Chapter 5

Darren pulled open the door to the diner. He often met Ness here for lunch but he knew why she was particularly insistent to meet today. The grin on her face as she looked up from here phone said it all.

She wanted…no, needed…to gloat.

He sighed as he slid into the booth across from her. “Get it out of your system.”

“So,” Vanessa failed miserably at being innocent. “How was your date?”

“Are you really going to act like she didn’t tell you everything?”

Vanessa shook her head. “Completely in the dark.”

Darren rolled his eyes. “I have a sister, Ness. I know how it works. She texted you a full report before her ride left the curb.” He craned his neck. “Where’s the server? I skipped breakfast.”

Ness waved. “I ordered for you.” Darren blinked, nonplussed. “When you’re in a bad mood, you always get the tuna melt. And when you’re in a good mood, you get the turkey club.” He started to open his mouth but she spoke over him. “With! The extra pickle.”

The server delivered his Arnold Palmer. “Should only be a couple more minutes,” she said brightly before hustling off to another table.

Vanessa beamed. Her smugness annoyed him, but Darren couldn’t help smiling back. “Who says I’m in a good mood?”

“Please.” Vanessa dialed back her braggadocio and sipped her ice water. “She’s great right?”

“We had a very nice time,” Darren conceded, too politely.

Vanessa faffed out a breath. “I’m serious. What did you really think?”

Darren stared at her for a minute with a strange little smile. “She’s very pretty. Taller than I expected. Brilliant. Did not expect her to be into baseball. I think you coached her on that.” A corner of his mouth crooked with the accusation.

Vanessa gave him a flat look. “First of all, how the hell would I coach her on baseball. Second…what are you talking about?”

Darren cocked his head the way men do when you ask them simple questions. Kinda like a puppy. It was usually charming when it wasn’t annoying. “She’s a Yankees fan. Supposedly. Even keeps a scorebook…supposedly. Only real nerds do that.”

Ahh, so he loved it. What serendipity. She forgot how much he loved America’s most boring pastime, but she played it off. “Oh, right yeah. I knew about that.”

Darren totally bought it. “Sure you did.”

Vanessa soldiered on. “You can take her to a game.” There would be plenty of time to talk, that’s for sure. Their disagreement about baseball was well-trod and she let her opinions lie. “Did you tell her the twang story? She likes cowboy drawls you know.”

Darren glared. “I didn’t have to,” he said a little sulkily. Vanessa snickered. “I told her about going to UT. She knew Hook ‘Em.” He made the gesture. “From a movie, but still. Brownie points.”

Vanessa watched the corners of his eyes squinch with genuine delight. She’d done good. She remembered how he’d been when he was smitten with Miranda and this was a lot like that. Just before he started spending all his time with her. The left side of her mouth twitched up, “I’m going to miss you, D.”

He tossed his head back. “It was one date, Ness. Don’t count your baguettes before they’re baked.”

“You’re awful, never make that joke again,” Vanessa replied and allowed him to believe she was cocky about going to Paris. “What’d you like most about her?”

He scratched at his chin the way he did when he was really thinking about something. “So we started talking about books–”

Vanessa interrupted him with a snicker. “Oh my god she told you the Dante thing.”

“Yes!” Darren said. “With chakras and Jung and I think she brought up the Tarot at one point. Don’t ask me to repeat any of it.”

“She’s insane,” Vanessa agreed. The waitress brought them their plates. Vanessa, as she always did, immediately stole one of Darren’s fries. Darren, as he always did, pretended to be massively offended by it.

“I liked seeing her be passionate about it,” he countered. “Stop taking my fries!”

Vanessa ignored him. “What’s your next move Dare-bear?”

It was his turn to ignore her jab. “I’m not sure yet.”

She looked up at him. “Liar.” She really needed to get him to play poker sometime. He was so easy to read.

“Well, we were talking about this movie I’d never seen—“

Vanessa made a buzzing noise. “Nope.” She’d baffled him. “You know how she has a hundred interjections any time you start talking about something? Well, it sucks watching a movie you’ve never seen with her.”

Darren snorted. “That sounds fun, actually.”

Vanessa shook her head emphatically. “Nope. She won’t do it, unless you both have already seen the movie or if neither of you have.” Vanessa took a bite of her sandwich and said around a mouthful. “She’s insane but she’s self aware.”

Darren accepted her advice without further argument. “Well, I’ll come up with something.” He swatted at her hand when she groped for another fry. Vanessa threw a salt packet at him and it landed limply in the middle of his plate. He gave her a flat look. “Seriously?”

