An Excerpt From Cupid Grants a Second Chance
“Shopping?” Lexy stared at Nate. “You are asking me to go shopping? What alternate reality did I wake up in this morning? Aren’t guys allergic to shopping?”
“We are,” Nate said. “But we push through for a few select crucial occasions. Kid sister’s birthday makes the list.”
“Oh yeah?” Lexy laughed. “What else is on the list?”
“Top secret. Guy Code. I’ll be severely reprimanded if anyone finds out I even admitted there’s a list.”
Lexy laughed again, narrowing her eyes at him and tapping the tips of her fingers together in a distinctly evil-movie-villain gesture. “Oh, I’ll get more information out of you, Nate. We women have our secret ways, too. Girl Code. But first things first. How old is your sister?”
Nate remained silent, staring frozenly, as if hypnotized.
Evil finger tapping more powerful than I thought?
“Your sister,” she prompted. “How old?”
“Oh, right.” She watched him do the math in his head. “She’s turning twenty-seven.”
“Did she give you any hints?”
“Hardly a hint. She was very specific,” Nate said. “She wants a waterproof raincoat. Nothing ugly. Long enough to really keep her dry. Plus, she wants it to be warm enough but not too hot. She wants to be able to add layers underneath. There may have been more. I think I got the main points.”
Lexy nodded sagely. “I see why you need help.”
“I might take a stab at ‘nothing ugly’. Maybe. But the rest? No clue.”
“Fortunately, I have an excellent idea what constitutes the perfect length and ‘warm enough’. But my expertise will cost you!”
“Name your price,” Nate said over his shoulder as he walked toward his boss, who had motioned him over. “We’ll go tonight after work.”
Her phone vibrated on her desk with an incoming text. The Girls group chat again.
Ren: Hey ladies. Food Truck Festival is on all this week and we talked about going. It’s getting a ton of buzz. How’s tonight?
Lexy: I can’t tonight. Thursday?
Jules: What do you have going on tonight that’s more important?
Lexy: Ummm, Nate asked me to help pick his sister’s bday gift.
Ren: For that you would miss out on the Food Fighters truck, and trying their Big Me Burger or Thymes Like These Bowl???
Ren: JK. Thursday works.
Jules: More on this Nate thing then too…
“Any chance you were taking my help for granted?” she asked Nate when he handed her a second helmet as they left work together.
“I was hopeful you would take pity on a desperate coworker in his hour of need. If you couldn’t make it I planned to drag my buddy Connor along, but he knows even less about women’s raincoats than I do. Connor and I both owe you,” he added with a grin.
Lexy was hardly immune to the appeal of a guy who rode a motorbike. As she strapped on the helmet and hopped up behind Nate, wrapping her arms around his waist, she noticed Enrico slowly get into his car and watch them leave together.
Is that jealousy I detect in your smoldering gaze, Enrico?
Things like this didn’t normally happen to her. Cozied up on the back of a bike with one man, while another looked on enviously. Even if she was imagining the envy in Enrico’s eyes. It was too fun not to, and she was going to enjoy her rom-com-esque moment to the fullest! Lexy grinned and waved to Enrico as Nate took off.
Meg Ryan, eat your heart out!
