Olivia crawls over and we lie side by side. “So what do you think?” she whispers, nodding toward Seth and Drew, who are busy throwing watery snowballs at each other.
I smile. “He’s really nice.”
“You’ve had that smile plastered on your face for the last three hours,” she says, nudging me.
I grin even bigger. “Okay, okay, I’ll admit this is the most fun I’ve had in a while.”
“You know, we’ll never hear the end of it when Nonna hears you had a good date.”
I scoot in closer. “Then let’s not tell her. After what she did, we should make her sweat a little.”
We both laugh. Out of nowhere, a huge clump of snow hits me square in the face.
Once I brush the mess from my eyes, I see Seth backing away from me, guilt all over his face.
It feels like time is frozen. I let him squirm until I can’t hold the laugh in any longer. “Oh, you’re going to get it now!” I scoop up a handful of snow and start pelting him. Before long, we’re in a full-fledged snowball war—boys against girls.
It only ends once we’ve been shooed off by the attendant working the event. At this point, we’re all wet, a little cold, and tired from all the laughing.
Drew pulls Olivia inside a photo booth while Seth buys us two hot cocoas from a pushcart.
“Let’s sit here,” Seth says.
We plop down on a bench near the edge of the festival.
“I can’t believe I’ve never come to this before,” I say. I was worried we’d be fumbling around for conversation, but I’m surprised how easy the entire afternoon has been.
“We come every year. The whole thing’s sort of cheesy, but it’s fun getting out of town and doing something different.” He waits a second before continuing. “Olivia told me about your ex-boyfriend and your grandmother’s solution.”
I feel my cheeks turn red. I hope he thinks it’s from the cold. “Yeah, leave it to my grandmother to make things interesting.”
Seth chuckles. “Well, it sounded crazy at first, but I’m glad Olivia picked me for your first date.” He sits up a little taller. “I’m hoping to make everyone else look bad.”
I smile. “Yeah, it will be hard to compete with a snowball fight in Louisiana.”
“Let me give you my number,” he says. “Seriously, when this thing is over, maybe we can go out again. I’ve had a lot of fun today.”
When I take out my phone to add Seth’s number, I see a string of notifications from Griffin. Seth sees it, too.
“Is that your ex?” he asks.
I nod. “Yeah. We really haven’t talked since we, um, broke up.”
Seth takes my phone but instead of adding his contact, he opens the camera, and flips it so we’re in the frame.
“Okay, smile,” he says.
I smile but Seth crosses his eyes, and puckers his lips. He snaps a picture as soon as I start laughing, then adds his number to my phone, assigning the image to his contact. He sends a text from my phone to his.
“I’ll get us some more hot chocolate,” he says. I look at the picture, which is cuter than I thought. I feel my cheeks heat up. I reallyhavehad fun tonight.
But then Griffin’s face steamrolls over those warm and fuzzy thoughts. When I see another notification from him, it’s like a bucket of cold water was just poured over me. I can’t help but open the messages.
GRIFFIN:I guess you’re just going to keep ignoring me
GRIFFIN:I want to talk to you. I want to see you
GRIFFIN:Can I see you tomorrow? I’ll meet you anywhere
