𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐚 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 ✓

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐛𝐲 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

"That's a date," Jess argued.

  "It was not." Ezra countered. His face was flushed red as he tried to defend himself. It had barely been an hour after he got back home. Jess was awake and demanded to know where Ezra had taken their car. Of course, they were a lot less upset about it after hearing the reasoning.

  Ezra regaled his night to Jess in the same way a lovestruck fool would and yet was still trying to deny that it was a date.

  Of course, he wanted it to be a date. But, he wouldn't consider it as one unless Odessa did too and he had no way of knowing her opinion on it. So the safest bet was to assume that, no, it wasn't a date.

  "You went out to eat and talked about your aspirations, how is that not a date?" Jess rebutted.

  "It wasn't even planned."

"It doesn't have to be planned to be a date, Ezra." Jess sighed and shook their head. "You've been back for barely a few days and you're already on your playboy antics."

  "I am not nor have I ever been a playboy." Ezra laughed, sitting down on the couch next to Jess.

  "I distinctly recall you breaking up with Sara Peterson after a week of dating her because you didn't like the way she parted her hair."

  "That was in the second grade and we were not even dating, she just told everyone we were because she had a crush on me."

  The two laughed at the memory before Jess nudged Ezra in the side with their elbow. "So when are you going to get on the dating scene?"

  Ezra shrugged. "I don't know."

"You haven't known for twenty-four years." Jess chided.

  "And maybe I won't for another twenty-four years. Now stop pushing your matchmaking agenda onto me."

"No promises."

Ezra shook his head at Jess and busied himself with other things, namely checking emails. It wasn't a thing he ever really did, but it made him look like an adult with his life together when he checked his email.

  He logged onto his laptop and scrolled through mostly spam and junk until he came across something important. It was an email from his father, who only ever used the museum's business emails because he never bothered to set up a personal one.

   The email was without a subject and contained only a link. If it hadn't been from his dad, Ezra would have been wary of such an odd message. But, he clicked on the link anyway and watched the page load up. The website was for the Joshua Marley Art Association, the same group that was heading the event Ezra's father wanted him to enter.

   Ezra hovered his cursor over the button that read 'enter now'.

   Jess peered conspicuously over Ezra's shoulders.