The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland

Georgia



“So how was your blind date?” Maggie held out a Starbucks coffee cup and a bottle of Motrin.

There was a reason she was my best friend and head of marketing at Eternity Roses. “Are those both for me?”

She nodded. “I know you’re trying to cut back to one coffee a day. But I’m hoping you need it this morning because your date kept you up all night.”

“What are the Motrin for?”

Maggie smiled and brought her own coffee to her lips. “In case your head was banging against the headboard. I told you to get rid of that fancy wooden bedframe and get a cushioned one.”

I laughed and waved off the bottle. “I’m good. No banging headboard last night. Though I will take the coffee. Thank you.”

She twisted the cap off the Motrin and shook the bottle upside down. “Oh good. Because there are only two left, and my head’s killing me. There’s definitely no cushion on those stalls in the courthouse bathrooms.”

I stopped with my coffee halfway to my mouth. “You didn’t…”

She grinned. “Oh, but I did…twice.”

I chuckled. Maggie might’ve lost a little of her mind. For almost a year now, she’d been embroiled in a messy divorce. A few months ago, her soon-to-be ex-husband, Aaron, didn’t show up for a settlement conference at his lawyer’s office. Rather than reschedule, she decided to make good use of the time by seducing his attorney. Since then, she’d made it a sport to have sex with the guy in every inappropriate place possible. I was pretty sure he could be disbarred if anyone found out.

“Was Aaron at the courthouse?” I asked.

Her eyes sparkled. “Sure was.”

“What if he’d walked into the men’s room?”

“Then he could have watched—same as I got to do when I walked in on him and our neighbor.” She plopped down in the guest chair on the other side of my desk and sipped her coffee. “So your date was a dud, huh? I warned you that letting Frannie fix you up was not the best idea. Did he bore you to death over drinks?”

“Actually…drinks were the most exciting part of my date.”

“Oh? Delicious cocktails?”

I shook my head and grinned. “Nope. Delicious man who pretended to be my date before my real date showed up.”

Maggie’s eyes widened.

I laughed because it was nearly impossible to shock her these days.

“Tell me everything,” she said.

Over the next twenty minutes, I filled her in on meeting Max, almost walking out of the arena before finding him on the Jumbotron, and staying out until 2 AM talking. When I was done, she took out her cell.

“What’s his last name?”

“Yearwood, why?”

“Because I want to Google him and see exactly what we’re talking about here.”

She typed into her phone, and her eyes lit up. “Holy crap. He’s gorgeous.”

“I know.”

“When are we going out with him again?”

I chuckled at her use of we. “I gave him my number, but I actually don’t think I’m going to go out with him.”

“Are you crazy? Why not?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It just feels…wrong.”

“Because of Gabriel? Who ran away to Europe to screw other women?”

“How am I supposed to get involved with someone when Gabriel is coming back at the end of the year?”

“You’re living apart, and he’s dating other women. If he comes back and you two want to be together, it was meant to be. Anything that changes your mind before then just proves you weren’t supposed to stay together. Take it from me, it’s easier to figure it out now than after you get married. For whatever reason, Gabriel needed this time, and he’s clearly taking it. So why shouldn’t you?” She shook her head. “What changed? You seemed okay with it before you went out on the blind date.”

I shrugged. “I guess it seemed safe and simple. The way Frannie described the guy, I sort of knew in my heart nothing would come of it.”

“And now?”

“Max seems…” I shook my head and tried to figure out what bothered me so much. I couldn’t put my finger on it. “I guess he just seems the opposite of safe and simple. Max seems risky and complicated.”

Maggie smiled. “Because you actually like him.”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “I don’t know why the thought of going out with him makes me so nervous. I think I just don’t trust my own judgment anymore.”

“Perhaps it seemed easier when you knew you wouldn’t fall for the guy. You’d said you were going to put yourself out there, but you weren’t really planning on it. You were just going through the motions and biding time until Gabriel comes home.”

She leaned forward and rested her hands on my desk. “But honey, what if Gabriel doesn’t come home? Or what if he does, but he doesn’t want to pick up where you left off? I’m not trying to be mean. Really, I’m not. I like Gabriel, or at least I did until he pulled the crap he pulled before he left. But why should you waste more than a year of your life, when he’s not?”

I sighed. “I guess. But the other thing is, it’s not fair to the other person. I don’t know if I can give Max the same thing a truly single person could, you know?”