The Blind Date by Landish, Lauren (suggested reading .txt) 📕

some friends-with-benefits action. But they’ve done that countless times and it’s never been awkward like it has been lately.

“Oh, I’m so busy these days working extra shifts because we’re short-handed around here, so when I get an evening off, I want to eat and sleep so I can repeat it all the next day.”

“Nobody special filling your bed then?” I pry.

“Nope. No one special. Just me and my buzzy buddy, and most of the time, I’m too lazy to even manage that.”

Arielle starts moving faster to finish the puddings. If there’s one thing she’s not, it’s lazy. Something’s rotten in Denmark, but if she’s not ready to talk about it, I’ll respect that. For now. But mentally, I set a timer to gently push for more info because while she’s the protector of the group, I’m the cheerleader. And if she needs a pep talk to ditch someone who’s not treating her well or to balls-up and speak her mind to someone who’s caught her eye, I’m damn good at those.

“All right, let’s get some damn rice puddings done. If we miss the three o’clock snack time, it turns into Dawn of the Almost Dead out there!” Arielle warns as she lines a serving cart with the raisin-bedazzled rice puddings. One of the raisins falls to the floor as we move them, and Arielle curses. “Shit. Grab me another one. I can’t risk the fallout of only four.”

I laugh and add one more piece of wrinkly fruit to the shortened bowl. “Who knew raisins were such serious business?” I tease.

“Everything around here is serious business,” Arielle retorts.

Chapter 6 Noah

R: Happy Tuesday!

I glance at the timestamp and feel my lips spread in a smile. Rachel sent this twenty minutes ago when I was in the shower. Then again, that’s what we’ve done for the past three days. We have a long, drawn-out conversation that’s mostly punctuated with ten- and fifteen-minute gaps for the whole day before we text each other to sleep.

I can’t help but notice that I’ve been smiling a lot more these last few days too. So much so that people at work noticed yesterday. I heard two people in the break room joking that it was weird and scary for me to be happy, musing about what might make an uptight asshole like me smile. Their best guess seemed to be that I am either on drugs or I’ve finally gone off the deep end and am going to show up at work next week with my hair dyed green and in clown makeup. But the truth is much more mundane. It’s her. Rachel. Every time my phone vibrates, I can’t wait to see what she says.

M: Good morning. You’re up early. I hope you slept well?

R: I did. At least until my dog licked my face, waking me up at six AM. Men!

M: I don’t blame him. I’m sure I’d do the same in his place . . . maybe with less tongue. Or maybe not? ;)

Fuck, is this who I’ve become? I smile, I use emojis, and I flirt via texts. Ironically, though I would’ve given River a hard time if he were doing this, it feels natural with Rachel. An easy progression of our conversations from bare-boned, get to know you questions to casual chats and flirty double-entendres.

R: I’m sure your wake-up call would’ve been preferable. As it was, Raffy was demanding a walk so he could pee. Which wouldn’t have been so bad except that he saw a squirrel and lunged at it, nearly climbing the single tree on the whole block and barking so loudly that it scared me to death. I almost wet my pants! And then my first-floor neighbor glared at me through the blinds despite my mouthed apology and friendly wave. The nerve! LOL

M: I’m picturing this now and laughing. With you, I promise. Not at you. Were you at least wearing something other than pajamas this time?

R: You already know I wasn’t! I’m out there in the dark, wearing slippers, shorts, and a sweatshirt that’s seen better days with bedhead bad enough to scare away any would-be attacker, holding a leash and pepper spray on my lanyard with all my jangling keys. You think maybe that’s why my neighbor was so freaked?

M: Perhaps.

R: Shoot, you’re right. Maybe I’ll leave an apology muffin at their door later. Is blueberry or chocolate chip more of an ‘I promise not to wake you up before dawn again’ flavor?

M: Hmm, good question. I think chocolate chip. Blueberry has more of a ‘get well soon’ vibe. All those fruit vitamins.

R: You’re right. Adding that to my to-do list for the day. How about you?

M: Off to work, and now I’m wanting a muffin for breakfast. I’ll probably go with cranberry-orange. A little tart, a little sweet. Like you.

R: <heart eye emoji> Talk soon. Think of me with every bite of that muffin.

I can’t message her again until nearly ten o’clock, but that’s okay. Rachel and I do this often, with our longer gaps almost serving as changes of subject.

M: That muffin was delicious. Mid-morning coffee fix next. How do you take yours? I’ll make mine a Rachel.

R: Aww. I like mine light and sweet, like melted ice cream. Four sugars and cream.

M: Uh, maybe I’ll stick with plain black, bitter and hot.

R: Fair enough, more sugar and cream for me!

M: How’s the morning work coming along?

R: Slow . . . need to come up with a good quote for perseverance. Got any suggestions? Nothing I’m finding is hitting the right note.

M: Atticus- ‘She was powerful not because she wasn’t scared but because she went on so strongly despite the fear.’

R: Whoa. That’s . . . wow. It’s perfect. And here I was expecting you to pull something by Vince Lombardi or something out of your brain. No offense.

M: None taken. Not to kill the spark, but I didn’t have that quote sitting on the front of my brain. I Googled it.

R: I appreciate the honesty! I’ve been Googling quotes all morning,