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

“When he left, I was glad. I was relieved. He’d been this huge presence, sucking all the life out of our family. It was hard financially after he was gone. We struggled for food, to keep a roof over our heads. But for the first time, I wasn’t scared.”

Admitting the fear I held inside as a child is hard, even all these years later. I let out a shuddering breath, wiping the tears away and willing them to stop. I won’t cry over him. I didn’t then, and I certainly won’t now.

“Are you scared now?” River asks quietly.

“Fucking terrified. I don’t want to be like him, walking out when things get hard. And I damn sure don’t want people—don’t want Riley—to be glad when I walk away.”

River gets up, coming over to sit on the coffee table in front of me. With his knees spread wide and his elbows resting on his thighs, he looks me directly in the eyes.

“The last fucking thing Riley felt when you walked away was glad, or relief, or any of that shit. You’re not him. I don’t even know the fucker and I know that.” River’s reassurance seals over a fracture in my soul. If the person who has known me the longest and knows me best thinks I’m redeemable, there must be some shred of truth to it.

“Thanks, man,” I say, swallowing thickly.

River dips his chin. “Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, how about you tell me what the fight was about? Because I still don’t know, and I need to decide whether I’m going to kick your ass or not.” Even as he threatens me, I can see the hint of a smile ghosting across his lips.

I lean back in the chair, staring at the ceiling and replaying everything in my mind. “Honestly, I have no idea,” I say, resigned that whatever it is, it’s my fault.

“Start at the beginning.”

I look at him directly. “I love her. That’s the most important part. And loving Riley comes with . . . sunshine and Sunshine, if you know what I mean.” I do Riley’s cute little salute with my fingers below my chin, and River nods in understanding. “We went public on her page, which I get is a big fucking deal for her. It’s a big fucking deal to me too. People see that stuff, lots of people. People I didn’t even think about . . .”

“Like who?” River prompts, rolling his hand at the wrist in a ‘come on, out with it’ move.

“Elisa. She called me to her office today. It was a weird conversation, but basically, she knows that Riley and I met through BlindDate. And she had a proposal. Elisa wants to sponsor Riley, have her promote BlindDate using our story. We’d all benefit—Riley from the sponsorship, which would make things easier financially, BlindDate from the exposure and proof of concept, and even our members because they’d have hope,” I explain.

“And you agreed to it?” River asks. “Without talking to Riley?”

“Of course not!” I exclaim. “I know I’ve got a reputation for being an asshole, but I’m not stupid. I told Lady Elisa I’d make the offer to Riley. That’s it.”

River looks a little relieved that his best friend isn’t a complete moron. “Okay . . . and then what?”

I shrug. This is where it gets confusing. “I told Riley about it.” I pause, still trying to figure out how things went so wrong. I sit forward, hoping River can tell me. “Okay, so I tell her Elisa wants to be a sponsor, have Riley Sunshine share how we met. The way she shares everything. And at first, Riley said she didn’t want to partner with Life Corp, that she’d be a little fish in a big pond and her whole reputation would be based on BlindDate. She said she didn’t want to be used that way.”

River winces, shaking his head. “Ouch.”

“I know, but then I said that she used me for her Riley Sunshine page.”

River’s eyes go wide, and he laughs bitterly. “Damn, man. When you fuck shit up, you do it right.”

“Yeah, and then things got worse,” I say wryly. “What it boils down to is . . . she doesn’t want to be seen as some lonely, desperate loser who has to use a dating app. You know, like the app I poured my heart into designing. I told her that if BlindDate’s not good enough for Riley Sunshine, maybe I’m not good enough for Riley Watson.”

River punches me in the shoulder and growls, but it’s not the fight I was looking for. “Cut that woe-is-me shit out. You’re better than that. Where’s my cocky as hell, arrogant asshole friend? You need to bring a bit of him back.”

I’m surprised. I feel like a complete asshole, though not cocky or arrogant for sure. More like unsure, unworthy.

“I love her, River. And I fucked up. I don’t know how to fix it.”

He rolls his eyes and sighs, not making me feel any better. Hell, maybe making me feel worse. “Look, you offered Riley an opportunity, plain and simple. One you thought she might want, one that might be good for her. All she had to do was say no. Where it went wrong was her putting her feelings of insecurity about her dating life on you, and you walked off. You both fucked up, and you both need to fix it.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” I admit.

“You start with an apology.”

“Sorry, man,” I say instantly.

“Not to me, asshole. To Riley!” He mumbles something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like ‘dumb fuck’. “And she needs to apologize to you, and then you have a conversation.”

He throws his voice deep. “What do you think about this opportunity?” And then higher, “I don’t like it because of this, this, and this.”

Lower again, he finishes, “Okay, I can understand that. Consider this, that, and the other.”

In his own voice, he says, “People who love each other fight. They argue. But they talk through stuff and make decisions together.”

His