My stomach drops and I'm suddenly too scared to turn around. Jack also looks briefly horrified, though it might be due to the fact that someone suggested him proposing to me. "What?" Jack snaps, while his hands busily fumble for the sunhat. "I am not proposing to anyone."

He places the sunhat on my head and it obscures my vision, practically covering half my face. "Oh?" says the voice, and I realize it's Irene. Fate seems to like torturing me, placing me in situations where I must endure nerve-wracking experiences. "Then... are you on a date, by any chance?"

"No," Jack says quickly. "We're strangers. We merely happened to be in the same place at the same time."

Irene looks skeptical. "That's right," I rush in, adopting my voice into a higher pitch. "I have no clue who this person is."

She squints at me before her eyes widen with realization. "The woman from the restroom?" she sputters and I take a step back. I've used my go-to fake voice without thinking.

"No," I snap aggressively. "What bathroom?"

"I swear, you're the person from the bathroom," Irene says. "You sound exactly the same."

"There was no person in the bathroom," Jack denies, stepping protectively in front of me. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Irene still looks doubtful. She tries to peer under my hat, but Jack blocks her view. "Alright," she says slowly, realizing her unwanted presence. "I'll get going, then. Sorry for interrupting your date."

"It's not a date," Jack and I cut in, before frowning at each other.

"Oh, okay," Irene says, backing up. "Anyways, goodbye."

She steals one last terrified look at us, before darting away. Perhaps the prospect of Jack dating someone fills her with terror. Jack frowns at Irene's departing figure. "Why is she so curious about my dating life?" he asks crossly.

"You've never shown interest in anyone," I reply. "So when you're suddenly in bathrooms and on dates with people, of course she would be interested."

"When I first joined the company, I thought it would be just work." Jack grimaces. "None of that high school drama BS. I'm being proved wrong with every passing day."

Jack joins me on the bench and I nudge him. "Makes your life interesting, no?"

"The worst kind of interesting." Jack lifts one of the dessert boxes. It seems we've been sidetracked from our date and Jack is back to his Romantic Male Lead self. "Tiramisu?"

"Please," I say, graciously accepting the dessert.

In a romance novel, the female lead eats the desert and it's so good, her delight is obvious. Because of the apparent delight, the male lead falls for her childishly adorable antics. Maybe I'll be like the protagonist, making Jack fall in love because of how I eat.

I take a delicate bite of the tiramisu. Jack watches me cautiously and I swallow. A rush of overly sweetness makes me want to spit out the entire dessert. "Is it good?" Jack asks and I battle a wave of nausea.

I frantically motion for water, but Jack merely looks confused. "What?" he says, bewildered. "Are you..."

His eyes widen in horror and he abruptly stands up from the bench. "You're not going to vomit, are you?"

I glare at him. Jack is being so helpful right now. "Don't get any closer," he warns, glancing nervously at me.

"Excuse me," I bark. "You're supposed to help me."

"I'll help you by staying ten feet away," Jack returns. "If you vomit on me, I'll bring help to your life."

I scoff. "If this was a real date, I would never see you again. Your family is going to be so confused as to why we're still dating after our first date."

"Well, I should've never brought up the date idea," Jack grumbles. "We should hear just made up a story and memorized it, to save ourselves from this torture."

"Okay," I say crisply. "This is torture for me, too, you know. You seem to be even more insufferable outside of work."

Jack shoots me a glare. "Likewise," he says. "We should get going, then, now that we've deemed this date useless."

I open my mouth to refute his words, before snapping my mouth shut. It seems our perfectly normal date has crashed and burned into nothing. As always, it is impossible to maintain an air of civility in front of Jack.

"Fine," I say childishly. "I'll get going. Goodbye."

With the overly sweet tiramisu incident forgotten, I stomp away in a random direction. I walk aimlessly for a few minutes, before finally recognizing our original date restaurant.

I scowl until I spot Roxie. My scowl turns to an expression of panic. I frantically look for a place to hide—behind a water fountain, a pole, a dog, anything. It's too late, though, and Roxie—with his notebook and pen by his side—spots me almost instantly.

