Chapter 4

Patrick stood in front of a mirror in his house studying the outfit he had on. He had on jeans and a t-shirt with a zip-up hoodie to go over it. He rolled his eyes at himself. What the hell was he worried about? They were grabbing coffee, for fuck’s sake. He turned his back on his reflection deciding that the outfit would just have to do.

The problem was he didn’t quite know how to dress. Gabrielle had asked him to get coffee, but was it a date? He wasn’t quite sure, hence the problem with what he should wear. If it was just coffee, then he was dressed appropriately. If it was a date and it was so late in the day, there was a potential for getting dinner after and his outfit would definitely limit their options for food. Oh man, he sounded like a girl right now.

He grabbed his car keys and left his house before he could second guess himself any more. After entering the address into his GPS he followed the directions. He parked his car and walked in exactly at 4. At least his fuss with his clothes hadn’t made him late. He looked around for Gabrielle and spotted her in line.

“Hey, Gabrielle,” he greeted her, walking over. She spun around and her eyes went wide. Was that in surprise? It couldn’t be.

“Patrick!” she exclaimed. She definitely sounded surprised. He wasn’t sure what to do at this point, so he went with the first thing that came to mind.

“Sorry if I’m late. I wasn’t exactly sure where this place was,” he told her. Her eyebrows shot up and she cocked her head to the side.

“Late for what?” she asked. What the hell was going on?

“Coffee,” he replied dumbly.

“Coffee doesn’t like to be kept waiting?” Sarcasm was mixed in with her confusion.

“I’m sorry, I thought we were meeting for coffee today. Did I get the wrong day?” Now she was looking at him like he was crazy. Maybe he was. He didn’t imagine that text, did he?

“We were meeting for coffee?” Okay, he’d had enough. He pulled out his phone and searched for the text, finding it a minute later.

“This is your number, right?” he asked, showing her the text.

Her eyes narrowed as she studied the screen before opening wide. Her jaw dropped and then something else besides surprise and confusion appeared in her face. Was that anger? Had he done something to upset her?

“Excuse me for a moment,” she said.

He just nodded as he watched her walk out of line and over to a table where a man and a woman sat. The words she was using weren’t audible, but he could feel the anger radiating off of her from the other side of the coffee shop. The man looked stunned at the exchange passing between the two women, but the woman Gabrielle was talking to just looked amused.

“I’d sleep with one eye open if I were you!” Gabrielle yelled over her shoulder to the woman as she made her way back over to him.

“Is everything okay?” he asked with worry.

“Everything’s fine. I’m just going to have one less friend in the morning.”










I walked into the usual coffee shop with Paige after work on Wednesday of that week. She’d actually been really good the last two days. She hadn’t mentioned Patrick or the fact that I was going to my second hockey game on Friday once since we got coffee on Monday. To be honest, I was surprised, but I wasn’t complaining.

“He’s already got a table!” Paige called out when we walked in.

“He?” I asked. I watched her rush over to a table near the window and lean over to kiss the guy sitting there. Her boyfriend Harding was there with a coffee already sitting on the table for himself and Paige.

“Hello, Gabrielle. I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything, but I didn’t know what you’d want,” he greeted me when I made my way over.

“Hi. I didn’t know you were coming today,” I replied.

“Sorry, I guess I forgot to tell you. It’s okay, right? He has an early flight in the morning so he wanted to take me out for an early dinner but we already had plans to come here. I figured it wasn’t a problem,” Paige explained.

“It’s not, I don’t mind. This way I get to be the third wheel, which is super fun!” I joked. I really didn’t mind at all. I liked Harding a lot, and if he was there it would keep Paige’s nagging on me down to a minimum.

“Oh, I wouldn’t count on that,” Paige said. I gave her a strange look not really sure what that meant. Instead of asking I walked over to the counter and got in line to get myself something to drink.

“Hey, Gabrielle,” a male voice said from behind me. I turned around to see Patrick standing there. My eyes widened in surprise. What were the odds?

“Patrick!”

