It’s then that I realize that Katrina is mid-sentence. “—dating that guy?”
I’m pretty sure she’s asking about Su-Lin, but I can’t be positive. “No,” I say, “she’s just dancing with him. Definitely not dating him.”
Katrina smiles like maybe she feels sorry for me. “I’d really love to meet her. I’ve been a fan forever.”
“Yeah, sure.” I glance back over at Su-Lin. She’s doing a spin, her beautiful, beaming smile all lit up. As she turns back around to face the blond guy, she throws back her head and laughs.
Shit.That’s the way she laughs forme.
I can’t take this anymore. “Want to meet her right now?”
Katrina pauses. “In the middle of the song? I don’t want to interrupt—”
Oh, but I do. I grab her hand. “Come on.”
I move through the crowd, which sways in tandem as JoCo sings about the poor starving zombie who just wants an opportunity to eat his office mate’s brains.
I should feel bad about this—interrupting Su-Lin in the middle of her date or dance or whatever this is. But she and this blond guy are twisting down to the floor and then rising again with their little birdie hands that look just like sock puppets, and I don’t feel bad.
Dancing is one thing. But this is something that she and I might have done, and I hate that I’ve put us in this position.
That’s why she’s doing the chicken dance with some other guy.
Because of me.
The song ends—it’s not hugely long, thankfully—and Su-Lin turns as if to look for someone and shrieks when she finds me standing right behind her.
Okay, now I’m being a little creepy. But I cover for it by pulling Katrina up beside me. “Hey!” I say, too loud for the gap between songs.The guy who was dancing with Su-Lin looks a little stunned. “This is Katrina. She’s a fan. I was just telling her all about Shuby.”
Su-Lin smiles, but it’s a fake smile.The music picks up again, and we shuffle out of the dancing mob where we might have half a chance at a decent conversation.
Somewhere in the middle of the shuffling, the blond guy gets lost. I know I should feel bad about that, but I don’t. Apparently my jealous side is kind of a dick.
Katrina beams at Su-Lin. “Oh my god, I’msoglad you decided to reboot your show. I’ve seen your first two seasons about a billion times.”
Su-Lin’s appreciative smile is still fake—way more than it usually is when she interacts with fans. I wonder if she’s upset that I chased off the blond guy, which I should probably apologize for and free her up to go find him. I mean, if she found someone else who would do the chicken dance with her, that should be great, right?The whole point of being casual is to date other people, and it doesn’t make sense to date people we don’tlike, right?
Katrina and Su-Lin are talking—mostly Katrina, at about a mile a minute—and I’m not following them, even though I only had the one drink and it was most definitely virgin. But it’s getting hot in here—I think legitimately hot, and not that I’m having an anxiety attack, because I’ve actually been doing okay anxiety-wise, for once—and I’m looking around for the blond guy, wondering if I should just go find him, when something Katrina is saying snags my attention.
“And oh my god, that dress,” she says. “I’ve always loved your style. I wish I could pull that off.”
Katrina is wearing a shiny gold skirt with a purple lace top. It’s less fancy than what Su-Lin has on, but it’s not like Katrinacouldn’twear what Su-Lin is wearing. Katrina reaches out and adjusts one of Su-Lin’s straps that’s sliding down her shoulder.
I stare at her hand as it lingers there.
Oh.
Ohhhhhhhhh.
I stifle a grin as Su-Lin looks at me like she’s not sure what exactly has come over me.
“So,” Katrina says, filling the awkward silence. “Do you want to dance?”
Su-Lin looks at me expectantly, as if I’m supposed to answer, and I tilt my head toward Katrina, who is very clearly asking Su-Lin to dance, not me. I try not to snicker as the realization dawns, and Su-Lin’s face turns pink. “Oh,” she says. “Um, thank you. Really. But I’m actually getting a headache. From the music! I think I’ll sit this one out.” And she turns and heads for the hall.
Katrina looks a bit dejected—or rejected, I suppose, which she literally just was. I want to follow Su-Lin and see if she’s okay. She seemed upset about something, though I’m not sure if it’s just her failure to adequately set me up with a date, or the fact that I interrupted her and her dance partner, or what.
But I think technically I’m still supposed to be dating other people, so I smile at Katrina. “You want to dance again?”
