"And in this moment I know you feel like you know, Jos," Sophia said to me. "But what if you don't but you think you do?"
Now she was just confusing me. And I'm sure the look on my face told her as much.
"Just go on this date so we can all be sure," Sophia said. "So you can look back and know you took every precaution."
Did I need to go on a date to be sure? I'd already been on so many. And I was sure. I was. Okay, maybe I was ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure. But was anyone ever a hundred percent sure? Like Whit had said, I hadn't met every guy in the world, and I wouldn't ever do that. So did I need to be a hundred percent sure? Would this date make me feel a hundred percent sure? Now she had me second guessing myself.
But I didn't want to go on a date with anyone else. Maybe that was why I should?
I looked at Whit for clarity.
"If he's that hot, what can it hurt?" Whit asked. "Wait, the guy is really hot, right?"
Sophia nodded. "Smoking. He's the guy I had in my back pocket for you in case things went south with Easton. But I figure we need to play all of our cards right now. This is the moment of no return."
When Sophia put it like that, this was terrifying. I had to go on that date, didn't I? I sat there considering the date as Sophia continued to steal bites from my plate, and I was suddenly hit with a thought. Sophia was the biggest fan of Easton and me getting together. Now she was pushing me on a date with some other dude, and the excuse was a bit flimsy. Also, if she had some really hot guy for me to date, why hadn't she dated him herself? While Whit seemed to be somewhat wary of dating—I guess unless the guy was super hot, as present circumstances were demonstrating—Sophia was definitely not. Something smelled fishy ... and it wasn't the crab cakes the man behind me had ordered.
"What's this guy's name?" I asked Sophia, and she paused with a piece of waffle halfway to her mouth.
"Brad," she said a little too quickly after a pause. Fishy item number two.
"How do you know him?" I asked, and I gave Sophia a casual shrug as I asked the question so that I seemed a lot more innocent than I actually was.
"Work." She produced the answer to that question in a timely manner before popping the bite of waffle into her mouth. Okay, that seemed pretty normal. But I wasn't going to let it go.
"Why don't you want to go out with him?" I asked, and Sophia began to giggle, a sure sign that she was uncomfortable. Sophia tended to get nervous giggles. This was strike three, and I was at the bottom of it. There was no guy! I was sure of it. So what was Sophia doing?
"He's not my type," Sophia said through giggles. That was the biggest bowl of crock I'd ever been served.
"Hot is your type," Whit interjected, and Sophia shrugged.
"You know when you friend-zone a guy and can't get out? That's what happened to me," she said as she tried to focus on her meal.
But I could tell she was distracted. Because she was lying!
"You don't friend-zone hot guys," I said, tilting my head so that I could try to make eye contact with Sophia who now wouldn't look up. I failed.
"Sure I do," she said, all of her attention on her green toast.
"Why did you friend-zone him?" I asked, feeling a lot like Barbara Walters.
"What's with the twenty questions?" she shot back, looking up and meeting my eyes with a fire in her own. Oh, she was good. But thankfully I knew the woman well. This was a defense mechanism.
"Is it weird that I want to know more about a guy I'm going to be going on a date with? Especially after the whole Harry thing?" I asked, and Whit blushed.
"Again, I'm so sorry about that," she said. And because she looked so thoroughly ashamed, I patted her hand in forgiveness.
"It's already forgotten," I said, while Whit muttered, "Then why does it keep coming up in conversation?"
I smiled in amusement, but I had to focus on Sophia. If I let her out of my crosshairs, I was sure she'd get away with whatever she was trying to plan.
"There is no guy, is there?" I asked, and Sophia widened her eyes in a look of disbelief. But it was too exaggerated, and even Whit cocked her head in question at Sophia's look.
"No guy?" Sophia asked. "Of course there is a guy!" She spoke the words a little too loudly, and I knew she was about to cave soon.
"What's his number? Do you have a picture of him on your phone? What color is his hair? How old is he?" I threw out too many questions, and Sophia seemed sufficiently startled before she began to frown.
"Fine, there is no guy," she said, and I smiled triumphantly.
"Sophia!" Whit rebuked as her blue eyes went wide with disbelief.
"But I needed you to think there was a guy for the next phase of our plan," Sophia defended herself, and Whit shook her head.
"It can't be our plan if I'm not in on the logistics," I said, trying to give Sophia a stern look. But I was pretty sure it wasn't working. Sophia was rarely intimidated.
"It was a tiny detail," Sophia remarked.
"Fake guy? Not a tiny detail," Whit said, and I nodded in agreement.
"So what was the plan?" I asked.
"You would show up and Brad wouldn't. You'd be distraught, and I'd bring Easton to spy on the date with me. You know he's always up for that kind of thing."
He was.
"When he saw how unhappy you were, he'd come in to save you. Because that's all he's doing, right? Saving Priscilla. I needed you to be the damsel in distress, and I was sure he would pick you. He loves you, Josie," Sophia said.
I loved my friend for her belief in me and Easton, but I was beginning to wonder if it was unfounded. If Easton loved me, why was he marrying another woman?
"And before he would see that Brad wasn't showing up, he would feel unbelievable jealousy because you were on a date with another guy," Sophia said as she waved her hands along with her explanation.
I pursed my lips before saying, "Um, I've been on dates with dozens of other guys during my friendship with Easton. None drove him to jealousy."
"Because they were all losers. Brad isn't," Sophia said.
Whit narrowed her eyes. "Brad is fake."
"But he's a fake winner," Sophia responded, and I laughed.
"No, hear me out," Sophia said. "Easton has been sure that you will always be there for him because every guy you've dated is seriously flawed. But Brad isn't."
"Again, he's fake," Whit interjected.
"Again, that doesn't matter," Sophia said. "What matters is the feelings Brad brings out in Easton. I would tell Easton it's a third date."
Whit's eyes went wide, and even I felt my stomach tumble. I didn't do third dates. I hadn’t been on one since my brief relationship with Harry.
"That you were thinking about making things exclusive with Brad," Sophia added.
It was sad to admit, but I hadn't been exclusive with a guy since Harry. And I'd broken it off with him right after he and Easton had met and I’d realized I wanted to leave the pizza place with Easton, not my new boyfriend.
"How would Easton feel if the tables were turned?" Sophia asked.