by Susannah Nix
“No!” he said, then frowned like he wasn’t sure. “I mean, I don’t think so?”
She pointed a warning finger at him. “I know where you live, remember, so if you hurt her—”
He held up his hands, palms out. There were black ink stains all over his fingers. “I haven’t agreed to go out with her yet. I don’t even know who she is.”
“She’s the one who’s always hanging around the pool with me. You saw her last weekend, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” His mouth curved into something that almost resembled a smile. “Yeah, she’s cute.”
Got ya! It was perfect. Jinny liked him, and he liked her. She was doing them both a favor by setting them up. She was being a good Samaritan. “So you’ll do it, then?”
He frowned again and rubbed his hand over his jaw. Up close, his beard looked a lot less scraggly. And his eyes actually were a gorgeous shade of blue. “It seems kind of sketchy. Why do I have to ask her out? Couldn’t you just fix us up on a blind date or something?”
Esther shook her head. “She hates blind dates. She’d never agree to it.”
“But I don’t even know her. Won’t she think it’s weird that a stranger is asking her out, out of nowhere?”
Clearly, this guy did not get out much and had no idea how often men propositioned women they didn’t know. Which, again, was sort of sweet. Naive, but sweet. He was like a character from a Jane Austen novel who needed a formal introduction before he could commence his courtship. “You’ve seen each other around plenty of times. It’s not weird.”
“What if she says no?”
She nearly had him on the hook. He just needed a little nudge. “She won’t say no, because she thinks you’re cute too.”
“Really?” His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, which was pretty damned adorable. Fine. Jinny was right. He was cute.
“Yes, really.”
“She told you that?”
“She told me that.”
Doubt crept into his expression again. “It still seems weird.”
Oh, my god. What was it going to take to get him to say yes? Blackmail? Because Esther could do blackmail if she had to. “Do you want me to read your script or not?” The carrots weren’t working; it was time for a little stick.
His frown deepened. Then he nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do it, I guess.”
Yes! Not as much enthusiasm as Esther would have liked, but it was good enough. “You have to take it seriously and give her a real chance though. No blowing her off after one date.”
He scratched the back of his head. “What constitutes a real chance?”
Esther pursed her lips as she considered the question. How much dating did Jinny need to do to get over Stuart? A single date might not be enough. It had to be enough to put Stuart out of her mind for good. “Three dates,” she finally decided.
Jonathan’s eyes widened. “Three? No way.”
“That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.” If it was only one date, he might half-ass his way through it. But if he knew he had to go out with her two more times, he’d make more of an effort. Theoretically.
“I’ll do two.”
“Three,” Esther repeated. Now that she’d gotten him to agree to the plan, she had the upper hand. She wasn’t budging.
His mouth settled into a scowl. “You have to give me real help with the script, then. Not just scribble down a few notes, or mark the stuff that’s inaccurate. You have to work with me and help me come up with ways to make the science work with the story.”
Lord. The things Esther was willing to do for Jinny. She’d better appreciate this. “I’ll science the shit out of that script for you. Do we have a deal?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Okay.”
Esther stuck out her hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Jonathan took it.
It was official. They were doing this.
“We have to move fast,” she said, “before Jinny goes back to Stuart.”
“How fast?” Jonathan asked.
Esther grinned at him. “What are you doing tonight?”
All the color drained out his face. “Tonight?”
Chapter Four
It took a bit of finagling to pull it off.
Jonathan couldn’t just call Jinny to ask her out, because he didn’t have her number. As far as Jinny knew, he didn’t even know her name, much less her phone number. So he had to ask her out in person. Which meant they had to arrange an “accidental” meeting.
You would think a screenwriter would be able to come up with a simple meet-cute, but he was worse than useless in this department.
“Why don’t you just give me her number so I can call her?” he said, shrugging. “I don’t see why it has to be so complicated.”
“Because this can’t look like a set-up,” Esther reminded him. “How is she supposed to think you got her number, if not from me?”
