive friend tonight. This was about her and Josh, and while I couldn’t deny that Kody had been living in my brain, I was going to keep an open mind about this Ben character.

Who knows? Maybe we really will hit it off.

I’d never been to this particular bowling alley before, and as soon as we walked in, I was assaulted by the scent of old beer, sweaty socks, and floor wax. It did not bode well for the night ahead, but I ignored it, determined to remain cheerful for Ellora’s sake.

“Do you see them anywhere?” I asked over the music blaring from the speakers.

She rose up on her tiptoes, searching the Friday-night crowd for our dates. I knew when she spotted them because she suddenly went stiff at my side. Her hand shot into the air to wave and a wide grin spread on her face.

Trepidation brewed in my gut, but I clung to the notion that blind dates had gone well before—for other people—and tried to convince myself that this was a good thing either way. Kody lived in my mind, but he would never live in my house.

There was no possibility of a future there, and I had to get over it by any means necessary. The dude had been nice to me exactly once and he’d given me a few fantastic orgasms. That wasn’t the stuff dreams were made of.

Ben could be just what I needed, a breath of fresh air to clear my head and remind me that there was more to life than a dick who was good with his. I allowed myself to bask in the realm of possibility as Ellora pulled me through the crowd, but I came crashing back down to reality as soon as I saw the man I’d been pinning my hopes on.

Ellora ran to a tall, well-built guy with neatly trimmed black hair and pretty hazel eyes, so I was assuming the lanky guy next to him was Ben. Josh gave my friend a warm hug, and while they bent their heads together to talk, I surveyed the guy I would be bowling with, and he did the same to me.

Ben was no Kody, but he wasn’t unattractive. With sandy, light brown hair and big brown eyes, he was probably bordering on about six feet and he was quite lean.

What had made me crash back to reality wasn’t so much about his looks as his vibe. His smile. Every woman knew that feeling you got when you laid eyes on a guy and your skin started crawling as alarm bells went off in your head.

Ben was one of those guys. There was nothing in particular that made me feel that way, but his smile was off and all the bells were going off in my brain. That smile widened as he stepped forward and extended his hand.

“Mercedes, right? I’m Ben. It’s nice to meet you.”