I'm Not Charlotte Lucas(27)

“I kind of wondered,” he mumbled.

First things first, I needed to check Andy’s messages.

Andy: Trattoria Girardi at 7 p.m.?

Andy: Uh-oh. Should I take this silence as a sign?

Andy: Please don’t make me beg. You know I will.

I quickly typed a message. He’d gone from double-checking the time to panic mode in under twenty minutes. Had the man expected me to back out from the date?

Me: Lost my phone for a minute, but 7 sounds great. See you there!

“Yikes,” I said, glancing at Liam. He lounged on the couch beside me, his gaze fixed on the TV. “You go without your phone for one day and the whole world thinks you’re MIA.”

“That popular, huh?” he asked, his mouth quirking into a smile.

“No,” I said, too adamantly. I scrolled the remaining texts and missed calls. “In fact, it’s mostly family.” There, that ought to dampen whatever high opinion Liam thought I had of myself.

Aunt Fern: Can you drive me to my appointment Monday?

Mom: Don’t forget you’re helping Vera with her tulips in the morning.

Mariah: I got Elizabeth! I almost wish it was Caroline Bingley, though, because I think I could have done her part justice. She’s so misunderstood.

Ugh. Teenagers. I rolled my eyes and kept reading.

Beth: I can’t believe you’re going out with Naomi Price’s EX-BOYFRIEND. You need to call me the minute you get home tonight.

So Beth must have figured it out when we all met in my parents’ living room. Wow, that felt like ages ago. Was it really only last night?

Beth: Girl, I’m dying. It’s midnight. Are you still partying? Call me!

Beth: I’m going to bed because I have to work early, but my dreams will be full of ball gowns and handsome men. Hopefully your arms will be full of handsome men too. Or one handsome man. (This she accompanied with a GIF of a man wiggling his eyebrows.)

Beth: It’s now six in the morning, and I haven’t heard from you. If I wasn’t heading to Napa for a wedding, I would be banging on your door right now.

Beth: This wedding was a doozy. Can you say bridezilla? Because this chick was the worst. Okay, I’ve officially decided that you’ve lost your phone, so I’m driving straight to your house. See you at seven.

I chuckled my way through Beth’s texts and wrote out a reply.

Me: Got my phone back! Heading to dinner with Andy (don’t shoot me), and I’ll call you when I’m home.

She immediately responded with the angry-face emoji. I hoped she wasn’t the one driving. I checked the clock. I needed to head out in fifteen minutes. Or twenty. Maybe it was time to make Andy wait on me for once.

“What are you thinking about?”

I glanced up to find Liam studying me. “Nothing.”

“You were calculating something. I saw it on your eyebrows.” He glanced at his expensive watch. “You probably have fifteen minutes until you should leave. Unless you want to make the guy wait for you.”

Now I most certainly did not. “I don’t do that to my dates.”

“I’m pretty sure I was waiting for a good ten minutes before you came downstairs last night.”

“Not my problem,” I said, grinning. “Beth had me hostage under her curling iron.”

“What if I hold you hostage now?”

I laughed, snuggling deeper into Liam’s soft couch cushions. He was obviously joking. I just saw his lady friend leave.

The modern-looking sofa was far more comfortable than it had appeared. I went back to responding to texts, and Liam raised the volume on the TV a few notches. A hot-pink sweatshirt hanging on the hook behind the door caught my eye. His girlfriend’s? Probably. And the sequined sandals kicked off in the corner of the room were probably hers as well. I had to say, Liam might have dated a movie star, but his latest fling didn’t have the classiest taste in footwear.

“What are your plans for dinner?” I asked, trying to not sound obvious that I’d just judged his girlfriend pretty hard.

“I was thinking of trying this restaurant my friend told me about. Trattoria Girardi . . . or something like that.”

I glanced up sharply but caught his teasing glint. He was baiting me. I gave him a sweeping once-over. “They won’t let you in dressed like that.”

“I’d better go and change, then.” His smile lingered on me. “Maybe I really should go to the restaurant. You know, in case you need some backup.”

“I dated this guy already, remember? I know what I’m getting myself into here. It’s not like I’m going on a blind date with my next-door neighbor’s grandson or anything.”

He chuckled, and I felt the rumble through the couch. He was sitting close to me, closer than I’d realized when my focus was stolen by the backed-up text messages, and now the room was beginning to shrink. I told my heart to slow down. Liam had a girlfriend—one that probably reached back further than their date tonight if the way she left clothes behind was any clue. The hot-pink sweatshirt on the door definitely didn’t belong to Spike.

Could that have been the woman he thought he was texting after I hit Spike with my car? He’d ended with I love you. It would certainly explain the kiss on the cheek last night, but not why he needed a date to the charity ball.

Unless he was doing to Vera what I was doing to my mom: not informing them of my current relationship until I was certain it was going to work out.