The Reluctant Mate

28 Amanda

I was all ready for my date with Porter, except that I wasn't ready at all. I paced around the kitchen near the door where he would presumably show up in the next few minutes.

"It's going to be fine. You're just going to a movie. It doesn't have to be serious," Daria assured me, her eyes following my progress as she leaned on the other side of the island counter and took a bite out of an apple.

"Plus he's super hot so even if it does get serious you hit the jackpot," Lisa added oh-so-helpfully from the couch in the living room. They were both hanging around watching me like the latest episode of some terrible reality TV show.

I groaned. These two had no idea how serious it already was. It was too intense and he definitely wasn't thinking casually. But maybe it would be okay if he followed all my rules. Although his acceptance of them had been shaky at best.

I almost brought my finger to my mouth to chew my nail before I realized what I was doing and forced myself to stop.

"He is obviously into you." Lisa added.

I could have groaned again. "I know that."

"And you're obviously into him or you wouldn't have let it get this far."

"Ugh, shut up. I know."

"You've just gotta relax and enjoy the ride, girl. I need to live vicariously through you. I've only seen him a couple of times, but that was enough to know that Parker is on a whole other level." Lisa dramatically fanned her face as she leaned her head back.

"Porter," I corrected. I didn't care that she kept getting his name wrong, because she was abysmally terrible with them. Instead, it annoyed me that she so obviously found him attractive. Which was crazy, because normally I wouldn't care if she thought a guy I had slept with was obvious eye candy. I would have agreed and went on without a second thought.

The good thing about Lisa's opinion was that my annoyance overshadowed my nervousness for just long enough for there to be a knock on the door. I nearly jumped out of my skin and then froze and stared at it.

Daria rolled her eyes. "Do you want me to get it?" she asked.

"No," I said, and I hurried forward. It was, unsurprisingly, Porter. He didn't look nearly so tired as he had the other night, and even the lingering weariness didn't stop him from looking as good as ever to me, maybe better, if I were being honest, but maybe it was just because it had been so long since I had seen him properly. "Hey, Amanda."

"Hey," I repeated like a automaton.

He glanced at my roommates who were both annoyingly gawking at him. "Hey, Lisa, Daria."

They repeated his greeting just like I had done. It was super awkward.

"Well, I'm ready to go," I said, and I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the room. "See you two later," I called behind me as I shut the door and then rushed him away towards his truck.

He had a half-smile on his face, stuck somewhere between amused and bemused. "Eager?"

"To get out of there? Yes."

He chuckled. "Sorry I didn't bring you flowers, but I seemed to remember you yelling at me about how you didn't want any."

"It's fine. I'm not really the flower type." I'd had enough with flowers and I just wanted to put them behind me and start fresh with him.

We both got in, and he was quick to put the truck in gear and drive us to the theater, our conversation casual. I still felt nervous, like I was walking into dangerous territory, but at the same time I didn't want to be away from him even if that felt like what I should do to be safe. It was probably my instincts that were all screwed up so I pushed them aside.