Vanessa rolled her eyes. “You’re no fun.” While he shook his head with fatherly disapproval she asked, “She tell you about the turtles?”

Darren wiped his face with a napkin. “Turtles didn’t come up.” His eyes asked the question.

“I’ll let her tell you.” Vanessa gestured with her knife. “But sea turtles are her favorite.”

“Oh,” Darren scoffed, “now you feed me tips?”

Vanessa put her knife down deliberately. “Fine. I won’t help anymore.”

“I’ll ask about the turtles,” Darren said. It was so easy to exasperate him.

Vanessa tripled down. “Don’t you Texas people eat turtles? Keep that to yourself. I assume you know she’s vegetarian.”

He glared over a wedge of sandwich. “You’re thinking of Louisiana, and that’s highly offensive,” he said, jabbing a frilly toothpick at her. “When have I ever eaten a turtle?” She gave him a doubtful shrug but he didn’t take that bait. “The vegetarian thing threw me off, though.” He looked a little guilty. “Not judging. But I felt bad eating meat in front of her.”

Vanessa blew out a breath. “Forget it. She doesn’t care.” She waved a fry she stole from his plate. “Don’t make it a thing.”

He surrendered to her insistence. After taking a bite, he changed the subject. “Luke call ya?”

Took him long enough to ask. “He did, actually. He seems cool. Funny guy.” Darren opened his palm as if to say ‘that it?’ so Vanessa went on. “We’re going to the Art Institute.”

Darren furrowed his brow. “You hate art.”

“So does he!” Vanessa said cheerfully.

“No he…” Darren’s argument died as he stared off into space for a moment. “Oh. Luke’s a really good friend,” he said instead. Vanessa didn’t follow. “He went to an exhibition with me a couple weeks after Miranda and I split. I thought he was into it, but now that I think back, he just kept saying ‘I like the colors here.’” Darren screwed his face up with bemusement then shook his head.

He knew Luke’s dating philosophy. Go somewhere that you can walk and get to know each other. If things were going well, extend the outing with a dinner invitation. Still. “Why are you going to an art museum then?”

Vanessa steepled her fingers. “So we can make fun of modern art of course.” She crinkled her nose at his reaction. “Oh, don’t judge, it’s going to be fun!” She tossed a ketchup packet at him.

It richocheted off Darren’s chest with a humorous splick noise. He stiffened with overdone offense. “What are you, five? What if that had been opened?”

Vanessa blew out a breath. “Relax, it wasn’t. I would have replaced your treasured shirt if it was.” She deflected with a final tease. “Plus, The Ramones?” She gestured ‘c’mon.’

Darren looked down at his shirt. “Everyone loves the Ramones!”

Vanessa sneered. “All the songs sound the exact same.” She raised a hand to forestall whatever was going to come out of his mouth. Something about how she wasn’t technically right or how it was part of their charm. Whatever. She reset the conversation. “No, Luke called and was like ‘Hey, Darren told me a little about you. Seems like we’d have a lot of fun, how would you like to hang out soon?’”

“That’s a great Luke impression.”

“Shut up. Anyway, I said what do you have in mind and he was like, ‘how do you feel about art museums?’ So I said, ‘hate em!’ And he said ‘oh thank God.’ He said something about them being a good place to chat but that it was hard for him to get it. I told him about the time you made me go to that one exhibition and I suffered through it by pretending to be a bitchy art snob.”

Darren took a deep breath but kept his mouth closed. She was never going to change her mind on the infamous Landfill Gala (her words). No matter how much he insisted it was a statement on overconsumption, the exhibits were literally trash. They’d argued about it several times but she actually kind of bruised his ego when she pointed out his career contributed to the alleged critique. They both carefully avoided discussing it since.

“Anyway, he said that actually sounded like fun so I said let’s go do it!” Vanessa beamed. “He called me a genius.” She took a sip. “We’re going Thursday. Both of us happen to be free then. He’s got a nice voice and he’s very charming.” She smiled. “I’m actually looking forward to it. Good work, Tipton.”

Boom. Just like that, all her gentle bullying of him this afternoon was forgotten thanks to a tiny bit of praise. Boys were so easy to work with. He slid the remnants of his fries over to her side of the table. Triumph. “You need to learn about salt,” she said.

“You need to learn about hypertension,” he shot back. He stole a fry from her like it was a gotcha but she paid him no mind.

