Greg arrives

Once they had enough photos, the girls sat Kyle down on the couch and started to pick out which ones should go on social media, and when. At first, they were very intent on keeping ‘Kylie’ involved in the choices, but as it went on, Darla, Melissa and Robin were practically ignoring Kyle. Which Kyle took as an opportunity to slip away for a moment, part of him still hoped that he might be able to gain salvation from Uncle Mark, but after their earlier discussion, he doubted it would work, even if he could find him. And he didn’t dare speak anything aloud for fear of MARCI misconstruing it and sending him through the auto-dressing sequence again, only for this barely tolerable outfit to be replaced with something worse. So he settled for resting his tired feet and sitting on the steps in the foyer, although finding a comfortable seated position in these shorts was quite difficult. It was in the midst of that endeavor where Melissa found him.

“There you are!” Melissa exclaimed. “We were wondering where you’d gone.”

“Yeah, I wanted to take a walk.” Kyle shrugged.

“Nervous?” Melissa asked, sitting down next to Kyle on the steps. “Don’t be, Greg’s a certified hunk.”

“You’ve met him?” Kyle replied.

“Met him? I dated him for a bit!” Melissa answered. “You can consider this a rite of passage, Robin did the same thing to Darla, too.”

Somehow, that didn’t make Kyle feel any better.

“I don’t know about this…” Kyle started.

“Trust me. He’s nice, a gentleman and a pheNOMenal kisser. Oh, but he’s a little corny, though. Laugh at all his jokes, even if they’re terrible.” Melissa cut him off. Then she lowered her voice and whispered into Kyle’s ear. “And he loves a girl who plays hard to get. He’s a romantic like that, loves a chase.”

“A chase?” Kyle repeated, with unpleasant imagery of being chased by Robin’s cousin playing in his head.

“Yeah, he doesn’t want a girl to just throw herself at him. He wants to feel like he accomplished something.” Melissa advised.

“Great…” Kyle muttered, as he heard the sound of quick footsteps reverberating in the foyer, followed by the appearance of Darla and Robin.

“He’s here!” Robin exclaimed.

As if on cue, although more than likely voice activated, the front door opened, revealing Greg. Based on what he’d been told about him, Kyle assumed that he’d be some scrawny nerd, I mean, why else would you need your cousin to be setting you up on dates? But he couldn’t have been more wrong. Greg was at least half a foot taller than Kyle, even in heels, with broad shoulders, a beard, and tanned skin.

“He’s a lifeguard during the summers…” Darla whispered in a sing-song voice.

“Hiya, cuz!” Robin exclaimed as Greg walked through the door. “You remember Liss and Darla, right?”

“Of course, nice to see you again.”

“You’ve got that right…” Darla bit her lip and twirled a lock of hair.

“Chill,” Melissa elbowed her in the rib.

“And you must be Kylie. You’re even more gorgeous in person.” Greg held out his hand.

“Nice to meet you…” Kyle tried to make eye contact, but felt self-conscious in front of the girls.

“Anyway, here are the tickets, and make sure to have her back at a decent hour,” Robin said, handing Greg an envelope and clearly joking about the second part.

“Tickets?” Kyle asked.

“You’ll see.” Melissa smiled and gave Kyle a pat on the shoulder as she placed the purse over it. “Have fun, you two!”

“Bye,” Darla waved suggestively as Greg motioned towards the door.

“Do you require assistance in ambulation, Mistress?” MARCI asked.

“No!” Kyle quickly rushed to catch up with Greg.

As the door closed, Kyle could hear giggling, and had no doubt that most of it was about him. Greg’s car was pretty stylish, which made sense if Robin’s extended family was similarly wealthy, and Kyle found himself admiring it as he climbed into the passenger seat.

“Shall we?” Greg asked, and Kyle nodded.

At first Kyle was silent, too nervous to speak, but he knew that could be construed as playing hard to get, acting uninterested, so he decided he had to say something.

“Where are we going?” Kyle asked. “The girls wouldn’t tell me, but they mentioned tickets?”

“Sounds like Robin, always gotta be melodramatic. It’s nothing special. The tickets are for…” Greg started.