Leo gave me a sceptical look.
“I mean it,” I said. “I could relax around you because of your personality when we first met. I know Atticus isn’t doing it on purpose, but he’s not exactly the most welcoming person, is he? He’s shy, which makes me shy, and so we can’t click the way — ” I cut myself off.
Leo looked at me for a few seconds. “You think I’m pretty?”
“I’m not trying to emasculate you or anything,” I said. “Should I call you handsome instead? Or hot —”
“No,” Leo interrupted. He paused, and when he spoke, his voice was quieter than before. “I like the word pretty.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “No one’s ever called me that before.”
That made sense. Leo wasn’t pretty in the traditional sense of the word. He wasn’t pretty like a girl, with full lips and long lashes. He wasn’t pretty like a celebrity, with high, hollow cheekbones and a ski-slope nose. No, he had thick brows, a large nose, and his lips were slightly chapped, probably because we’d spent five minutes walking through chilly evening air.
“You really don’t mind?” I asked.
He shook his head, looking down at his glass. “It’s nice to be complimented.”
“Aren’t you complimented all the time?”
“Are you, Winnie?” he asked.
I thought about it. “Mostly by girls and gays.”
“I think most guys like me can count the number of times we’ve been complimented on one hand.”
“Guys like you?” I asked. “You mean, straight guys?”
He squirmed and didn’t really reply, just mumbled something indistinguishable.
“I’ve complimented you a bunch,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, when you thought we were on a date,” he said.
“I guarantee you, if you go on a date with a girl, she’ll compliment you too.” I paused. “You have been on a date before, have you?”
He squirmed and mumbled something again, but I didn’t let him get away with it this time.
“What was that?”
He drained the rest of his water. “In my first semester, this girl I sat next to in a class asked me to hang out. I thought we were just hanging out as friends.”
“What happened?”
“We went to a cafe, and then we went on a walk. There was this river with boats you can hire, and she wanted to go in it, so I said okay, so I rowed the boat with her in it.”
“Like Ariel and Eric inThe Little Mermaid?”
“Yeah.” He wasn’t looking at me. “And later, she tried to kiss me.”
“Tried?”
“Well, I dodged her.”
“And then?”
“Then I made some dumb excuse and got out of there.”
