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felt sorry for me!” she continued, groaning as she thought back on her pathetic excuse for a date. “They kept looking over with these pitiful eyes. I thought I was going to die!”
    “Dramatic much?”
    “I didn’t even get to use my fucking line!” Riley grumbled, slurping loudly on her drink in annoyance.
    “Your line?”
    “Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way,” she lamented dejectedly.
    At this, Max perked up slightly. My plan is working, he thought excitedly to himself. It’s really working! Evan was right for once!
    “Yea,” he agreed with an encouraging nod. “Maybe you should just chill out for a bit, take some time for yourself, you know? Just wait until the right guy comes to you ,” he continued, fighting back the urge to grin in joy.
    Or at least until I’m ready to come clean, he couldn’t help but silently add. “Maybe—”
    “No, not like that , Max!” Riley blurted out in exasperation. “I’m totally going to keep dating. I just need to step up my game!”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I just have to stop eating French fries, start lifting at the gym, become a beer connoisseur, buy some non-clacky boots, enroll in a programming course—”
    “What?”
    “I need to stop being such a failure, or else I’ll end up running a cat shelter!” she concluded. “Tell me the truth—do you think I’ll ever find anybody to love me again? Because, at this point, I really doubt it.”
    “Stop being so negative. You’ll find someone soon,” Max reassured her, his cheeks turning slightly pink as he held back all of the words that he desperately wanted to confess. 
    “No, I won’t,” she mumbled dejectedly. “I really don’t think I will.”
    “Yes, you will.”
    “Lie or no lie?” Riley quietly asked, looking up at Max with saddened eyes.
    “No lie,” he firmly replied, causing a tiny smile to form on her lips that prompted him to continue. “Someone who’ll love you for who you are. Someone who gets you.”
    “That was Noah!”
    “Someone other than Noah,” Max said through clenched teeth. “Stressing out over all of these random guys isn’t going to help you, you know. You should just take a break and let the right guy come along. Who knows? You might find him when you least expect it. Maybe... Maybe he’s even standing right in front of yo—”
    “You’re right,” Riley groaned, causing Max to straighten up in his seat in anticipation. “You’re totally right.”
    “I am?” Max squeaked out, gulping down the lump that had formed in his throat.
    Don’t freak out, Fletcher, he urged himself, clearing his throat as he gave Riley a small smile. Of course she noticed. How could she not? Either you’re not as slick as you think, or she’s not as dumb as she loo —
    “The problem isn’t me ! I just need to stop stressing out over all of those useless guys !” Riley sighed dramatically, prompting Max to immediately draw back his hand, which had been inching across the table towards her own. “Who cares if they didn’t like me? I need to grow some balls. Some big, titanium, indestructible balls, don’t you think?”
    “B...balls?”
    “So what if Brendan thought I was an unsophisticated airhead?” Riley continued, lifting her chin in drunken determination. “And who gives a shit that the only guys I actually seem to attract have bad breath or creepy smiles? Not me!”
    “You sure about that?”
    “From now on, I’m going to date like I don’t give a flying fuck ,” Riley boldly declared, finishing off her drink with a loud slurp. “Just like you motherfuckers,” she added in a loud slur, prompting the group of guys at the next table to glance over in amusement.
    Max didn’t respond, choosing instead to stare back at her with a giant frown on his face. What the fuck? Wasn’t she supposed to be sick and tired of dating by now? Shouldn’t she have given up?
    She seems more determined than ever, he couldn’t help but moan in his head as she