“I’m hanging with Daphne and a few other friends tonight.” Vanessa emphasized her taunt by waving a fry. “It’s girls night, so don’t try to crash.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I wasn’t going to, but this makes me suspicious. What are you up to?”

She reached across the table and patted his hand. “We’re going to talk about you of course,” she said sweetly. Naturally this didn’t assuage his suspicions, so she finished the last couple fries and stood. “Quit worrying. She likes you. I’m going to the restroom real quick.”

Darren sat back and stopped the waitress a moment after Ness had walked away. “Can I get another one of these to go?” He waved his cup. “And the check please?”

The cheerful woman smiled. “Your girlfriend told me you’d try to pay and to not let you.”

“She’s not my….” Darren muttered while he fiddled with his wallet and the waitress put a hand on his shoulder.

“I see couples do this all the time. I always side with the woman unless I think the guy’s a jerk.” She patted the same shoulder. “I’m not taking your money. She already took care of it anyway.” Before Darren could ask when, the server scuttled away to get his drink.

He shrugged and grabbed his phone from where he and Ness had stacked them at the edge of the table. To Daphne he sent, “Heard you’re seeing Ness tonight.”

She answered a second later. “Yep, karaoke! I’m so excited.”

Really, Darren thought with mischievous glee. “I’ll give you $20 for the video.”

Daphne responded with, “sorry I meant we were going to the wine bar.”

He smiled at how quickly she tried to correct her overshare. “It’s too late. What’s your Venmo? I’ll make it $40.”

Daphne sent: “do you really think I’d betray my best friend?”

Darren smirked at his screen. “Judas did.”

He could sense her sarcasm. “Are you really comparing me to Judas?!”

“It was a Dante reference?” Darren tried.

“And here I thought you were texting me to ask me out next weekend,” Daphne replied.

He didn’t think she was all that annoyed. “Oh that’s coming. $60 and I’ll throw in a date?”

Daphne sent a smiley emoji. “I know you know better. So I’ll let you take me on a date still, but give it up Tipton.”

“Who are you texting?” Vanessa said as she returned to her side of the booth.

Darren went for nonchalant. “No one.”

Vanessa studied him for a second and then her eyes widened. “She told you!”

Darren played dumb but he knew his face leaked some of his amusement. “Told me what?” While Vanessa scoffed and grabbed her phone, he got an idea and pulled up the White Sox schedule. “She said you were going to the wine bar.”

Vanessa held up her phone. “She already sent me an apology text. I can’t believe her.”

Darren had heard Vanessa sing a few times when she’d had a few too many. Having video evidence to hang over her head would be delicious. Alas. “You know, I Wanna Be Sedated is a good karaoke song.”

She squinted at him. “Who sings…oh. Right. You’re funny.”

“Thank you,” he said amiably. What luck, the Yankees were in town next weekend. Serendipitous even, they played Sunday. He sent Daph a text, “well I have a charity golf thing Saturday but how do you feel about Yankees-White Sox Sunday?” To Ness he said, “How’s the rest of your afternoon?”

She frowned as she reviewed her itinerary in her head. “Errands. I really need to do groceries and laundry. I can’t avoid it anymore.” Darren commiserated by grunting.

Daphne answered him. “I think that’ll work. Hope you’re prepared for pinstripes.” He imagined her in a baseball jersey and found the mental picture enormously cute.

“I can tolerate it I think,” he wrote instead. “I’ll figure out a time and get back to you shortly.” She reacted with a heart emoji. To Ness he said, “Alright, second date locked in. Baseball game.”

“Ooh!” Vanessa batted her lashes. ”Look at you! Make sure you give me credit for the idea. We’re definitely going to talk about you now.”

She thought maybe he flushed a little bit. It was endearing. He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “You ready to head out?” She nodded and stood and he joined her. As he opened the door for her he said, “Neat trick paying the waitress off. Thanks for lunch, by the way.”

Vanessa winked at him. “I love one-upping you. Don’t pout.” She bumped him with her hip. “It’s cuz I like ya.”

“Whatever you say,” he grumbled as he hugged her good bye. “Have fun tonight, and—“

“Yes,” she interrupted. “I’ll text when I get home tonight.” Even odds she’d forget, but she’d try to humor him.

“Don’t forget!” he called after her. “I’m worried someone might mistake you for a dying cat and put you out of your misery!”

She made a rude gesture with her hand without turning around. Friggen Daphne, giving him ammo. Even though she was out of earshot, she could hear him chuckling.