Ashley Elston - 10 Blind Dates

Wes nods. “Those games are fun.”

“Not gonna lie, out of all the dates I thought Camille would pick for me, hockey is the absolute last thing I would have guessed.” Aunt Camille’s complete and utter love of animals is a well-known fact, so I would have put money on this date taking place at a shelter.

“So do you go to their games?” I ask. I want to kick myself when I hear the breathless way I asked him that. I need to have a serious talk with myself.

“Sometimes. My dad’s company is one of the sponsors.” He looks at me a second and then adds, “Maybe I’ll see if Olivia and Charlie want to go.”

Before I can even think about how big of a distraction that will be, Charlie and Olivia come bounding through the back kitchen door. Speak of the devil(s).

“So you send a text that says your date might murder you, and then we don’t hear anything until you text from Wes’s phone,” Olivia says. “Definitely going to need some details.”

I hold up a hand and shush her. “Tonight has been…interesting.”

“So what happened?” Charlie asks as he steals my plate and finishes off my pie.

Wes tells them everything before I get a chance. Charlie nods knowingly. “I told y’all. Evil.”

“Yes, Charlie. I will never doubt you again.”

“Of all the ways I thought ‘dinner and a movie’ could go wrong, that one never occurred to me.” Olivia moves closer to the board, then spins around with wide eyes. “Oh yay! Let’s go, too! Wes, get tickets from your dad,” she says. “Maybe we can sit close together!”

Yeah. It’s going to be very distracting.

The breakfast crowd has left, Nonna is upstairs getting ready for church, and Papa is taking a midmorning nap in his chair in the living room, so I thought this was the perfect, quiet moment to catch up with Addie.

“So Griffin dropped off a gift for me,” I tell her.

“What was it?”

“Hold on, I’ll send you a pic.” I take the bracelet out of box and put it on so that the letters lie against my wrist. I snap a pic, then send it to Addie.

“Did you get it?”

She’s quiet a second, then asks, “Is that y’all’s initials?”

“Yep.” I read her the note that came with it.

“Huh,” she says.

“Is it weird?”

“Well, it’s weird because it sounds like he got it for you after you broke up with him. And it’s also kind of ugh that he waited until the day before Christmas to buy your gift.”

I think about the wrapped gift under our tree at home with his name on it that I bought three weeks ago.

The kitchen door opens and closes, but I don’t get up. I’m shocked when I see Wes standing in the door of the family room.

“I’ll call you back in a minute,” I say to Addie, and end the call before she can ask why.

“Hey,” I say. “What’s up?” Is my voice too loud? I think it’s too loud. Between eavesdropping on his conversation with Charlie in the car and his coming to my rescue last night, I officially feel awkward around him.

He drops down beside me on the couch and holds out a small tube of lip gloss. “I think this fell out of your bag. Found it in my truck this morning.”

“Oh! Yes, that’s mine!” Yep. Too loud.

I reach out to take it, and he glances down at my wrist. Before I can stop him, he holds my hand up high enough so he can study it. “Is this new?”

And I see the moment he realizes what the charm is.

“Yeah,” I answer.

He lets my hand fall.

“Well, anyway. Just wanted to get that back to you. And check on Margot and Anna.”

He’s closed off now. I want to chuck this bracelet across the room. It’s like Griffin marked me with this thing.

“Margot and Anna are about the same. I talked to her earlier and she sent a few more pictures,” I say. “Mom said they’ll be in the hospital a bit longer, but that’s normal, since she’s a preemie.”

Wes nods and stares off into the distance.

“Were you able to get tickets to the hockey game?” I ask.

He nods, still not looking at me. “Yeah, Dad had some tickets they weren’t using.” He gets up from the couch and moves toward the door. “Well, I guess I’ll see you there.”

I want to say Please come back or I think this bracelet is weird or any number of things, but all that comes out is “Okay.”

At some point while I’ve been staring at the door, Nonna turns up all dressed for church.

“Well, I’m off. Be back shortly.”

I hop up from my chair. I need a distraction. “Wait!” I say, and Nonna stops at the back door. “Give me a few minutes to change. I’m coming with you.”

