Ashley Elston - 10 Blind Dates

“That’s not much to go on,” I say, scanning the room. I don’t see Aunt Maggie Mae — or any member of her immediate family — anywhere.

“Yeah, you should use the card. Use it now,” Olivia says. “And why does your date start at four o’clock? Something’s weird.”

Nonna is already shaking her head. “Don’t do it, Sophie. At least see who she picks! What fun is canceling the night before?”

I spin around to face Nonna. “Because there is no way I want to go out with anyone Aunt Maggie Mae set me up with.” I don’t mention that whoever is picking me up was probably picked out by one of the Evil Joes, not Aunt Maggie Mae.

“You can still cancel in the morning. Don’t make any decisions tonight,” she says, then flees the kitchen before I can argue my way out of this.

Uncle Ronnie produces a white sheet of paper full of empty squares. He looks at the board, then back to the betting sheet. “I’m picking the four p.m. and the four fifteen blocks. I love a sure bet.”

I escape upstairs and call Mom. I haven’t heard much from her or Margot, but I know they’ve got a lot going on.

She answers on the second ring.

“Hey, Mom. How’s Anna?”

“She’s about the same. They’re watching her oxygen levels closely.” She sounds tired.

“Is that normal?”

“For a preemie, it is.”

“And Margot?”

She hesitates a second before saying, “She’s okay. Still very weak. She gets dizzy when she does too much, so we’re trying to get her to rest.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“She’s just overdoing it,” Mom assures me. “She’s promised to take it easy.”

We chat a few more minutes before Mom says, “It’s almost time for us to visit Anna. I’ll take a picture and send it to you.”

“Okay. If you can, kiss her for me.”

“Of course,” Mom says, and then she’s gone.

I hesitate a moment before heading back downstairs. I can’t help but feel like things aren’t as okay as she makes it sound.

You wouldn’t think a plant nursery would be busy the Monday after Christmas, and you’d be right. As much as Olivia and I try to talk her out of opening, Nonna’s adamant that we keep regular hours.

Only half of the employees are on duty, and they’re all just sitting around waiting for something to do. Olivia and I are at the front counter, praying a customer comes in to save us from the pit of boredom we’ve fallen into.

Nonna comes through into the front room. “Today all garden statues are half price. Hopefully we can get rid of all those ugly gnomes your grandfather bought from that salesman while I was out of town.”

“Those things are hideous. I’m not sure we could give them away for free,” Olivia says.

I look at Olivia. “I bet I can sell more than you.”

She raises that one eyebrow. “You’re on.”

Nonna taps her index finger against her chin. “Well, I have an extra gift certificate for Superior Grill left over. How about twenty-five dollars to whoever sells the most?”

Olivia and I high-five. It’s on.

Two hours later, I’m in the lead. With one sale.

Olivia is currently trying hard to sell one to an old man who came in for some fertilizer.

“Mr. Crawford, one of these would look adorable in your garden!” she says with way too much enthusiasm.

He looks like a deer caught in headlights. There is no way he wants that ugly thing, but he’s way too nice to say no to Olivia. Especially a persistent Olivia.

She finally wears him down and does a victory dance the second he leaves with a statue tucked under his arm.

“We’re tied now!” she says.

“Yeah, but there’s a good chance he was our last customer for the day.”

“Then we should spend our time wisely — checking out the guys who work here. Papa has to pick someone for Nonna’s party, and they’re practically the only people he knows.”

This makes me sit up a little straighter. I’ve been so worried about Nonna’s pick on New Year’s Eve, I haven’t given any thought to Nonna’s party. So now I’m scanning every guy who walks past us.

And because we’re on a skeleton crew today, there aren’t many options.

“Randy, Jason, Chase, and Scott are the only guys here today, and two of them are married. And I’m pretty sure Chase is wanted by the law,” I say. “You’re going to have to talk to Papa. See if he needs help picking someone out.”

“At least the whole family will be at Nonna’s party. You probably won’t even have to hang out with the guy.”

I nod and pull out the schedule for the upcoming week to see who else is working. Olivia reads it over my shoulder.

“Wes and Charlie will be working on Tuesday,” she says.

“I see that,” I reply. Does she know things are weird between Wes and me right now?

