First Sight (11 page)

“Oh
,
I figured why not,” she said, waving her hand carelessly in the air
as she walked in
. 
“You won’t believe how many lovey-dovey couple
s I saw when I walked over here.  It’s like no one else exists—just hot guys taking their girlfriends out to dinner.
”

I stifled a laugh at her obvious exaggeration.
 
“
No one else was out walking around?  I
f we had boyfriends, we probably wouldn’t even notice
all the couples
.
”

“Exactly.
  I mean do you even remember what you did last year on Valentine’s Day?”

“Uh, is it wrong to say yes?” I said with a laugh.

Marissa
laughed
,
too, and we wandered into t
he kitchen to get some drinks. 
Emily
had
text
ed to say
that
she was running late, so
Marissa
and I
decided to make brownies while we waited
.
I pulled a mixing bowl and box of brownie mix
from the cupboard
as
Marissa
preheated the oven.
  We mixed
all of the ingredients
together
, laughing when
Marissa
managed to crack an egg that completely missed the bowl but landed in the sink,
and poured
the batter
into a baking pan.
  I set
the oven
timer
,
and we sat down at the
dining room
table
to wait.

“So what was with Travis at lunch
today
?
” 
Marissa
asked, flipping through the catalogs and magazines that I
’
d stacked
in a neat pile
.
 
“
His
last
date
was
skiing
with you
?
”

“Oh, he was just joking around.  I don’t think he liked you putting him on the spot about any ex-girlfriends.”

Marissa
laughed
and looked up at me
.  “I was just trying to help you out.”

“Help
me
out?” I said, raising my eyebrows.

“I just wanted to see if he was
definitely
available,” she said
lightly, flipping her blond
e
hair back over her shoulder
.  “Anyway,
it just seemed like an odd thing to say.”

“
Yeah,
it kind of was.
I think he just wanted to get you off his back,
though
.
”
I grinned s
uddenly
,
remembering
a detail of our day skiing together
.
 
“
Actually
…
t
he ski instructor
did
think
that
he was my boyfriend.”

“Oh
really
?
 
You didn’t tell me that!  What did he say?”

“Travis?”

“No, the instructor.”

“Oh,” I shrugged.  “She said that I had a nice boyfriend.”

“
I think he
must
be interested
in you,
Maddy
,
”
Marissa
said confidently.

I shook my head doubtfully. 
“
I don’t really think so. 
He’s friendly to everyone
.
”

“
I don’t know,” she said,
looking thoughtful for a moment
.  “
Obviously someone else noticed it
,
too
,
if
your instructor
thought he was your boyfriend. 
I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it
’s like
he lights up when
he’s around you.”

“Lights up?  Come on…,
” I
said,
trail
ing
off
as I
wonder
ed
if there was any truth to her statement. 
Of course he always looked happy to see me, but he seemed to be the type of guy who
was happy in general
.  That was
just his friendly personality, wasn’t it?
 
The oven timer
buzzed
, and I
went
over to check on
dessert
.
The
scent
of warm brownies
had started to fill the
apartment
, and I suspected that they were
indeed
done.
  I pulled open a drawer, searching for my
red
oven mitts.

“I’ll get it!”
Marissa
called out when the doorbell rang
.

I looked up
a moment later
to see
Em
walking in
just as I
was pulling
the
brownies from the oven
.  She was
carrying
Titanic
in one hand and a bottle of Merlot in the other.
 
“I just saw your neighbor,” she said, looking flushed as she put the bottle of wine down on the counter.
Emily
had a small crush on Matt, the brown-eyed guy that had moved in next door.

“T
hey were headed out, right?” I asked
, referring to Matt and the girl (girlfriend?) that seemed to follow him around every weekend.

“Yep, she was all dressed up—little black dress, sky-high
heels, pretty much the works,
”
Em
ily
said with a
sigh
.

“A romantic evening for two?”
Marissa
asked
, glancing at
Emily
. “
It does seem like they must be dating
now
since she’s always around.  Maybe they’ll break up soon.
”

“We can only hope, right?” I asked, smiling in agreement.

Emily
pointedly ignored us and walked over to
the counter
. 
“
Oh
h
h
,
brownies,”
she
said,
effectively
changing the subject.
“Looks like I got here just in
time.”

“Th
at you did,” I said with a grin
.
I grabbed a server to
slice
into
the steaming brownies and scooped them out of the pan
—s
o much for letting them cool
first
.
  After
I finished piling the
gooey
, warm,
brownies on a plate, I gr
abbed the stack of DVDs
from the counter
. 
“Well ladi
es, what shall we watch?”
I
held
up the
movies
that
my friends had brought over.
“
Miss Congeniality
?
”
I asked, as it was perched on top.
 
They agreed, and I started
pulling open
my
kitchen
drawers
looking
for
a
corkscrew. 
We opened the
bottle of
wine and shuffled into the living room carrying
a pla
t
e of brownies,
stack of
movies,
three
wine glasses, and the bottle of Merlot.

“Wait—did you get roses?”
Marissa
asked, stopping midway across the room and pointing to a vase of
fake
roses that I’d had
for ages
.

“
What
?” I asked, peering around her
to see what she was looking at
.
“They’re
fake
!” I said, laughing.
  “Those have been sitting there forever.”

“Not from
Travis
?”
Em
asked innocently.

“She only wishes,”
Marissa
teased.

“
Not you
,
too,
”
I
complained
, looking from one to the other.
  “
Marissa
….”
Although
Emily
certainly knew about
Travis
and the
ski trip,
I didn’t think I’d even mentioned him
to her
since the week we got back
. 
Because there was nothing to tell
, I
reminded
myself.

“Oh, lighten up,”
Marissa
said
.

I
set the plate down on the coffee table
,
grabbed a movie
,
and walked over
to the DVD player
.
 
“
His office is right down the hall from mine
,” I said, glancing back at
Emily
.
 
“
I couldn’t imagine dating someone like that who I worked with. 
Can you say awkward?”

“Probably best to avoid it,”
Em
agreed, plopping down on the sofa.

“Exactly,” I said as I put the movie in.  I wondered why
Marissa
was pushing the whole Travis thing again tonight.  Of course she had joked about it right after the ski trip, but that was weeks ago. 
I guess our whole conversation at lunch was enough to start her up again. 
I w
alk
ed
back to the couch
and
sank
down
at
the
opposite
end of the sofa
from
Emily
, tucking m
y legs beneath me to get comfortable
.

Marissa
settled into the armchair next to us and picked up a brownie.
She took a dainty bite and then looked over at me. 
“
All I’m saying is that
he certainly seems to be showing some interest in you.”

“
We’re friends
,” I replied.
“
Just like the two of you are friends.  You were there at lunch today
also
, remember?
”

“You have lunch together?”
Emily
asked
with interest
, looking over at me.

“Practically every day,”
Marissa
said in a sing-song voice.

I picked up my
wine glass
and took a sip of Merlot
. 
“
All
of the
writers
have lunch together
,
”
I said firmly.

Emily
nodded and then looked over at
Marissa
.  “Whatever happened with Mike?”

Marissa
stretched in the chair, clasping her fingers together and lifting her arms out in front of her.  She almost looked like she was doing a yoga pose, her posture was so perfect.  “He was too much
of a jock, you know?  It was fu
n skiing together, and we went out a couple of other times, but he was always watching sports or heading to the gym.  He
wasn’t interested in
much
else
.
”

“You did see a movie together,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, about
baseball
.
  That might as well count as attending a sporting event together.”