He shrugged again.
Useless. Fortunately, Esther was a master strategist. She’d been kicking her older brother’s ass at Risk since she was seven years old. She had this.
MY PLACE STAT, she texted Jinny. I’m ordering from the Hawaiian place.
Jinny loved the Hawaiian place, and they didn’t deliver to Mar Vista.
On my way, Jinny texted back almost immediately. Order me the kalua pork ramen.
Once she was sure Jonathan knew what he was supposed to do, Esther shooed him out of her apartment so she could finally take off her damn tights. She changed out of the loose floral dress she’d worn to work and into a pair of sweatpants and her favorite University of Washington T-shirt. Shaking her long, wavy hair out of its neat work bun, she sank down on the couch and twisted it into a looser, messier bun.
Her big, black-and-white tuxedo cat, Sally Ride, jumped into her lap to demand head scratches. Esther obliged her, stroking the purring cat while she waited for Jinny to arrive.
Five minutes later, there was a knock on the door, and Sally hightailed it to the bedroom.
“Take my phone,” Jinny said, thrusting it at Esther as she walked past her into the apartment.
“Okay.” Esther stared at the phone as she closed the door “Why?”
The phone vibrated in her hand with a new text message from Stuart: Let me come over tonight baby. I miss my ickle lover bunny.
Gross.
“That’s why,” Jinny said, helping herself to a beer from the fridge. “Don’t let me answer it.”
Esther set the phone facedown on the table by the door. “He wants a booty call tonight? It’s a weeknight.”
“People have sex on weeknights, you know.” Jinny twisted the cap off her beer and took a swig.
“Sounds exhausting. I barely have enough energy to feed myself when I get home from work.”
Jinny flopped onto Esther’s red Ikea sofa with her beer. Esther’s entire apartment had been furnished at Ikea. She’d basically just copied one of the model living rooms from the showroom.
“This is torture,” Jinny groaned. “I’m trying to resist him, but every time he texts, it reminds me how much I miss him. He’s slowly wearing me down.”
Sometimes Esther couldn’t understand Jinny at all. Sure, Stuart was hot, and maybe he was as good in bed as Jinny claimed. But no matter how good he might be, or how much she might think she loved him, Esther couldn’t imagine ever forgiving a man who’d cheated on her.
“You could block him,” she suggested, sitting at the other end of the couch and pulling her legs up under her.
Jinny took another swig of beer. “I thought about it. But I can’t stand the thought of cutting him off like that. Knowing he’s still texting, but not knowing what he’s saying.” Her eyes drifted to the phone on the table, like she wanted to go over there and look at it.
Jesus, she was really far gone. Thank god Esther had run into Jonathan tonight. Not a minute too soon.
Sally reemerged from the bedroom and came over to the couch to sniff Esther’s toes. Esther reached down to scratch the top of her
head. “You know what he’s saying though. You don’t need to read his texts to know what he wants.”
“I kind of like the attention,” Jinny admitted. “After what he did, he deserves to grovel. And I deserve to enjoy his groveling.” She leaned over to pet Sally, who glided just out of reach. “Why doesn’t your cat want to be my friend?”
Esther shrugged. “She doesn’t like anyone but me. She’s choosy.”
“Are you saying I’m not good enough for your cat?”
“No, I’m saying she knows where her food comes from and doesn’t have time for anyone who doesn’t keep her in the gourmet salmon bits to which she’s accustomed.”
“That’s fair,” Jinny said. “I’ll give you a pass, Sally.”
There was another knock on the door, and Sally bolted for the bedroom again. Esther got up, signed the receipt for the food, and carried it to the dining table.
“God, it smells so good,” Jinny said as she helped Esther unpack the food. “I’m famished. Turning down sex is hard work.”
“I’m sure,” Esther said sourly as she went into the kitchen for utensils and napkins.
Jinny peeled open one of the containers. “You ordered the kettle corn, right?”
