Only Fools

Chapter 2

"Nell! Nell, guess what!" Tara's loud voice in the morning is not what I wanted to hear. I put the pillow over my head, only to have it ripped from my grip and thrown onto the floor. I feel a weight on me, and I groan, doing my best to push Tara off of me.

"Look, I have a date for you." I immediately shake my head no and open my mouth to reject, but she cuts me off before I can get the words out. "No, now, Nelly it's been three years. You have to get back out there. Dillion would have wanted you to get back out there and find someone, he loved you that much. And it's not like you have to marry the guy, it's just a date. A double date with me and Tristan, come on, Nell, please." She begs, her weight still crushing my freshly awakened bones.

As good as it would feel to finally find someone to take my mind off Dillion all the time, it still feels so wrong.

"What's his name?" I ask, purely out of curiosity and she squeals, fumbling with her phone to pull up a picture quickly.

"Liam, he's 26. I know he's a little older but not too much, he's really sweet and works with Tristan so you know he makes decent money."

"I don't want his money," I remind her and she laughs. He's fairly cute. His light brown hair is clearly gelled and he's pretty toned, he must work out. Eh. As for looks he's not bad at all, he's pretty damn fine actually.

"I don't know, Tara," I say and she shakes her head.

"No," she commands. "You are going on this date. Tonight. 7:30. Shave your legs, and in between them," she winks. "Tristan will drive us to Robin's and he'll meet us there." I roll my eyes. Do I even own anything nice anymore?

With a huge sigh, carefully letting go of all the fucks I give, "fine," I say and push my blonde-headed best friend off my bed. I laugh when he hits the ground with a thud.

***

This dress doesn't fit right anymore. The last couple months have been fairly hard since it's holidays season. Dillion's mother invited me to thanksgiving, which I kindly declined. She seemed to understand, so she wasn't angry with me. I brush my hands across the red material of the skin-tight dress I bought last month for a wine party, but flaked last minute. Momentarily I think about flaking and come up with at least four good excuses to give Tara as to why I can't go tonight, but I persevere. I need this. I need this.

My hair falls in curls down my back and swiftly pin it away on the sides, showing off the perfect illusion of cheekbones I've given to myself. I stare at myself in the mirror for a long moment. It's been long, too long, since I've put this much effort into my appearance. All I can say is it better be worth it.

Tristan's car horn honks outside and I grab my clutch before taking one last look at my appearance and spritzing out the door.

***

Robin's was fairly busy tonight, so we had to wait 15 minutes for a table. Liam was running late, he got stuck in Friday Night Football traffic. Not our home team, a visiting team since it's playoffs. This is probably the one time of year there's ever any traffic in our little town. Me and Tara call it Radiator Springs like on Cars.

Once we're seated, Isabella takes our drink orders and me and Tara both order wine. Tristan orders a beer, of course, and just about the time she finishes our order Liam walks in.

His pictures did him no justice. He's tall, his green polo showing off his muscles perfectly. He wears a pair of nice blue jeans with his shirt tucked into them. As he approached us I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

"Hey, bud." He says, and shakes Tristan's hand. His voice is deep. He hugs Tara before acknowledging me.

"And you must be Penelope." I stand up to hug him, inhaling his cologne. He smells amazing.