She sets the box on my desk and studies my face and slides into the chair facing me. “I’ve waited long enough for you to crack. Spill. What happened?”
“Nothing—”
“You were glowing and kept touching your mouth. Now you’re googly-eyed like you haven’t slept in a century.” She gasps. “You kissed him!”
My face must betray me. I’ve never been good at lying. Keeping secrets, namely from my parents, is another story.
Just like that, their situation keeps intruding into what should be a cloud nine kind of day, week. Instead, it’s gloomy outside … and inside.
Thomas and Pauline appear behind Mindy like a pair of gossip-seeking missiles. “Who kissed who?”
“Winnie kissed Patton!” Mindy announces.
“I didn’t—we—it was mutual.”
Pauline clasps her hands under her chin, a sucker for romance.
Thomas does a weird jump-jog in place motion. “You’re totally winning the bet!”
The bet.
A bitter wind freezes me all over.
Make Patton smile at the Fireman’s Ball. Prove he’s not asgrouchy as everyone thinks. Win bragging rights and avoid doing the mascot dance at the Parks and Recreation Regional Convention.
It feels dirty. Wrong. Manipulative.
“Maybe we should cancel the bet,” I say quickly.
Mindy holds up her arm like a crossing guard flashing a stop sign. “No way! Do you want to dance in a mascot suit in front of two hundred professionals? Sleep in the same room as Thomas?”
I shudder.
He adds, “Besides, you’ve clearly already won.”
“Anyway, if I win, how does that benefit you?”
He waves his hand dismissively.
Pauline nods in agreement. “You’re smitten and?—”
Thomas cuts in, “With a fireside flush after coming in from the slopes.”
“That is very specific, but I’m not?—”
“All you have to do is make sure he has a good time at the Fireman’s Ball,” Mindy says firmly. “Which, given the way he looks at you, won’t be hard.”
They’re not wrong. Patton is already smiling around me and opening up. The bet feels like a sneaky matchmaking scenario at this point. But it still sits wrong in my chest. Forms a lump in my throat. Causes a pit in my stomach. Because I agreed to it.
“I should get back to work,” I mutter, opening the Dot’s Dots doughnut holes box to avoid their knowing looks.
“You mean daydreaming about a certain fireman.” Mindy winks as they go back to their desks.
An hour later, I pass the storage closet on my way to the copier. The door hangs open. The squirrel mascot head sits on the shelf, staring at me with its maniacal smile.
I glare at it. “I’m never wearing you again.”
“I don’t know,” a deep voice says behind me. “You were the cutest chickaree squirrel I’ve ever seen.”
