1 Chapter 1

For the first time in a long time, Rob Hutchinson was nervous.

He had not been out on a date for the longest time, let alone a blind date. What was Ethan thinking? He cleared his throat and straightened the butter knife for the 14th time. This was ridiculous. He knew that Ethan and Julia had meant well, but he really should have said no. They didn't need to know the real reason, he could have made up some bullshit about not having the time for a relationship, or not wanting to date at the moment. The truth was, there was really only one person he wanted to date, and that person was off-limits. So the next option? Not dating. It should be that simple, but he knew that people were bound to ask questions if a 27-year-old single man was not interested in dating.

"Excuse me, are you Rob? Ethan's friend?"

He looked up at the soft voice, finding himself smiling at a petite brunette with large, Bambi-like eyes and long, loose curls cascading down her shoulders. He stood up to greet her. "Hi, you're Anna?"

"Yes, hi." She leaned up to kiss both his cheeks. "Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, that's alright. I didn't wait long." As he pulled out the chair for her, his mind was racing to think of anything, any possible subject to talk about. As he sat down, his eyes were fixed solely on his empty plate. "So, uh, was it hard to find the place?"

"No," she said simply, and that was that. He nodded, and found himself coughing. This was going to be much worse than he thought.

The waiter came and presented them with the menus, and Rob studied his as hard as he could, just to avoid conversation. Anna seemed to be doing the same, and already Rob was thinking of all the different ways he wanted to yell at Ethan for setting him up on this potential disaster. "So, what are you ordering?"

"Think I'm gonna go for the Waldorf salad."

"Cool. Might have the T-bone, myself."

There was something in her huge eyes that was unreadable. "If you say so."

That struck him as weird, but he didn't say anything as they folded their menus and gave their orders to the waiter. Again, Anna seemed to have that odd look on her face when Rob gave his order. After the waiter left, Rob found himself staring at the tablecloth, desperate for any topic to talk about. Fucking small talk.

"So, what time is Ethan coming?" Anna asked.

Rob blinked. "Ethan? He's coming?"

Anna looked equally surprised. "You mean he's not?"

"He told you he was?"

"I got the impression that..." Understanding dawned on Anna's face. "Oh wait, I get it now. This is a blind date, isn't it?"

Rob seriously didn't know what to say. "You mean, Ethan didn't tell you?"

She shrugged. "I thought this was going to be a dinner date. With him. And then he said that you'd be coming along. I didn't know that he wasn't going to come."

Rob was trying to think of all the ways he could kill Ethan and get away with it. "You and me both."

After that, they fell into a long and awkward silence, even when the food arrived. Rob had sort of lost his appetite, and Anna was picking gloomily at her salad. In the end, he really couldn't stand it and just had to say something.

"You came because of Ethan?"

Anna hesitated for a moment, then she finally nodded.

"You know he has a girlfriend, right?" Rob said quietly. Again a pause, then a nod.

"So why did-" Rob decided there was no point in continuing. "Look, why don't we just call for the check and go? I'm sorry about the whole damn thing."

"It's okay." She blinked her large Bambi eyes again, then gave Rob a nonchalant onceover. "You're a nice guy. Just not my type, you know? Sorry."

Rob was gripping his napkin so hard that his knuckles were turning white, but he simply smiled at her. "I get that a lot."

"Oh no, I didn't mean it like-"

"Let's just go home, okay?"

A sigh. "Okay."

After making sure that Anna managed to hail a cab, he turned and headed towards the parking lot, his mind whirling. Was he furious? Sad? Confused? Depressed? It was hard to tell, because the whole tempest of emotions was centered on Ethan. It was tempting to sit somewhere and feel sorry for himself, but it was even more tempting to go and strangle Ethan.

He stopped, then shook his head. Who was he kidding? Ethan was the last person in the world that he would ever lay a finger on.

Pressing the button on his car keys, his red Toyota beeped in response. Getting in, Rob rested his head against the steering wheel. He knew Ethan too well to suspect that the whole thing was a joke, so it must have been a tactic to get Anna to come to the dinner. Or maybe Ethan was trying to make her feel comfortable. Whatever his strategy was, it had tanked, and Rob was tired. More than tired.

All this drama could wait. It was time to go home.