Page 30 of My Big Fat Shifter Wedding

“Good point!”

“Olivia! You’re there, right? I’m sure I saw your car in the driveway!”

“Actually, Olivia’s not home,” Rolando said with a bit too much panic in his voice, although I appreciated the effort. I swung one leg out the window, looking down the house to figure out the path of least resistance to my car.

I supposed I could jump down—I was a shifter after all—but I wasn’t willing to take the pain, even if I was likely to heal before my date. Plus, I wasn’t sure my heels could take that kind of impact. So, I scoped out a way where I would drop a few feet down onto the balcony over our entrance, then clamber down the trellis between two sets of windows where hopefully I wouldn’t be visible.

“What? Oh, Rolando? If Olivia’s not here, why are you in her room with the door closed?”

The increasing panic on Rolando’s face would have been a lot more amusing if I wasn’t busy swinging my other leg out the window. However, I was grateful that I did get to hear the last of their conversation before I dropped down onto the balcony below.

“Uh… a prank?”

There was a pause, but only a slight one before Massimo’s plaintive pleas turned pleasant. “Sweet, dude. Lemme get in on it!”

Brothers.

I landed true with that thought, then shimmied down the lattice like I was in a nineties romcom. Finally, I made it to my car.

Somehow, I’d escaped the house without anybody noticing, so I wouldn’t have to mentally navigate around trying to lie about what I was doing. I loved my family, I really did, but I didn’t want to deal with any of them questioning where I was going, why I was going there, and who I was going with.

I pulled out quickly, before anyone could spot my headlights coming on in the rapidly approaching twilight, then headed toward the restaurant that Keith and I had agreed on. Part of me mourned the fact that we couldn’t do a traditional first date with him picking me up at my house, but I’d chosen to do it this way. There would be sacrifices and things we had to do a different way, but that didn’t mean they weren’t worth doing.

For the first time in many years, I was getting to experience a frivolous and titillating social interaction that was supposed to be a normal part of life. For me, however, it had been locked away behind a glass case, and it turned out I’d held the keys the entire time.

“Whatever happens, this is a good thing,” I told myself. Even if it blew up in my face, I would be that much richer, that much more experienced for trying.

And wasn’t that what life was all about?

Well, that and pasta, of course.

I was happy to see that while the parking lot wasn’t a ghost town, there were also plenty of spaces to choose from. I parked, then sent a quick text to Keith’s number that I had arrived. His reply came immediately, telling me he was already inside.

What a gentleman!

Or maybe my mental bar was just low because the men in my family, especially the younger ones, were regularly half an hour late to everything. It wasn’t unusual for some of my aunties to joke that their husbands would miss their own funerals.

Checking myself out in the mirror one more time, I fussed with my hair, reapplied my lip gloss, then texted a quick confirmation that I had arrived to both Rolando and Amanda. I didn’t even have time to lock my screen before the latter responded, her text so full of emojis that it was a bit like reading a comic book.

You go, go, go gurl. You got this! 10/10 Remember you are a phenom goddess gorgie slay diva~~~~

She wrote in such a curious combination of formal language and slang that it always threw me for a loop, but it was a loop I didn’t mind being thrown. She was fun, and she was the first adult friend I’d ever had outside of my family.

It was kind of sad when I thought about it, so I decided not to. Although I was ready to be chock-full of emotions, I didn’t want sadness to be one of them.

“Let’s start this off on the best foot we can,” I told myself before getting out of the car and marching into the restaurant.

Keith was waiting by the door, and I flushed when I saw a bouquet of flowers tucked into his large arm, a spray of color against the dark dress shirt and slacks that covered his impressive build.

“You look stunning,” he said softly as I approached, first opening the door for me, then handing me the flowers once I was inside.

I wasn’t going to lie, my parents had given me many lovely bouquets through major milestones in my life, but it was the first time I’d received flowers from a man who wasn’t related to me.

“Thank you,” I whispered. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed in the best way. It was just a first date, and yet Keith was dressed up to see me, had called me pretty, and had sunk at least sixty dollars into the impressive arrangement of miniature sunflowers, daisies, pink roses, carnations, tulips, and baby’s breath.

“Think nothing of it. I already had the hostess grab our table. Do you want to sit down?”

Boy, did I. My enhanced reflexes from being a shifter didn’t include endurance for standing in heels. My feet were already beginning to complain, and it had only taken a couple of minutes to walk across the parking lot.