17 DATES

CHAPTER 7: failed dates and rocky friendships

"Did he tell you about his star wars lego collection?" He snorted, taking a skip of his tea. His eyes dropped down to the space beside Ruby on the bench, debating if he should sit down. Ruby noticed, but didn't say anything.

"Nothing about legos, though I think that's not a dealbreaker."

"I see. He kept all of the skeletons in the closet for the first date. Tell me then why it didn't work out." His eyes did that blinking thing, where he blinked five times without a break.

The date with Aidan was amazing. They went to a gallery opening and had a light conversation about nothing in particular. Somehow, they also got lost in space, because they forgot to take a map when they bought the tickets.

"You have to follow a map in a gallery? Where did you go?"

"It was one outside of town. Honestly, it wasn't that huge, but it was almost like an Ikea with all of the turns, it got confusing."

They even took a couple photos of each other in front of different paintings, which were a bit too modern for Ruby with blobs of red and lines of green. While they were staring at a painting of gold, gray and black which presented nothing else than triangles and shapes that looked like a deformed dog, they started to speak about their families. He told her his mother and father were traveling Africa, enjoying their retirement and spending all of the money they had managed to win in a casino in Las Vegas on their anniversary.

The trouble came when a group of guys stopped by them when they were walking toward her apartment. Aidan shifted on his feet, already giving Ruby a bad feeling that sunk into her stomach. He jumped forward and hugged each of them, before he introduced her as his cousin.

"Wait, what?"

"He said I was his cousin, visiting from Norway. I was so shocked, I only nodded. It was so embarrassing."

"For him, yes! Why the hell would Aidan lie?" Flynn took three steps toward Phoebe and sat beside her. He placed the empty cup beside his thigh and crossed his arms to protect himself from the cold.

"The real question is, why didn't you tell me he had a girlfriend?"

"He does?"

"She has these gorgeous pink curls and striking eyes. I'm pretty sure she escaped from a page out of a children's book about fairies." She thought back to meeting the girl after Aidan's friends joined them. She looked ethereal and was one of the nicest people Ruby had met. Thinking back to it, a deep sinking feeling of regret hit her. She should have told the girl he was cheating on her.

"Oh, I thought she was his sister. I'm pretty sure he introduced her as his sibling."

"In front of her?" Her face scrunched up, reminding Flynn of a raising. He chuckled.

"No, he didn't stoop so low before me."

"Let's forget about Aidan, the cheating prat. What about Lana Peters?"

He sighed. Going out with Lana Peters was different for Flynn. He didn't have to pretend to be anyone else and definitely didn't have to pretend to like her. Something about her was different, but he didn't like it, because he liked her.

"She's sweet, definitely not a girl for someone like me."

"Isn't that someone you wanted?" she asked. "I thought Lana would be perfect for the album."

If Flynn jumped into a relationship with her, he would hurt her or he would have to change. And for a girl like Lana, he would try to change. For Lana, he would settle down in a rural place, buy a house with a big porch and own a golden retriever. They would have three kids, each one with a unique name that would make other kids make fun of them in school. Just like Ruby, everything that Lana thought, showed up on her face. She was the kind of girl who jumped into love and admired the way the feathers felt against her back when she landed.