“Of course. I’m not an amateur.”
They’d barely started eating when there was yet another knock on the door. Right on cue.
“Listen for our food to be delivered,” Esther had told Jonathan. “Once the delivery guy leaves, wait two minutes, then come over with the mail.” She’d given him back her misdelivered mail, so he could bring it over while Jinny was there.
“Did the delivery guy forget something?” Jinny asked, taking stock of the food containers.
“I don’t think so.” Esther headed for the door. “Maybe I signed the wrong receipt.” She pulled it open and pretended to be surprised. “Oh! Jonathan. Hi.”
“Hey,” he said without much enthusiasm.
She raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to explain why he was here. Don’t screw this up, you idiot.
“Hey,” he mumbled again. Smooth. “The—uh—the mailman left these in my box by mistake.” He held out her mail.
“Thanks!” Esther said, trying to sound friendly. “I guess he got our boxes mixed up, because I’ve got some of yours too. Come on in.” She stepped back and waved him over the threshold.
Hands shoved deep in his pockets and slouching like a kid being dragged to church against his will, Jonathan shuffled into the apartment. So far, he was really not selling this.
Esther pretended to rifle through the stack of mail piling up on the Ikea bookcase by the door. “I know I set it down around here somewhere…aha! Here we go. Sorry, I was going to bring it over earlier, but then Jinny came over and I sort of forgot. This is my friend Jinny, by the way,” she added, waving her hand like it was an afterthought. “Jinny, Jonathan. Jonathan, Jinny.”
“Hey,” Jonathan mumbled.
Come on, Esther thought. Try harder. This wasn’t going to work if he kept acting like he didn’t want to be there.
Jinny stepped forward and stuck out her hand. “Hi, nice to meet you.” Thank god one of them had social skills.
Jonathan stared at her hand for a second, like he didn’t know what he was supposed to do with it. And then finally—finally—some kind of automatic response kicked in, and he stepped forward to take it. “Oh, yeah. I’ve seen you around before.”
“Tell her you’ve seen her around before,” Esther had coached Jonathan earlier. “She’ll be flattered that you noticed her.”
Jinny’s smile got wider. “I’m here a lot. I like Esther’s pool. Esther’s okay too, but mainly it’s the pool that’s the draw.”
Jonathan nodded, relaxing a little. “Yeah, it’s pretty nice. I hope you don’t get in it though, because of the bacteria.”
“Esther or the pool?” Jinny asked, straight-faced.
Jonathan laughed. “The pool. I don’t really know anything about Esther’s bacteria situation.”
Hey, what do you know? The guy could smile after all.
“That’s funny,” Esther said. “I can tell you’re a writer. Did you know Jonathan’s a screenwriter?” she said, turning to Jinny.
“Really?” Jinny said, doing a good job of acting impressed. “That’s cool.”
“It smells really good in here,” Jonathan said. “Are you guys about to eat?”
Esther nodded. “We ordered from Mahalo. It arrived right before you did.”
“Their kettle corn is out of this world.”
“Yeah, it is. You want some?” Esther offered.
Jonathan shook his head, doing a passable job of looking tempted. “Nah, I don’t want to crash your dinner.”
“It’s fine, I always order way too much.” Esther went into the kitchen to get more utensils. “You should have some ribs to go with your corn.”
“Yeah, okay,” Jonathan said. “Thanks.”
“You want a beer?” Esther pulled open the fridge. “You can’t eat ribs without beer.”
“Sure.”
Jinny came into the kitchen. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Getting him a beer.”
“But you don’t even like him.”
“Yeah, but you do.” Esther shrugged. “Maybe you were right. Maybe I was too harsh on him before. He’s my neighbor—I should be more neighborly, right?” She thrust the beer and a fork and plate at Jinny. “Take these to him.”
Esther hung out in the kitchen, pretending to tidy up while Jinny went back out to Jonathan.
