Missed Connections by Tan-ni Fan Read Free Book Online Page B

least the appearance of chaperoning them, so he went too. Even though they made fun of him for it.
    Since Maria and Emily were too young for bars, it was more coffee shops, and also bookstores and a few boutiques that stayed open later.
    Emily and Maria spent an unreasonably long time cooing over a coffee table book about giant molas. The huge fish didn't get any less absurd looking in the gorgeous, richly colored photographs. Emily gave Rob the full story on their lifespan, their habits, and their spectacular non-endangeredness. "Aren't you going to tell me about their sex life too?" Rob asked.
    "Ew, I do not want to hear the word sex from your lips, Rob," Maria said.
    Rob felt eyes on him, and looked up to see Jack, sans lumberjack, giving him a blank-faced onceover.
    Well, screw him and his scowls and his blank faces. Rob smiled sweetly and said, "Hey, Jack. How's it going?"
    Jack bit his lip, which Rob had to admit was cute but worrisome if it meant that Rob's presence was unsettling him, and said, "Okay. You?"
    " Awesome ," Rob said. "Showing my girls around town tonight."
    Emily kicked him and gave him a light playful slap. "Do not call us your girls," she said. Turning to Jack, she said, "My name is Emily, and this is my sister Maria. Rob is our lame big brother. What's your name?"
    Rob thought this was a great time to just let Emily do whatever she was going to do, and watch to see if anything was revealed.
    Jack gave Emily and Maria the smile he withheld from Rob, and allowed them to draw him in to a conversation about their dive the next day. Jack even asked Maria if Rob was going. "No, he's just too much of a wimp to dive," she said, and Rob knew he was supposed to object and even to list off a couple of ways he was not a wimp—they had done this ritual before—but he didn't bother, instead just smirking as he followed along. Jack registered a slight surprise, but nothing more, and the conversation was soon over.
    On the way back to Rob's place, Emily said, "So you've got the hots for him, right? Does he like you back?"
    "I think the hots is a bit strongly stated, but no, Jack doesn't like me at all," Rob said. "It might even be the opposite."
    "Too bad," Maria said. "You guys would be cute together. You almost look alike."
    "I don't think so," Rob drawled.
    "What do you think, Emily?" Maria asked.
    "Not so much alike, but like—coordinated. Like when you have clothes that don't match in color and material, but they just look good together."
    "First time I ever heard of a potential boyfriend described as a fashion accessory," Rob said. "Not that there appears to be any potential there."
    Maria gasped. "You've lost your ridiculously overblown self-confidence, old man. Never thought I'd see the day."
    "I don't think my self-confidence is overblown. I know I'm a competent and likeable guy. I don't think I'm the hottest thing ever."
    Emily nodded. "Likeable. But maybe you don't think you're loveable? Maybe that's why you don't have a boyfriend?"
    "Maybe I'm more concerned about getting a job than getting a boyfriend just now," Rob said.
     
    A maternal message
    Rob got a job. It wasn't in his field, and it wouldn't advance his career, but it would pay his rent, buy food, and make a small dent in his loan. He didn't mind cooking pancakes and omelets all morning. It left him with the afternoons to trawl the job sites and post very carefully-calibrated comments on blogs and forums focused on environmental science. So he wasn't too worried. It had only been a month since graduation, anyway. Emily and Maria came for another dive too.
    He was just getting home from work one afternoon when his phone emitted the special cricket chirp he had assigned to texts from his mother. It was short:
    Call me when you get a chance.
    He had a chance right then, so he did, as soon as he kicked off his shoes and got himself a glass of water and a bowl of peanuts. "So hey, Mom, what's up?" He gave equal odds it was a disaster relating to