EYE CANDY

Chapter I

Allison came into the room just as Lydia came out of the shower, towelling her hair.

"Oh, you're awake," the brunette said. "I was thinking we could go out for dinner tonight."

Lydia smiled. "Woke up just on time then."

"Nah, there's still time. I was just checking on you," Allison said, waving an arm. "But since you're already up we could head out early and then I can show you a place after."

"You pretty much want to show me every square feet of this town," Lydia joked. "Just let me get my hair dry and change to some nicer clothes."

"So where is this place you think I should really check out?" Lydia asked as they drove out of the lot in front of The English Village, a small diner which claimed to serve "the finest English-style fish and chips", backed up by Allison and apparently, Scott too. Lydia had been to England once when she was a little girl, and could not remember what the fish and chips there tasted like. But the food at The English Village really was good.

"It's called the Nemeton," said Allison. "And it's sort of like a pub-slash-cafe-slash-nightclub."

"And how exactly does that work?"

"In the day it's like a nice little watered-down starbucks, serving your morning coffee et cetera. In the evening the bar opens, they clear half the tables, and turn on the strobe lights," the dark haired girl explained. And they screen lacrosse games and some bigger baseball or NBA ones. Lacrosse is pretty popular here," she added.

Lydia frowned. "I'm confused. We're going to watch a sports game? Or are we going clubbing?"

Allison grinned. "That's the best part. On Friday nights the bar opens later and they have this little thing called 'Love Shots'. We're going speed-dating!" she sang. A little too enthusiastically for someone who had been in a serious relationship for a year.

When Lydia pointed out just as much, her friend simply laughed. "Sorry Lydia, I made a mistake. We're not going speed-dating. You are."

"That is ridiculous," Lydia responded calmly with her signature eye roll. Although in her head she had immediately shrieked "What?!"

"What's ridiculous is how long you've stretched your, I quote, 'short break from guys'," Allison said matter-of-factly. "Three years isn't short, Lydia. You've probably forgotten how to date."

"And the oh-so-romantic atmosphere of this little hybrid cafe club is going to help me relearn the all-important life skill which is dating?"

"You're gonna spend two and a half months here, Lyds. Two and a half months, with no work to distract you," Allison said. "Maybe you'll meet a really cute guy, one who is actually nice this time, and you can write about it for your blog."

"Haha. I doubt desperate guys drooling over my body are aesthetically pleasing enough to be 'eye candy'," the redhead deadpanned.

Allison laughed and pulled into a row of public lots at the side of a street. "Just because you've always attracted the crappy ones doesn't mean there aren't decent guys in the world. And maybe you've already run out of bad guys. I promise, if you don't meet at least one nice guy tonight, lunch is on me tomorrow."

One guy in, and Lydia was already holding Allison to that lunch. She sat across a polished wooden circular table from a Peter who was probably a generation older than her. Well, the (surprisingly large amount of) people who showed up for some 'Love Shots' covered a pretty vast age range, so Lydia was unfazed when an older man got to her table. She had figured he was here for the older ladies.