Page 82 of Don't Be in Love

I checked my watch. “You’re early.”

“Am I?” he cocked an eyebrow.

“By a minute,” I confirmed.

“If I were a minute late, you would’ve left without me. I know you better than you think.”

“Well, I’m happy you got here on time. Wouldn’t want you to miss my birthday.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dare.”

“Surprise!” Cora, Evelyn, Jane, Beatrice, and Lottie cheered, standing from the restaurant table, spooking many of the elders dining around us in the jazz bar.

They all moved around their chairs and greeted me with a hug one-by-one, the pungent smell of sauce and cheese mixing with the smell of their floral perfumes.

“Don’t you look beautiful,” Cora commented, touching the hem of my black short sleeve mini dress and pointing to my knee-high leather boots that I had picked up from a sample sale years ago.

“The smartest twenty-two year-old in Britain.” Jane kissed me on the cheek, pushing Cora out of the way.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.” Evelyn and Beatrice squeezed my arms, scooting around Jane.

“Aw, those flowers are beautiful,” Lottie commented on the peonies in my hand, complementing Iris and Dotty.

“Oh, we didn’t do that,” Iris explained wide-eyed.

All of the women twisted, half-in, half-out of their seats.

“Well look who the cat dragged in.” Beatrice stood as Dorian walked in from paying the cab.

I leaned forward on the table. “Don’t make it weird,” I begged. “We’re sorta acquaintances now.”

“Acquaintances?” Jane gawked. “That can’t be right.”

The rest of them jumped in to say something, but I cut them short. “Please. You can say anything you want at December’s book club.”

“No funny business,” Dotty warned them before Iris pointed a finger at the lot.

Lottie rolled her lips in. “Fine.”

“We won’t say anything,” Cora held her hands up right as Dorian made his way to our table.

I caught the surprise on his face from the unexpected group of women. But he reeled it in.

“It’s nice to see you, Dorian,” Evelyn smiled kindly as everyone sat.

“You can say that again,”Jane mumbled. I shook my head praying he missed that.

“It’s nice to see all of you again,” he responded, pulling out two chairs, gesturing to the one on his right.

Oh.

I quickly accepted the seat before I could analyze the situation. With that, he sat beside me and listened intently to Lottie complain about her daughter’s new boyfriend. And then he laughed with Evelyn as she told stories about the time sheturned twenty-two. And he understood Cora’s complaints about the rising prices of oranges at the grocery store.

I was so focused on him that I forgot I was even here, and not just watching him from afar.

“Is this the first time you two have been out together?” Beatrice waved a finger between me and Dorian.

“Yes,” we lied as if we rehearsed it.