The brunette suddenly looked unsure of herself, as if she actually did feel like she was being judged by others.
“There’s that famous subtlety,” I joked, winking at Cat. I then hurried over to get some food.
Chapter 12
Getting something to eat turned out to be like swimming in shark-infested waters. Although all of them were attractive, Capri’s friends were as blunt and straightforward as she was in terms of speech.
“Wow,” one of them said as I grabbed a plate and started getting food. “He’s really cute.”
“He’s a little young – even for you, Amanda,” said another.
Keeping my back to them, I continued piling food onto my plate, acting as if I couldn’t hear them.
“I’m not thinking about him for me, dingbat,” Amanda retorted. “I’m thinking he’d like to meet my daughter, Kayla.”
“Sorry, ladies,” I heard Capri announce. “He’s not on the market.”
“What does that mean?” asked someone whom I’m sure was the brunette from earlier. “Has Cat staked her claim?”
“Not exactly,” Capri said.
“Then he’s fair game,” Amanda declared.
“He’s not interested,” Capri insisted.
“Why don’t we let him decide that?” Amanda suggested. “Once he sees Kayla, I think his interest will be piqued, and I just happen to have a pic–”
“Huh?” I suddenly yelled in the direction of my friends. “Okay, I’ll be there in a sec.”
I then made a beeline for Cat and the others, practically leaving a dust trail behind me. However, something on my face must have shown what occurred, because Smokey took one look at me and started laughing.
“You looked flustered,” he noted. “Did something happen?”
“Yeah,” I responded as I took a seat. “Apparently there’s some kind of male auction going on here, but nobody told me about it.”
The others laughed heartily at that.
“If it’s any consolation,” Smokey said a few moments later, still grinning, “the same thing happened to me.”
“It’s not,” I assured him, causing another round of laughter (which I joined in). Then, without further ado, I began eating.
***
The food was delicious. Assuming that Cat knew what was best, I had followed her lead and gotten the waffles (among other things), and found them to be fantastic. In fact, I ended up going back for seconds, as did Smokey.
Afterwards, we all just sat around and talked. As at the diner, it was great to just hang out with other people and engage in lighthearted chitchat. Plainly speaking, too many of my conversations involved weighty matters, whether it be forced engagements, interstellar empires, or nefarious supervillains.
Also, despite everyone’s best efforts, we all somehow got suckered into another bet by Vestibule. In essence, after she herself and then Smokey received almost back-to-back phone calls, Vestibule proposed that we see how long we could go with our cell phones completely off.
The bet was only for bragging rights, but it added a comedic element to the conversation, because – without fail – someone would invariably reach for their phone every few minutes, if only to check for text messages. Fortunately, a person was only out of the running if they actually turned their phone on. Still, it was hilarious watching someone reach for and look at a device simply out of habit when they empirically knew it was turned off.
Ultimately, the phone game came to a premature end when Capri yelled in our direction, telling Cat that her father had been trying to reach her and kept getting shunted to voicemail. Calling off the bet seemed the only fair thing to do as Cat grabbed her phone and stepped away for some privacy. It was apparently a quick call, however, as she returned maybe a minute later.
“Everything okay?” Vestibule asked.
Cat nodded. “Yeah. He was just confirming that I still wanted to go with him for ‘Take Your Daughter to Work Day.’”
“Do you?” inquired Smokey.
“Of course,” Cat shot back immediately. “I love my dad, and we always have a great time together. I get my sense of humor from him.”
She looked as though she wanted to say more, but was interrupted by her mother shouting at us once again.
“Hey!” Capri yelled, getting our attention. “Come join us.”
I could see that she and her friends were now moving as a group towards the pool. Was she asking us to get into the water with them?
Trying to get clarity, I stood and shouted back, “What was that?”
“We’re getting in the hot tub,” she explained. “You guys should come join us.”
Caught flatfooted by her statement, my mind wasn’t even capable of forming an answer. Even though I knew empathically that none of the women had any romantic interest in me or Smokey, I was suddenly both enticed and a little intimidated by the idea of being in a hot tub with a bunch of beautiful women. Thus, I simply stood there watching as Capri and her friends all slipped into the bubbling water, laughing.
“Come on,” one of them shouted in our direction. “We don’t bite…much.”
This caused a round of raucous laughter to erupt from all the women. I spent a moment trying to come up with a witty reply, but apparently Cat interpreted my silence as me considering the offer.
Reaching out, she latched onto my wrist and hissed, “Don’t you dare.”
Her tone was both playful and forceful at the same time. She tugged slightly on my arm, and – taking the suggested hint – I sat back down. Cat then released her grip on me, but I now found myself staring at her.
Noting my attention, she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come off as bossy or anything. It’s just that the last time I had friends over and they got in the hot tub, Mom embarrassed them so badly that they never came back. Don’t read too much into this, but I like you guys, and I don’t want her to run you off.”
“That’s not likely,” I uttered in a monotone, then finally tore my eyes away from her.
Apparently, Cat had thought I’d been staring because she’d been a little high-handed.
