“Yes. He’s a great kid. Not sure if Simon also mentioned that my husband died a couple of years back, so it’s been tough on Brendan, but he’s doing remarkably well considering.”
Before he could respond, we were interrupted by my date, Leah’s, arrival. I squinted. She looked familiar.
She flashed a smile as she looked over at me. “Oh my God. It’s you.”
“You know me?”
“Calliope’s friend.”
“I am.”
“I’ve seen you when you’ve come to visit our hot yoga class.”
That’s right. That was where I knew her from. I immediately realized she was the bony-assed one in class, too. Great.
Leah sat down, and the four of us made small talk until our food arrived. To be frank, from the get go, it was pretty clear this double blind date was a dud. I knew it. Bridget knew it. And If I were being really honest, it was hard to concentrate on anything besides how fucking stellar Bridget looked tonight. Her full lips were painted a hot shade of pink. She’d put waves in her hair, which I’d never seen her do before. It was down, but she’d pulled some of the honey brown strands back with a barrette at the front. That accentuated her green eyes. I’d normally marveled at how naturally beautiful she was with no makeup and bone straight hair, but I had to say, this look was working for me, too.
Really working for me.
Not to mention her strawberry creams looked damn good squeezed together with just a hint of cleavage showing.
She deserved better than this boring date with Alex Lard. He was a good man, but he wasn’t going to be the one to give her the earth-shattering orgasm she really needed.
Fuck. Don’t think about how sex-starved she is and how amazing it would be to make her moan for the first time in years.
Wouldn’t that have been the bollocks…one night of non-stop shagging with Bridget sans consequences, making her scream out over and over. Of course, that scenario was never going to be possible.
To deter from my clearly inappropriate thoughts, I decided to ask Leah the question.
“So, Leah. Question for you. If you could pick any animal to be, what would you select?”
“What a strange question.” She laughed. “But okay, let me think.” She scratched her chin with her long, fake nails. “I would have to say kitten. Because they’re so cute. And I love cats, in general.”
Bridget looked at me and was smirking. She knew that “kitten” was probably the only answer worse than Pomeranian. At least Pomeranian was somewhat original.
“What a coincidence because Simon loves pussy,” Bridget joked.
I smiled at her mischievously. “That I do, Nurse Valentine.”
The remainder of the date was basically torture aside from Bridget and my flirtatious glances at each other. She’d done nothing to really get to know Alex—he never stopped coughing—and Leah had lost me at “kitten.”
The dinner wrapped up on the early side, and we all left in separate cars with empty promises to “keep in touch” with our dates.
The second I got back to the house, I headed straight for Bridget’s living room.
She was already standing there waiting with her arms crossed. “Meow.” She laughed.
I shook my head. “Kitten. Just awful. Not to mention, you set me up with the one woman in the entire yoga studio with the flattest arse. Who doesn’t fill out spandex? That woman! Even Spandex are baggy on her. Probably a major starfish as well—although I don’t intend to find out.”
“I didn’t choose those things intentionally, Simon. I don’t have a lot of single friends. And you have some nerve talking to me about physical attraction right now. You knew I wouldn’t feel it for Alex Lard. So, why bother setting me up with him?”
“Look, he’s a nice guy. I couldn’t bear to fix you up with someone who might have even a remote chance of taking advantage of you.”
“Well, you got that part right…because Dr. Lard had zero chance of getting lucky with me tonight or ever. And what was with that cough?”
“I don’t know. It’s his thing. It’s bizarre.”
“I would prefer to go on dates where I don’t have to wear a mask to protect myself from germs.”
I belted out in laughter. “I know, Bridget. I fucked it up. You said you were going to do online dating, and that freaked me out a little. There are a lot of bad people out there.”
“Online dating is the only way to do it when you don’t have the time to go out every night. It’s very common now. Someone like you doesn’t have to resort to that because you have women falling at your feet.”
“Trust me, if you put yourself out there in any manner, you would have no problem finding a man. You’re extremely attractive.”
“Well, thank you, but you don’t have to say that.”