Follow Me(19)

So when I was rushing to a SoulCycle class one evening and heard my name, I thrilled. I adjusted my ponytail, pasted my most welcoming smile on my face, and turned to greet my fans. I was surprised to see Cat’s friend Connor waving at me from one of the sidewalk tables outside Columbia Brews. A white coffee mug sat on the table in front of him, and the sleeves of his light blue button-down shirt were pushed up in the sweltering heat.

“Audrey, hi,” he said, smiling genially and rising to greet me. “I thought that was you. I’m Cat Harrell’s friend Connor. We met at trivia the other week, remember?”

“Sure, of course I remember,” I said, omitting the fact that I also remembered the moon eyes Cat made at him. The poor girl practically had a flashing neon sign above her head advertising that she was in love with him. When I’d called her out on it, she had turned a vivid fuchsia and wildly shaken her head. “The lady doth protest too much,” I had joked, but not even my lame Shakespeare could shake loose the truth. I didn’t believe her repeated denials for a second. Connor was precisely her type: tall, smart, and falling just shy of handsome with his prominent Adam’s apple and wide-set, drooping eyes. They would make an adorable—if slightly awkward—couple.

Cat will thank me later, I thought as I decided to play Cupid.

“It was so nice of Cat to invite me to trivia,” I said. “It’s so hard moving someplace new, but Cat’s really gone out of her way to make me feel at home. She’s just so thoughtful.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Harrell’s great.”

I frowned at his tepid response. This was going to take more effort than I’d thought. “She really is. She—”

“Hey, why don’t you sit down? Let me buy you a latte.”

“Thanks, but I have a bike booked in twenty minutes. Besides, I can’t have caffeine this late in the day. It’ll keep me up, and then I’ll have to take a sleeping pill, and then I’ll be so tired I’ll drink more coffee, and it’s this whole vicious cycle.”

He gestured to his cup and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “This is decaf.”

“Is there even a point to decaf? Seriously.”

He smiled slightly and shrugged. “There is when you’re meeting someone for coffee late in the day.”

Alarm bells rang in my head. He was meeting someone for coffee? As in a date? Perhaps I should stick around to check out Cat’s competition. But before I could say I had changed my mind, another thought occurred to me: Why would he invite me to have a latte if he had a date?

“Meeting someone?” I asked faux breezily. “Is that code for ‘Tinder date’? Are you meeting someone from online?”

His cheeks colored, and that told me all I needed to know: he was definitely meeting a woman there, probably a first date. So the situation wasn’t ideal—I didn’t like that he was actively dating while referring to Cat as “great”—but it wasn’t completely hopeless. I was an excellent matchmaker—I’d introduced Jasmine to her now-husband, Hannah to her boyfriend, and Tatiana to her girlfriend. (I couldn’t—and gladly didn’t—take credit for Izzy and Russell.) I knew I could do the same for Cat. She was a good friend, and I wanted to help her.

My phone buzzed, my reminder to get to spin class.

“I have to run, but it was nice bumping into you. We’ll have to get together with Cat again,” I said, fully intending to make plans and then bow out at the last minute, leaving the two of them on a surprise date.

“That would be great. See you around, Audrey.”

I waved goodbye and walked to the intersection. While I waited to cross, I felt eyes boring into the back of my neck. I glanced over my shoulder at Connor, but he was preoccupied with his phone. I turned my attention back to the intersection, but as the light changed, I felt the same sensation once more. I hurried across the street and then whirled around, fully expecting to catch some creep ogling me.

Instead, I found my face just inches from Nick’s strong chest.

“Nick!” I squealed, laughing with relief even as my heart continued to pound. “You scared me! Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

He smiled impishly. “You know how much I like to make you scream.”

“You’re bad,” I said, socking him lightly in the stomach. “But what are you even doing over in this neighborhood? And don’t say you’re here to see me.”

“Of course Little Ms. Vain thinks I’m here to see her,” he joked, ruffling my hair. “Nah, babe. I’m meeting a buddy for a drink down the street. Want to join?”

“No way. The last time I joined you on one of your bro dates, I was subjected to two hours of nonstop fantasy football bullshit.”

“I can assure you that won’t happen this time,” he said seriously before breaking into a huge grin. “It’s fantasy baseball season.”

“How tragic that I’ve already booked a bike and will have to miss out,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Have fun with your fake sports, nerd.”

“Speaking of nerds,” Nick said, nodding toward Connor, who was still engrossed in his phone outside Columbia Brews. “Who was that?”

“Just a friend of Cat’s. You remember Cat from college?”

He snorted. “That weirdo? How could I forget?”