“Which is actually perfect,” she added. “Because the soccer girls are all going together…” She laughed. “I was worried about telling you. I didn’t want it to seem like I was completely ditching my boyfriend!”
Then she kissed my cheek, and my mouth went slack while the rest of me went numb. I couldn’t clarify, couldn’t do it. I couldn’t break up with her right then.
I was a horrible person, but I wasn’tthathorrible.
Was I?
There were eight of us at homecoming dinner in town. Jennie’s date was the crew team captain, while Nina had Luke, and after weeks of shutting him down, Reese was going with Jack. “But this means nothing,” she’d said after telling him yes. “You should havezeroexpectations.”
Jack had nodded solemnly. “We’ll see.”
“It must be love,” Luke had whispered in my ear as we watched him walk away.
Of course my ball and chain for the night wastheSage Morgan—long blond hair rippling down her back, blue dress, and wearing the silver earrings I’d given her for her birthday last March.
“Will you marry me?” I asked after we hugged on Simmons’ patio, making her giggle. I forced myself to smile.I’m not entirely joking.Sometimes I thought stuff like this, what it would be like if Sage and I were together. If we could actually be the way people thought we should be. IfIcould actually be the way people thought I was.
Then my chest would clench, knowing it was impossible.
Bistro was sandwiched between the dry cleaners and Captain Smitty’s, and ranked somewhere in the upper-middle of town’s restaurants (the bottom was Peace Love Pizza, and the top was the Bluebird Inn). And dinner started off with a bang: Sage and I disagreed where to sit. While Nina and Luke moved to sit at one end of the table, Jack and Reese chose the other, and I wanted to sit with them. I just wanted to get lost in a conversation about hockey with Jack (he couldn’t skate to save his life, but the guy knew the NHL backward and forward). Sage had other ideas, though, yanking my arm toward Nina and Luke.
“What?” I asked. “Jack and I need to touch base on our fantasy teams.” We were in a pool with a bunch of Daggett guys, and as of now, Paddy was on top.
Sage laughed. “But I want to sit near Luke and Nina.”
I didn’t respond; instead, giving her a look that said,We’re actually going to fight about this?
She flashed me her brightest without-teeth smile.Yup!
“You guys gonna join us anytime soon?” I heard Jennie say, and when I turned to look at her, I saw that she and her date had taken the seats closest to Reese and Jack.
I sighed.Awesome.
“Yes, let’s sit.” Sage moved to sit next to Luke, leaving me to sit across from him.
It was the lesser of two evils, I guess—sitting across from him. That way we wouldn’t break off into a whispered side conversation, and I wouldn’t be tempted to knock my knee against his under the table. But still, I stood next to the chair for a beat, sort of hoping that someone would offer to trade seats.
Then out of nowhere, Luke appeared at my side and pulled out my chair for me. His arm brushed mine, and I steeled myself from the shudder that felt so good. “Happy now?” he asked.
Immediately my eyes went to the other end of the table, where the other four hadn’t seen anything, too busy listening to Jack talk about the Bruins. Then I sat down. “Thanks, Morrissey.”
“What was that?” Nina giggled.
He shrugged. “The musical just ended. He’s used to being treated like royalty.” He looked at me, and our eyes locked. “You seem to be missing your crown, though. Did you lose it or something?”
I nearly jumped, but hid it by leaning back in my chair and folding my arms across my chest. Neither of us had brought up my pop-in to his room that night until now. “I’m not sure,” I repliedevenly. “Maybe I lost it…” I raised an eyebrow. “Or maybe someonestoleit. Who knows?”
“Oh, well, that’s too bad.” Luke took a sip from his water glass. “It was a cool crown.”
“You think so?” I cocked my head.
“For sure,” he answered. “I think it—”
“Hello, my name is Isaac, and I’ll be your server this evening,” a new voice said. I blinked and looked away from Luke to see a bald guy standing at the ready to take our order.
“Hi,” Sage said pleasantly. “Could we possibly get a few more minutes?”
Just as we were finishing our appetizers, I glanced up to see Sage staring at something over my shoulder. Everyone else was oblivious, but I turned to see Nick. The first thing I spotted was his tie—it wasn’t the skull-and-crossbones with dancing parrots one he’d mentioned earlier; it was a plain old crimson-and-gray checked tie. His Mortimer tie.WTF?I thought.
