17 DATES

CHAPTER 7: failed dates and rocky friendships

"It is a bit funny, you have to admit." he shrugged and took a sip of his tea.

"Fine, it's hilarious. The dude was so weird and I knew that when I was going to text him that it wasn't going to work out, he was going to flip out."

A day after the date, the only thing Phoebe could do about it was laugh and write a polite text to reject him. She included the fact that she was busy with her first year of college into the short text she wrote. Not even a few hours later, he told her that she was never going to find a guy like him.

"Well, let's hope so," Flynn added.

"He also said that there were no good guys like him out there and that he was going to help me 'relax'. Whatever that meant." she shrugged. "What about your date with Nova?"

He groaned as an answer. In honesty, Flynn didn't want to tell her. A slight blush appeared on the apples of his cheeks. He turned to the side, because he didn't want to meet her eyes. The whole point of these dates was so that he could write an album about a girl.

"That's no answer. Was it that bad?"

"It was good, a bit short."

Ruby smiled, it didn't reach her eyes. Flynn noticed that her dimple didn't appear and the skin around her eyes didn't crinkle. Her arm tightened around her body.

"That's all?"

"Well, you know how it is. It felt kind of like your date with Richard. Nova's not the girl for me." He shrugged, pulling a muscle in his neck from the movement. He lifted a hand and rubbed it against the tight spot.

"Nothing interesting happened?"

"Nope. Nothing."

"You do know that she's the same major as me, right?"

"Yeah, she did speak about that." He didn't know where she was going with it.

"She speaks a lot. Especially about her one night stands." She leaned her head to the side, eyes slimming. She wanted to see how long he could go without telling her the truth. The answer, not long.

The pit of her stomach twisted. She placed a palm over it and tried to push the pain back where it came from. Was she jealous? No, she couldn't be. She finally admitted to herself that she found him attractive, but liking him? That would be a disaster.

"I'm a grown man!" He threw his hands into the air. "So what if I caved? She kept coming onto me and I haven't had sex since we started the deal!"

Ruby wanted to bite back at him. She didn't understand him. He acted as if not having intercourse was the worst form of torture imaginable.

"I'm not pimping out girls to you, Flynn Black. You said these were dates to find a girlfriend to make an album! How many songs do you have?" The feelings that clawed at her heart dispersed with a mere thought. Ruby was good at pushing away unwanted feelings, at least that's what she thought.

"Two." His answer was unclear. Ruby didn't know if he was lying or not. His eyes kept shifting away from hers, before they jumped to his feet. He was lying about something.

"Tell me about your fifth date. It was Aidan Landry, right?" He asked, already knowing the answer. Aidan was a good friend of Norman, his drummer. The guy always came to their concerts and once even stepped in for Drew when he fell ill and couldn't perform. From everything Flynn knew about him, Aidan was the complete opposite of Richard Hickman.

"Don't change the subject," she chuckled, releasing the tension around them. She did want to speak about her date with Aidan. The blue eyed boy wore a nice button down shirt and dress pants for their date. His personality was the complete opposite of his attire. He was extremely nervous, wiping down his palms on his pants every five minutes. In the middle of the date, he even grabbed her hand, shaking and careful.