“Like you need a favor?”
“No. It’s about the gala.” Olivia looked embarrassed. “Charlie says your dad was there with someone a little bit young, and maybe you and his date were, um, making eyes at each other from across the dance floor?” Seeing my raisedeyebrow in response to her question, she added, “Whatever you say doesn’t leave this room. We were just…”
“Dying of curiosity and your speculation wasn’t getting you anywhere?”
“Sorry.” Olivia covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
I stared them both down, letting them stew in their discomfort, since they totally deserved it.
Charlie looked embarrassed, but not enough to stop him from eating.
“You two are the worst gossips I’ve ever met. But I’m glad you asked, because this is not a big deal, at least not in the way you’re thinking. You’ve met Isaac, right? That was his sister, Grace. My dad is their godfather. He took a family friend along as his plus one. Not a date.”
“Oh.” Olivia reached over and smacked Charlie in the arm, making the bite of baked potato on the way to his mouth spill from his fork.
“Ow. How is this my fault?” he asked, rubbing his arm.
“It just is.”
I cleared my throat. “But yeah, I definitely have a thing for Grace. If things had worked out better, she’d be here tonight, but she’s not sure she’s sold on me yet, so I think she’s avoiding me.”
That earned me a shocked silence.
“You’re doing the chasing.” Charlie raised his eyebrows. “I love it. How can we help?”
“You can’t help.”
My phone, which I’d left on the counter, started ringing, and we all stared at it. “It’s not her,” I said, as both Charlie and Olivia jumped up to check.
“It’s her.” Olivia clapped her hands. “It’s totally her. It says Grace.”
Afraid she was just messing with me, I came over to see for myself, and then walked out of the room with my phone still ringing, amid boos from both Charlie and Olivia. Once I was in my room with the door closed, I answered it.
“Hi, Grace.”
“Hi. Do you have time to talk?”
“Of course.” I sat down on the edge of my bed and smoothed a hand over my comforter.
“I just wanted to tell you that tomorrow night is good for us, if you still want to grill hamburgers.”
“Yep, tomorrow night works.”
“Okay, good. Should we bring anything?”
“How about chips? And maybe a dessert?”
“Will do. We’ll make cookies after school tomorrow.”
It was the kind of exchange that easily could have happened over text, which meant either she was the one coming up with an excuse to call me, or there was something else she wasn’t saying.
“Grace, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
I waited, and then I heard a soft sigh. “Okay, I called to apologize, but I’m really bad at it. My plan was to work my way around to it.”
“What do you have to apologize for?”