Her chin rests on my shoulder. “Wes and his family are invited to the party, so it kind of makes sense if Papa picks him. But he probably knows y’all are just friends.”

Yeah, she has no idea where my head’s at with Wes. It’s probably best I didn’t mention the almost kiss.

“Are you worried about tonight?” she asks.

“A little. It’s Aunt Maggie Mae. I mean, why is our date starting at four?”

She swivels around and around on her stool, and I get dizzy just watching her. The door chimes, and we both look up, excited that we may have an actual customer. But it’s not a customer. It’s Olivia’s boyfriend, Drew, and Seth is with him.

“Looks busy today,” Drew says, then laughs. “We were close by and thought we’d pop in to see y’all.”

Seth leans against the counter. “Hey. How’s your sister?”

“She’s good,” I say. “My niece, too.”

Seth leans closer to me. “Good. I was worried when you told me what was going on.”

“Yeah, me too.”

There’s an awkward pause. “Well, let me know if you’ve got any free time while you’re still here,” he says.

I wait for the excitement that should be rushing over me — or even a little bit of a blush — but there’s nothing.

I think he can tell he’s thrown me, because he adds, “But I know you’ve got a lot going on.”

I’m relieved. Seth is a great guy, and I’d be dumb not to consider another date with him. But if he pressed me, I think my answer would be no, and I don’t know why or what that means.

“Maybe we can all go out again after this date thing is over,” Drew says. “Olivia said she’s not letting Sophie disappear on her again, so it sounds like we’ll be headed to Minden. Seth can come with us.”

This isn’t the first time they’ve mentioned this, and suddenly I can’t take it anymore. “I didn’t disappear on you.”

Olivia gives me a funny look. “We text some, but we haven’t hung out in months and months. Charlie says the same thing. You never want to come here, and every time we mentioned going there, you had some lame excuse. I’m not letting you get away with that when you go back home.” She wags a finger between her and Drew. “You’re stuck with us.” And then she points to Seth. “And you might be stuck with him, too.”

They laugh and Seth says, “Thanks for making this awkward.”

But I’m still trying to digest what she said.

Drew and Seth get ready to leave, and Olivia walks Drew to the door. I pull Seth to the side.

“So I have a favor to ask,” I say. “Is there any chance I can talk you into buying one of those garden gnomes?”

I point at the creepy little statues against the wall, and he looks stricken with fear at the sight of them.

“They look possessed.”

“They’re harmless. But Olivia and I have this bet going. Don’t let her see you with it until you’re out the door, or she’ll make Drew buy two of them.”

A few minutes later, Seth and Drew are headed to their car while Olivia and I watch them from the front porch.

Seth gets into the passenger seat of Drew’s car. Just before they pull away, he rolls down the window and holds up the gnome.

“What? No fair!” Olivia yells at him.

“Looks like I’m up by one!” I do a victory dance.

We head back inside — me at the counter, Olivia arranging the remaining gnomes — and within seconds my phone chirps.

“Oh no,” I say.

“What’s wrong?” Olivia asks. “Is it Margot?”

“No. I’ve been tagged in a post and I’m terrified to look at it.”

Olivia rolls her eyes. “Oh. That was me.”

My eyes get big. “I’m sitting right here. You didn’t want to show it to me first? Or, God forbid, ask me if I wanted you to post it?” My voice has gone to that awful screeching level.

“You would’ve said no,” she says with a huge smile on her face. “And I felt like we needed a distraction.”

“What did you do?”

Olivia shrugs and then squeals, “Oh! Here comes Mrs. Townsend! She’ll buy anything.” And then she’s gone, chasing after a little old lady who is wandering down the front walk.

I take a deep breath and swipe open my phone so I can see what kind of damage she did.

And there it is.

It’s a picture of the giant screen from the hockey game yesterday with the caption: Hot enough to melt ice! Hope @mudbugshockey can skate on water! And then there’s like ten flame emojis. Wyatt only kissed the edge of my mouth for point-two seconds, but the photo makes it look like we’re lip-locked for eternity. We’re framed by a big red heart on the giant screen, with lots of tiny little hearts all around the edges. If Wes didn’t see it in real time, he’ll for sure see it now.

Ugh.

And just like every other post, Griffin has been tagged in the comments more than once.