The church is old and big and really beautiful. We squeeze into an open space three rows back from the altar. I stare straight ahead, waiting for things to get started, but Nonna twists around in the pew, checking out who’s here like she’s taking roll.

I lean closer and whisper, “Who are you looking for?”

Her gray hair tickles my cheek. “This is the perfect place to scope out boys. That’s what you need, a good boy who goes to church on Sunday.”

And now I want to run for my life. She’s trying to set me up in church?

“Oh look,” she says, loud enough to get everyone’s attention in the rows around us. They all swivel around to see what she’s pointing out. “Shirley’s grandson is sitting with her, and he’s grown up into a fine-looking young man.” Nonna nudges me. “Sophie, what do you think about him?”

And now everyone is trying to check out Shirley’s grandson. I cover my face with my hands so no one can see it turn bright red.

The woman sitting in front of us leans over the pew. “He’s staying with her because he got kicked out of school for drugs,” the woman says. She whispers the word drugs so quietly I can barely hear it.

“Oh, well, that won’t do,” Nonna says.

Peeking through my fingers to watch this train wreck, I see the woman stretch even closer. I’m afraid she’s going to topple right over into our laps. “Have you seen my grandson, Thomas? He’s a nice boy!” Her head nods dramatically to the guy sitting next to her, who looks as freaked out as I am. I give him my very best I’m sorry our grandmothers are so embarrassing look.

He nods and turns back around.

Nonna pats the woman on the shoulder and says, “Fine-looking boy!”

Thankfully, the organ music swells and fills the room, and the rest of Nonna’s words are drowned out by the choir in the balcony above us.

I’m at the kitchen table while Nonna stands at the stove, making a big pot of spaghetti, and it’s the calm before the storm. By noon, everyone will be here for Sunday lunch.

“Those two are getting ridiculous,” Nonna says, pointing to the date board. Uncle Sal and Uncle Michael are still fighting over who gets to pick the date for date eight. There is sticky note over sticky note, each of them trying to get his name on top.

“You’re going to have to make a ruling on that, because I’m not going on two dates in one day.”

Nonna clucks her tongue. “It’ll work out.”

She goes back to cooking and I go back to waiting for Addie to text me.

There’s a soft ping when Griffin’s name appears on the screen, and my belly does a flip. I haven’t heard from him at all since Christmas Eve.

I swipe open his message.

GRIFFIN: Did you get the gift I left for you?

I started a thank-you text to him a dozen times but never pressed SEND. Mainly because I’m not sure what to think about the gift.

ME: I did. Thank you. When did you drop it off?

GRIFFIN: Drove back over Christmas Eve but no one could find you so I left it with your grandmother

We had probably already left to go see Margot and Anna. That must be why Nonna knew we were gone.

GRIFFIN: Just want to tell you again I’m ok with you trying to figure out how you feel but I’m also glad I haven’t seen any more pics of you with other guys

I don’t have a response for this. And then I can’t help but laugh when I think about what a pic from my date last night with Nathan would have looked like. Maybe one of us in his truck with the fast food spread out across our laps and scenes from the X-rated movie playing in front of us? Or maybe I should have posted one of me and Alma with the array of adult toys behind us?

But what’s really killing me about Griffin’s text is the fact he’s okay with me going on these dates. Part of me doesn’t care if he’s okay with it or not — this is about me, not him. And the other part of me wonders, if I were really in love with someone, would I be okay seeing them go on dates with someone else?

Thankfully, I’m saved from responding when Nonna asks me to take the garlic bread out of the oven.

Within minutes, people start streaming through the back door, and the noise level increases by 1,000 percent. I’ve given some thought as to how I’m going to act when I see the Evil Joes, but I’m not prepared when Aunt Maggie Mae and Uncle Marcus come in the door with only Jo Lynn. I keep staring at the door, waiting for Mary Jo, but she never shows.

“Okay, something is weird,” Olivia says behind me. “They are always together. Like, always.”

“I know,” I say.

“And I had this speech all worked out! I was going to really give it to them for what they did to you last night.”

Before I can tell her not to worry, Charlie skids into the room and stops right in front of us.