“Arthur,” I say, the name falling out of my mouth with ease.
Betsy giggles. “Cute. Using your boyfriend’s middle name as your lead.”
My blood chills.
“Huh?”
She narrows her gaze at me. “Aaron. His middle name is Arthur. Aaron Arthur Everett.” She raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t he tell you that’s his middle name?”
I blink, trying to recover. “I mean, yeah, of course he did, I jus,t uh… picked the name before I met him,” I say softly, my heart beating like a freight train.
Shit. What are the odds?
Lola awws as she looks up from her phone. “It’s like fate!” she says.
“Now that I can agree with,” Shannon says as she starts to clean up the empty containers and packaging on the table.
“Yes, it kind of does seem that way, doesn’t it?” Betsy says with a wink and I can’t help but blush.
“So, where are you in the book?” Shannon asks as she washes her hands and carefully starts to arrange the strawberries on her board.
I work on laying out the cheese slices on my board. “Oh, um… I guess I’m in the middle.”
“What happens next?” Lola asks as she comes by me to steal a piece of cheese.
“Lola!” Betsy smacks her hand. “Don’t eat all the cheese before it's even done, missy!”
Lola whines, and Betsy turns to grab something from the fridge. I offer her two slices of the Fontina she’d stolen. She grins at me as I wink at her.
“I, uh… don’t know,” I say, figuring it’s the truest thing I’ve said yet.
“Just got to the point in the book where they kissed, and things are weird, so not quite sure where they’re going to go from there.”
Shannon starts arranging bowls on the board among the fruit.
“Who kissed who?” Betsy asks. I tense.
“Um, does that matter?” I raise an eyebrow.
Lola nods, stealing a strawberry from her mom’s board.
“Of course it matters!” she says dramatically. “It’s about the intent, duh.”
Intent?
“She’s right,” Shannon says with a shrug. “What are you trying to say with the kiss? Are you trying to show something in particular? Is the attraction one sided or—”
“Is it a lead up to the big bang?” Lola asks and her mother yelps.
“Lola!”
“What? I’m just saying, usually it starts with a kiss and—”
The air around me thins, and suddenly I feel very on the spot.
“I—I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s going to get…” I clear my throat. “Steamy. Jackson is…”
Trying to keep his head above water and not make the same mistake twice.
