Dinner

Kaylee never asked where I wanted to eat because there was no need to discuss it. We always ate at Jenny’s. It was a small family-operated place about ten minutes from school. The owner was a fantastic cook and her husband was funnier than hell. Best kept secret in town. They had a loyal group of regulars—of which Kaylee and I were proud to be a part of—that kept them comfortably in business. It was good that they weren’t too popular. The place wasn’t that big and it was often crowded as it was. Today, we were early enough to beat the dinner crowd.

Jenny’s face brightened when we walked in. “Welcome back you two! Take a seat wherever you’d like. Tom will be with you shortly.”

I followed Kaylee to a booth in the far corner away from the few people already here.

“God, I think I could eat everything on this menu right now,” she said, running her eyes up and down the menu. I smiled before looking at my menu. Not that it mattered. I always got the same thing.

“Chicken Parmesan,” I said when Tom came around for our orders.

Across from me, Kaylee wrinkled her nose. “Again? You do realize there is other food on the menu,” she said as she handed her menu to Tom before thanking him.

“Perhaps, but none are as delicious.”

“How would you know unless you try it?”

I shrugged. “I don’t. But why search for perfection when you’ve already found it?”

Kaylee shook her head slowly. “Oh, Scott. One day, I’ll get you to try new things.”

“Good luck,” I said with a snort.

She got a text, killing the flow of conversation as she checked her phone. Frowning, she started typing. For the next several minutes, we enjoyed a few minutes of silence as we retreated to our separate little worlds.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“Wrong? Not really,” she said, not taking her eyes from the glowing screen in front of her. “More an annoyance.”

“Oh?”

Her eyes lifted from the screen to meet mine. With a sigh, she put her phone face down on the table. “Guy troubles. What else.”

My gut roiled. I’d know her long enough to know she was antsy to get something off her chest. She was just waiting for the polite social cue before unloading. “Yeah?” I asked before taking a sip of my water. It was impossible to prepare for what was coming. Regardless, I pressed on. “Lucas?”

She blinked a few times, surprised. “Lucas?”

“Weren’t you two together?”

Letting out a soft giggle, she shook her head. “Oh no. I mean, we screwed a couple times, but nothing serious.” Of course not. Nothing was ever serious with Kaylee. Not that I was complaining. I was not looking forward to the day when a guy caught her attention and things got serious. I’d already lost a lot of ground to Zoe. Having a serious boyfriend in her orbit was going to bump me out even farther. “I’m talking about Sean.”

“Sean? As in Sean Dixon?” She nodded. “When was this?”

“Did I not tell you?” she said, tilting her head. “I could have sworn…” she muttered. “Anyways. Yeah. Two weeks now.”

“Wow.”

She smiled, driving a stake through my heart. It wasn’t often I saw that kind of smile on her. Amazing didn’t put it to justice. Shame it wasn’t directed to me. “I know. He is phenomenal in bed. Did you know that I’m able to have multiple orgasms?” she asked, leaning forward.

Surprise caused my eyes to widen. Of course I didn’t know that. I shook my head.

“I didn’t know either until the other day.” She sipped at her drink. “I damn near passed out. If this keeps up, he’s going to ruin sex for me with other guys.” Her lighthearted laughs were like shards of glass to my insides as I put on my smiling mask. I wanted to be happy for her, I really did, but listening to this was painful. I hated the way talking about it made her face light up. How she leaned closer to me, excitement filling her voice as she relived moments of lust and passion in her mind. The way her blue eyes held mine, preventing me from the escape I craved.

“Is that why you turned Steven down?”

“Hmm?”

“Steven asked you out, right?”

“Oh, right,” she said, losing a bit of her smile. “Always unpleasant to turn down a guy. He got a blowjob out of it, so it wasn’t like I sent him off with nothing.”

For some reason, my eyes wouldn’t leave her lips. Shaking unpleasant images from my mind, I **** my eyes to meet Kaylee’s. “You and Sean eh? Finally trying out the boyfriend thing?”

She hesitated, the smile fading completely. “I was thinking about it.” It was like the bottom fell out and a void swallowed my stomach. Shouldn’t have asked that question in the first place. “But I don’t know. It was the same with Steven. Great in bed, but there isn’t really anything more than that.” She gave a wistful sigh, propping her head up with her elbow. “I wish I was like Zoe. Her checklist is super simple. Is he hot? Check. Great in bed? Check. Good enough!”

“Please don’t say that. The world isn’t big enough for one Zoe.” I was rewarded with a laugh. This time, my heart was racing for another reason. “So, what are you looking for?”

Smooth. As if I couldn’t be more obvious.

She blew out a long breath, leaning back in her seat. “God I wish I knew. Sex is great, but basing a relationship off that seems like a waste. I know I’m lucky our school has a surprisingly balanced male-female ratio, but nothing ever seems right. It doesn’t help that we have a lot of C and B men in the student population limiting options.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Kinda pointless to date someone who’s going to get sucked up into the Population and Propagation Department after graduation. I’d hate to start something meaningful with someone, only to have them relocated across the country because some spreadsheet showed the national balance of fertile men was off. Plus, condoms suck and I’m not going to risk getting pregnant. No way am I going to miss out on all college has to offer because I have to balance being a student with being a mom.

“Problem is, everyone is looking to lock down an F, E, or D guy now. Once we get to college, competition is only going to ramp up. Less guys to go around at that level.”

Tom showed up with the food before I could say anything else. We ate a few bites in silence, enjoying our food. Kaylee was hungry because she seemed to devour her food—and my garlic bread I’d been saving for last. The little thief snatched it right off my plate. With a playful wiggle of her eyebrows, it disappeared bite by bite into her mouth.