"I know you said you don't want to meet anyone else, but I want to introduce you to just one more person." Toby says.

Placing down the last food on the table I avoided looking at my older cousin, ever since I broke up with my ex late last year, he's been trying to hook me up with one of his friends, and they've all been terrible.

"You're being rude."

I honestly didn't care, and I know that's rude to the person he's trying to introduce me to, but if he was in my shoes, and his cousin kept trying to hook him up with all his weird friends he'd be rude too. Not going to lie, I was curious if this one was good looking or not, so I slyly pulled out my pocket mirror to see what this guy looked like.  Let me tell you, he was beyond beautiful with his dark skin and chocolate eyes that both matched mines.

"And."

Once I seen him in my pocket mirror, it was becoming harder and harder for me to pretend like I wasn't interested in at least talking to him. No matter how much I wanted to turn around, I kept telling myself I have to keep pretending like I'm more interested in setting up the picnic table.

"Can you at least say hi."

Rolling my eyes with my head slanted to the side, I turned around to face my cousin. Although I seen the man standing next to him in my pocket mirror, he looked even better now that we were face to face, the mirror did not do him justice.

"Hello."

Toby stood next to him with his hand on his hip as he rolled his eyes, undoubtedly saying she's so fake in his head. Which I'm not going to lie, I definitely was being super fake.

"HeLlO." Toby mocked.

"I'm Thomas." Tom stuck his hand out, I looked at it for a while and then I shook it. The handshake was embarrassingly long, you know those handshakes where you both keep shaking because you expect the other person to stop, but no one ever does.

"Renee."

From the corner of my eye I could see Toby standing there with his hands together, cheesing really hard, as if shaking his hand was somehow a marriage proposal.

"Nice to meet you."

"Same- how did you two meet?" Tom and Toby quickly glanced at each other and then let out a long laugh, as if it were a long funny story that would take forever to explain. The more they laughed the more I wanted to know.

"That doesn't really matter, but I've been telling him all about you."

Knowing Toby, that probably meant what they did when they met was a little less than legal. Criminal activity's always had a way of finding Toby, and for some reason he always got away with it. Nothing serious, but still a crime, nevertheless.

"He has."

"You guys need to go on a date!" Toby says. More like Toby decided, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind going out on a date, I just don't want anything serious right now.

"Tobias, you cannot force someone to go on a date."

I glanced over to Tom sort of hoping he would agree with me, but judging off the fact that he wasn't rejecting the idea, told me he wasn't going to reject the idea at all.

"I don't mind, if you don't mind." Tom states.

I didn't mind, as long as it didn't lead to anything serious. It had been a while since I've been on a real date, so at this point, I almost welcomed the idea, it could be fun.

"Fine."

"Great, I already have a great place for you to go." Toby says. "It's called the rose grill over on brook avenue!" Toby was too excited, a little more than he needed to be.

"Well, I'm going to go hang this banner up."

I took a quick spin on the heel of my feet and made my way over to the two trees facing the entrance when I heard Toby invite Tom to help me, and then Tom's heavy footsteps walking behind me.

"Great, Tom can help."

Hearing him suggest that, I chose not to reject Tom's help, after all the banner was a bit heavy and definitely a two persons job. So I continued to walk in the direction of the trees.

"I have a confession to make." Tom states as he glances over his shoulder.

I had decided since Tom just had to be here, I would let him struggle to put the banner up, alone, while I made sure the banner was straight. Or at least I pretend to be making sure it was straight.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, your cousin told me about you a while ago." Yeah, Toby literally said that before we walked away. Well before I walked away, to hang the banner, long before I decided Toby was going to hang it.

"Yeah, I know."

At this point I found myself no longer interested in this conversation. So I pulled out my phone and began to scroll through social media, I know rude, and if my nana could see me now she would without a shadow of doubt called me out on it.

"I know you know, but what you don't know is I've sort of been stalking you."

My head shot up quickly and I just stared at him for a while in silence. I never had a stalker before, or at least not one who admitted he was stalking me, and yet I didn't know how to feel.

"I'm only joking- about the stalking part."

"When T told me about you I looked you up on instagram, and then Facebook, that's when I learned you were an artist." Tom continued.

"You looked up my website, didn't you?" He looked up my website, I honestly don't know why that thing is even still up, I hadn't updated the thing in nearly three years, and I don't have any plans on updating it anytime soon.

"I did, your paintings are beautiful."

"No they're not, but thank you anyways." My paintings are okay at best, it's just something I picked up because apparently I'm not allowed to drink dark liquor anymore.

"They are, why did you stop painting?"

"Huh?" I asked, glancing up from my phone, I had no idea what he was talking about. Any conversation we were having before I looked down at my phone was out of my mind.

"I noticed you haven't posted any new paintings in almost three years."

"I lost inspiration." In the past I've lost inspiration, one minute I had it, the next minute it was gone, but it was nothing that lasted longer than a few months, this one was different though, its been three years since I even picked up a paint brush, and I don't see myself doing so anytime soon.

"Well hopefully you'll find some soon."

Once again it got extremely quiet, and we both know at this point how uncomfortable Tom gets when things grow silent.

"I hope me looking you up doesn't ruin my chance at getting a date."

 To be honest I didn't know how I felt about it yet. So as soon as the sound of my family talking and laughing filled the air. I began to turn my feet in the direction of my family.

"The reunion is starting now; we better leave before someone eats all nana's banana pudding."