“Sorry if I’m late. I wasn’t exactly sure where this place was,” he told her. What was he talking about?

“Late for what?” I asked.

“Coffee,” he replied.

“Coffee doesn’t like to be kept waiting?” Something wasn’t making sense here, right?

“I’m sorry, I thought we were meeting for coffee today. Did I get the wrong day?” What the hell was he talking about? Patrick looked genuinely confused and I was equally as confused.

“We were meeting for coffee?” He pulled a phone out of his pocket and started scrolling through it until he found what he was looking for.

“This is your number, right?”

I looked at the screen and saw that it was in fact my number accompanying a text that asked him to meet me for coffee at 4:00 today. The only problem was that I’d never sent that text. Suddenly I remembered the last thing Paige had said to me. Anger boiled up in me as I realized exactly why she hadn’t brought up Patrick the last two days.

“Excuse me for a moment,” I told Patrick and stalked over to the table where Paige and Harding were sitting. “You did this!” I yelled at her. Harding looked up at me in shock and Paige just laughed.

“Did what?” I glared down at her.

“Don’t play innocent with me, Paige. You sent that text to Patrick, didn’t you?!” I spat at her. She grinned.

“So what if I did? He wanted to come. Are you just going to blow him off now?” she questioned.

“No, I’m not, but it wasn’t your place to do this!” I hissed.

“Maybe not, but you never would have done it,” she argued.

“This isn’t about me. You never even thought about what you were going to put Patrick through by tricking him like that. You never take anyone else’s feelings into consideration. I’m so angry that right now you’re dead to me.” I turned and started to walk away.

“You’ll thank me tomorrow,” I heard Paige say.

“I’d sleep with one eye open if I were you!” I yelled over my shoulder. I’d said some pretty horrible things to Paige, but knowing her, she didn’t take any of it seriously.

“Is everything okay?” Patrick asked.

“Everything’s fine. I’m just going to have one less friend in the morning.” I stood there for a moment in an awkward silence, not really sure what to do or say. Hoping he would get the hint I turned and walked out of the coffee shop.

“Don’t you want your coffee?” he asked, following me out.

“I just need to get out of here.” I started to walk down the street, not really sure where I was heading. I quickly realized Patrick was holding back a bit. “You coming?” I called back. I saw him smile and quickly move to catch up.

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to.” I stopped walking and looked at him.

“I really need to apologize. My friend Paige back there sent you that text and didn’t tell me about it. I can’t even begin to explain her rationale because it only makes sense to her. I’m really sorry,” I explained. His smile didn’t falter.

“It’s okay. Really.” Just as he finished assuring me I heard music start.

“I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world,” rang out.

Patrick and I both stopped in confusion trying to figure out where it came from. It continued to play and we both started looking around. Then I saw Patrick’s eyes go wide and his face flush as he pulled out his cell. He hit a button and the music stopped. I fought to hold back a smile and a laugh as he turned and looked at me, completely embarrassed.

“I guess we both have friends messing with us,” he said. Before I could respond, the song started again. I couldn’t hold back the laugh this time. “Excuse me.” He answered the phone and I could only hear his side of the conversation. “Since when do we pull shit like this on guys that aren’t Tazer or Kane?...Come on Burs, seriously?...I owe you big time.”

“Everything okay?” I asked with a smirk.

“Everything’s fine. I’m just going to have one less friend in the morning,” he joked using my line from earlier. I laughed and we continued to walk.

“I know it’s early, but I’m starving and going to grab something to eat. Do you want to join me?” I asked him.

“Sure, sounds good.”

Patrick and I walked into a tapas restaurant we saw as we walked. Despite any reservations I may have had towards Patrick, they all flew out the window as we talked. He was surprisingly easy to talk to. He told me a bit about his career and I told him a bit about mine. In fact, I think we both spent the entire dinner laughing.

I couldn’t believe it when I checked the time and saw that over two hours had gone by. We finally made our way out of the restaurant and went our separate ways. I didn’t even notice the smile I had on my face until I got home and saw it in the mirror. I hated to admit it, but maybe Paige had been right afterall.