Read Online Just You by Rebecca Phillips - Free Book Online

talking about crack.”
    Now he laughed. “Good to know.”
    I clammed up then. How do you segue into a
different topic after a beginning like that?
    “Well…” Michael said. He was lost for words
himself, it seemed.
    “Well…”
    “Do you like horror movies?”
    This question was so unexpected that I sat
there stunned for a moment, unsure how to answer. “Yes,” I finally
said.
    “Majestic Theater is having a movie marathon
on Saturday, for Halloween. A few of us are planning on going. Do
you want to go?”
    My mind started whirling. “I…um…”
    “Not for the whole day,” he said when I
failed to produce an actual answer. “We’re going around eight for a
couple of movies. It ends at midnight.”
    Robin , I thought with pure loathing
in my heart. This was all her. Still, I could feel my resolve
weakening, bit by bit. And then, finally, it shattered
completely.
    “Okay,” I said, accepting defeat. “I’ll
go.”
     
    ****
     
    I called Robin the second I hung up with
Michael, but she didn’t answer. Coward . After three more
attempts, I gave up and went to bed. The next day I tried her
again, when I knew she’d be home, and she must have realized she
couldn’t hide from me forever because she finally picked up.
    “What’s new?” she asked, brimming with
innocence.
    “Scary movie marathon?”
    “Oh!” she said, all excited, like she
couldn’t have cared less that I was onto her little scheme. “Are
you going? Did Michael ask you?”
    “Yes and yes. Are you going?”
    “Of course.”
    “Did you really give him my number?”
    “Of course!”
    “And you suggested he call and ask me to
go?”
    She gave an impatient sigh. “Um, no, you big
dork. All I did was supply him with your number. Inviting you to
the movie marathon was his idea, thank you very much. And he asked me for your number, dumbass. I didn’t force him into
anything. I’m just the liaison here, you know, not freakin’
Cupid.”
    “But…”
    “But nothing. He likes you. He thinks you’re
cute. God, you’re such an old lady sometimes, Tay. Let yourself
have some fun. Be happy. I promise it won’t hurt.”
    “If all you’re going to do is insult me and
call me names, I’m hanging up now.”
    She snorted. “You know I’m right.”
    “Ha.”
    “Listen, I know you don’t want to date
anyone after what happened with Brian, and you think all guys are
shits, but it’s not like anyone’s asking you to marry Michael and
have ten of his babies. Jesus.”
    Emma came into the kitchen then to get a
granola bar and/or spy on me, so I gathered my phone and chocolate
milk and retreated to my room. “Is this even, like, a date?” I
asked, sinking down on my unmade bed. “I mean, he said ‘Do you want
to go’ not ‘Do you want to go with me ’.”
    “Hmm, let’s see,” she said, like a parent
explaining something obvious to a dimwitted child. “He calls you up
and asks you to the movies but it’s not a date? Please.”
    My gaze fell on the crumpled sheet of paper
on my night stand, the one I’d used last night to copy down
Michael’s phone number from the call display. Already, without even
looking, I could recite those seven numbers off by heart. Even my
memory had it in for me.
    “What the hell am I doing?” I said, more to
myself than to her.
    “Um, having a life? Moving on from the
asshole who cheated on you? Giving someone else a chance? Going for
it? Take your pick.”
    I exhaled. “All of the above?”
    “Right on. There’s hope for you yet,
Granny.”

Chapter 7
     
     
    My first mistake was letting Robin help me
get ready.
    “I have two words for you,” she said.
“Ample. Cleavage.”
    “I have two words for you ,” I said.
“ No and way .”
    She shook her head at me and continued to
dig through her closet. It was Saturday evening, after dinner.
Robin had spent the day with me at my dad’s house, where we babysat
both kids while Lynn worked, Dad corrected papers in his office,
and Leanne did