“Here you go,” she said, handing them to him. “Dig in.”
“Thanks,” he said. “So, uh, do you live near here?”
Nice, Esther thought, eavesdropping on them. That was a perfectly decent conversation starter. Maybe he was getting better at this stuff.
“Not too far,” Jinny said. “Over in Mar Vista.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s nice over there.”
“It’s all right. I like coming over here though. I mean, obviously, since I’m here all the time.”
“So, how do you two know each other?”
“Don’t talk about yourself too much,” Esther had warned him. “Ask her questions, try to get to know her. Make it clear she’s the one you like.”
While Jinny was telling Jonathan the story of how she and Esther had become friends, Esther rejoined them in the dining room. She sipped her beer and ate her food, only jumping into the conversation occasionally, letting the two of them do the majority of the talking.
Ten minutes later, she decided things were proceeding well enough that it was time to move on to the next stage of the plan. “Anyone want another beer?” she asked, going to the fridge.
“I’ll take one,” Jinny called out.
“Thanks, but I’m still working on mine,” Jonathan said.
While she was in the kitchen, Esther set a four-minute timer on her phone. Then she grabbed two beers and took them into the dining room.
When her timer went off, she pretended to be surprised. “Oops, that’s my laundry! Gotta run downstairs and put my clothes in the dryer. Be right back.”
“I can’t be gone longer than five minutes without it looking weird, so that’s all the time you’ll have,” she’d told Jonathan earlier. “That’s your window to ask her out. Don’t miss it.”
Grabbing a handful of quarters out of the bowl, she let herself out of the apartment. When she got downstairs to the laundry room, Brent, the stoner musician who lived in fourteen, was there, transferring his clothes from the washer into the dryer.
“You need the machine?” he asked, glancing at her over his shoulder.
“Nope.” Esther hopped up onto the folding table and pulled up a game on her phone.
He gave her a puzzled look.
“I’m just hanging out,” she explained.
“In the laundry room?”
“I’ve got people in my apartment and I needed to give them a few minutes alone.”
&n
bsp; “Okay, whatever.” Brent went back to putting his clothes in the dryer, and Esther went back to playing on her phone. “Later,” he said on his way out.
“Yep, see ya,” Esther replied.
When five minutes had passed, she went back upstairs to her apartment.
Jonathan and Jinny were standing a lot closer together than when she’d left. They both had their phones out, like they were exchanging numbers. Even better, they were both smiling.
“Get your laundry squared away?” Jinny asked, setting her phone down.
“Yep.”
“All right, well, I’m gonna go,” Jonathan said. “Thanks for the beer and the ribs.” He glanced at Jinny shyly. “I’ll text you.”
Jinny nodded. “Cool.”
“Don’t forget your mail,” Esther said.
“Right, my mail. Thanks.” He grabbed it off the table and let himself out of the apartment.
“What was that?” Esther asked Jinny when he was gone. As if she didn’t know.
Jinny bounced on her toes, practically glowing. “He asked me out!”
Esther grinned. “And you said yes?”
“Of course I said yes!”
“That’s awesome. Good for you!” Feeling extremely pleased with herself, Esther began gathering up the leftovers and carrying them into the kitchen. She’d done it. Jonathan had done it.
“Can you believe he asked me out?” Jinny said, following her.
Esther pulled open the fridge and shoved the other takeout containers around to make room. “Of course I can believe it. You’re beautiful and awesome. Who wouldn’t want to ask you out?”
“Yeah, but I was just talking about how cute he was the other day, and then tonight he asked me out, out of nowhere. It must be fate or something.”
“Must be,” Esther agreed.
Chapter Five
When Esther told people she was a rocket scientist, they tended to imagine she spent her days walking the floor of a gigantic manufacturing facility, wearing one of those white cleanroom suits with the hats and the footies, carrying a clipboard as she stared at a fully-assembled spacecraft—like one of the background extras in The Right Stuff.