Iwas almost to Grizzly Peak—I’d just reached Carthay Circle when my phone beeped with a text.
BRYONY:
Sure you don’t want to change your mind? You might not get another chance!
Under that, she’d sent me a picture of her and the Emmas waiting for the Guardians ride. She and Emma R. were smiling, but Emmas J. and Z. were locked deep in conversation, their heads bent together, neither one looking happy. I started walking again, texting as I went, which meant I wasn’t paying attention at all to where I was going—which was how I ended up colliding, hard, with someone who had stopped in the middle of the path.
“Ow!” I yelped, stumbling backward a few steps.
The guy I’d crashed into nearly fell over, wobbling before righting himself, but sending his phone, which he’d also been absorbed in, clattering to the ground. He turned around and my eyes widened when I realized it was Freddie. I’d literally stumbled into him! It was all making sense—thishadto be why I was here. Otherwise, would we keep literally bumping into each other like this?
“Oh no—so terribly sorry,” Freddie said. “Are you okay?”
“Hi! I mean—I’m fine. Hey, Freddie.” As before, he was wearing his greenExcalibur!T-shirt, and he was just as cute as ever, but maybe even more so, because this was the closest to him I had yet been, and I wasn’t distracted by orange soda spilling all over my dress, or by the fact my friends were waiting for me. Now that we were standing close, I could see he was a good four or five inches taller than me, and his dark eyes were fringed with long lashes. His curls cascaded over his forehead in a way that really seemed unfair—what was next, a dimple? But then he smiled at me, and, sure enough, a single deep dimple appeared in his left cheek.
“Er, yes.” His smile was perfectly polite, but very confused. “You’re spot on. Sorry—have we met? I apologize if I don’t…”
“A few times,” I said, nodding. “But it was earlier. Don’t worry about it—you wouldn’t remember. It hasn’t happened yet.”
“I…Sorry?” He glanced back down at his phone, his eyes scanning the screen. Then he stared into space for a second, seemingly lost in thought before he focused back on me. “Apologies. That was just…Never mind. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have just stopped like that.”
“Is everything all right?” I asked, nodding down at the phone. “Does it have anything to do with why…” I paused, trying to call up the details from our first encounter. “You bought Irn-something for…Niall?”
Freddie stared at me, his eyes wide. “Irn-Bru,” he finally said, his voice coming out strangled. “I was just thinking I should get some for him. But how did you know that? How could you havepossiblyknown that?”
We were standing to the side of the path, but not all the way over, and as a rowdy group of seniors came running around the curve, Freddie stepped to the side, touching my elbow lightly to guide me out of harm’s way. I couldn’t help but notice thezingthat shot up my arm when he touched my bare skin.
“Because,” I said, trying to think about the best way to go about this. I knew any explanation would just sound like I was losing my mind. But if my being in this loop had something to do with him,shouldn’the know about it? “You bump into me later and spill orange soda all over my dress. And you tell me you got it for him as a peace offering.”
“But that…hasn’t happened,” Freddie said. He was speaking slowly, his eyes searching my face like he was trying to figure out how I was pulling off this trick.
“I know. But it will. Or maybe it won’t, now that we’re having this conversation.”
Freddie just stared at me for a moment, then seemed to make a decision. “Right,” he said, nodding. “Are you hungry? Do you want to get some food? Because I have heaps more questions, but I’m not sure I can ask them on an empty stomach.”
As if on cue, my stomach grumbled audibly enough for us both to hear it. “Iamhungry,” I admitted.
“Fantastic. I know a great place.” He smiled at me then, the dimple deepening. “I’m Freddie, by the way. Freddie Sharma. But clearly, you know that.” He held out his hand to me.
“Cass Issac,” I said, shaking it. “And this is actually the first time we’ve officially met.”
“Well.” He held on to my hand for a beat longer before dropping it. And even though he was smiling, it was like I could practically see that his thoughts were spinning a hundred miles an hour. “Then it’s nice to meet you, Cass. Officially. Ready to go?”
I nodded and gave him a smile. “Lead on.”
The place Freddie was talking about turned out to be the Hollywood Lounge, in the Hollywood Land section of the park. It looked like an old fifties-style hamburger stand—no indoor seating, just a walk-up window and then tables and chairs outside. There was a checkerboard tile pattern, andICE COLD REFRESHMENTwas spelled out along the top of the roof in neon letters that glowed brightly against the darkness. Freddie went to the food trucks that were parked nearby, but I stayed put and contemplated the menu.
I decided on a burger, fries,? and a Coke, feeling like I could use a little jolt of caffeine. Freddie got his food—a burrito and a sparkling water—around the same time I did, and we sat down at one of the white metal outdoor tables in front of the restaurant. We had our choice of seats, since the tables were mostly empty. The only other person there was a guy who I assumed was a chaperone, yawning over a plate of onion rings. But it made sense it was so deserted—everyone else at the park was trying to get everything they could out of tonight. They were having a blast on all the rides and dancing at the DJ stations and probably didn’t want to waste any time sitting down to eat a meal.
It wasn’t until Freddie and I were sitting across from each other, bathed in the glow of the neon, that I started to feel a little bit nervous. I knew that this wasn’t a date—I had only, just moments ago, even been officially introduced to this guy. But there was something about this—the night, the neon, sitting across from him in a nearly deserted sea of tables—that made itfeeldate-ish.
Not that I’d had a ton of experience on dates, or with guys in general. There was my SLO lab partner—and Bruce, of course. But both of those guys had felt like they were from a world I understood. Freddie was a British guy in aband,and I was suddenly feeling out of my depth.
“You made a good call with the chips. I mean…fries,” Freddie said, putting on an American accent for the word and making me laugh. “They’re the best in the park.”
“Oh yeah?” I picked up one and bit into it as my stomach rumbled again. Freddie was right—they were crisp and just the right amount of salty. “Really good,” I agreed as I reached for my burger.
“The burrito is good, too,” he said, lifting it up. “And I sometimes get the burger, but it’s just too complicated.”