"Isla?" he asks, pleasantly surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Before I can spew out some BS, I hear footsteps. I turn and, to my surprise, see Jack jogging towards me. "Wait," Jack says, huffing. "Isla, shouldn't we get a taxi together?"

I watch as Roxie's expression turns to curiosity. Then surprise. Then realization.

"What..." Roxie looks at me, then Jack, and then back to me. "What is going on here?"

Jack finally notices Roxie. Idiot, I mouth at him.

What? Jack mouths back indignantly, before turning to Roxie with an innocent smile. "Oh," he exclaims, as if noticing Roxie and I for the first time. "My bad. Wrong Isla."

Then he quickly walks off. I stare at his retreating figure in disbelief. Is he kidding me? That was obviously a lie and now he's leaving me to clean up his mess.

I whip out my phone and send one text message to Jack: you bastard.

His reply is almost instant: Meet me behind the Starbucks building.

I huffily shove my phone away and send Roxie a dazzling smile. "Isla is a very common name, you know," I say smoothly.

"It is?" Roxie asks, considering my words.

"Yeah, basically everyone I know is called Isla." I laugh. "My aunt, my neighbor, my neighbor's cat, you name it."

"Right," Roxie says slowly.

"Well." I clap my hands enthusiastically. "Now that that's settled, I should get back to... other stuff."

"I can walk with you," offers Roxie. "I'm pretty much done with my business here."

"No!" I say hastily. When I see his alarmed expression, I laugh nervously. "I mean, no need to come with me since"—my gaze lands on a random building, which just so happens to be an Apple store. "—I need to fix my phone."

"Oh, me too," Roxie says easily. "Let's go together."

"Wait, never mind," I say, pulling out my phone and tapping on the screen. The phone flashes open and a text message pops up: I'm waiting.

I quickly shove it behind my back, laughing idiotically. "Silly me, I forgot my phone was fixed last week."

That is surprisingly the truth, but now it seems like I'm making up random excuses. I feel guilty. "Sorry, Roxie," I say apologetically. "I appreciate your offer, but I can't walk with you today."

"Okay," he says, looking confused. "I'll see you at work, then."

He trudges away and I breathe a sigh of relief. I speed walk away behind Starbucks. Jack is waiting for me, leaned against the wall. "Took you long enough," he says, taking in my frazzled state.

"No thanks to you," I hiss. "What was up with that excuse about another Isla?"

Jack shrugs. "I couldn't think of anything else."

I give him an unamused look. "Now, why did you chase after me? I thought we were going our separate ways."

"Well, yes," Jack admits. "But think about it. If we share a taxi, we'll both save money."

Of course it's about the money. Still, Jack makes a fair point. "Fine," I say grudgingly. "Let's share a taxi."

The taxi ride is long and brutal. It seems time stretches on to infinity when I'm with Jack, in the worst way possible. "Right here," Jack tells the taxi driver, and the car pulls up against a curb.

He thanks the taxi driver and pays her. We both step out and I glance at Jack. "So how much do I owe you?" I ask.

"For what?" Jack replies.

I tick off the items off my fingers. "Dessert. Drinks. Taxi driver."

Jack waves off my concern. "It's fine," he says.

I look at him, astonished. "Wait, I'll feel bad if you pay for everything."

"You paid for your own dinner," Jack points out and I wrinkle my nose.

"That's different."

"Well, I forgot how much everything cost, so it's fine." I find that highly hard to believe, but I don't push it.

"Anyways. The wedding is coming up soon, and we're clearly lacking chemistry," Jack says.

I nearly groan. I almost forgot how soon the wedding would be. "We're lacking chemistry because you're constantly belittling me," I grumble.

"I'm not," he replies with a shrug. "I'm merely telling you what needs to be said."

I frown. "Whatever. I'm leaving now. Good night, Mr. Lim."

I whirl in the direction of my car when Jack suddenly reaches out. "Wait," he rushes out. "I have a good idea."

***

author's note:

typing a story on a phone hits different lol— anyway, question: what do you think jack's "good idea" is?