“I’d like that.”
Britney came up behind them and clapped her hands on their shoulders. “That sounds like a great idea!”
Aurora jumped, and Duncan threw Britney a sideways glare.
“The manager said we could leave the table; we just can’t set things on it until tomorrow.” She moved toward the rest of the group. “Hey, guys! Let’s get dinner after we’re done decorating. Where should we go?” Britney asked Duncan and Aurora.
“Let’s figure that out later.” She guided Britney over to the boxes with the centerpiece components. “It would be such a big help if you and Emily worked on centerpieces. I’ll show you how they go together.” She turned back to Duncan, shrugging an apology.
He smiled and mouthed, “It’s okay.”
Aurora breathed a sigh of relief and smiled back. “Duncan, do you think you can find a table for the tickets?” she asked aloud.
“No problem.”
Duncan found another rectangular table and tapped Mike to help him carry it out to the hall.
“Did you ask her to dinner like you were going to?”
“Yeah, and she said yes. But Britney overheard and invited the whole group.”
“Is that what that was? Damn. Emily and I can go somewhere else.”
Duncan shook his head. “It’s fine, man. I’ll figure something out. Let’s set this down right here.”
Their tenth-grade world history teacher passed back yet another in-class essay. Aurora frowned at her grade. This was much different than preparing for a multiple-choice exam. She must not be used to working so hard for a lousy “B”. Duncan sat in front of her, and his friend Jim beside her.
Jim turned to Duncan, frustration clear in his tone. “Miss Berber never likes anything I write for these things! I sit here for forty minutes and pull an essay out of my ass, and she never likes it.”
Duncan was about to respond when Aurora piped up.
“That’s because what you pull out of your ass is shit. And no one likes shit.”
Did… Roar just say a swear word? Did she also just make an epic joke? She shrugged at Jim. “And that’s true for anyone.”
Duncan couldn’t hold the laughter in more than a beat. He caught her eyes with his; an adorable smirk puckered her lips. He looked back at Jim and shrugged. “She’s right.”
After showing Emily and Britney how to put the centerpieces together, Aurora turned her attention to the pillars and backdrop. She knew how to put the banner up from her craft show days and showed Jen how it worked. Jen had offered to take it for the school so they could use it for other events. Almost done. Britney had set up the seating assignments and markers for the meal options. The meal choices looked like movie tickets—red for beef, blue for chicken, and green for vegetarian. Pride swelled her chest.
“We did a good job,” she said to Duncan when he returned from helping distribute centerpieces.
“This was all you, Roar. You told everyone what to do.”
“Well, you and I had discussed it.”
“But I didn’t remember where everything went.”
“But …” She looked down. “I didn’t mean to take over. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m grateful. If you weren’t here, I could never have pulled this off so fast.”
She gazed up at him, earthy brown locking with blue depths. “Thanks.”
“Aurora!” Dave called from where they were struggling to put the last drape up on the wall. “Can you come help us with this?”
Aurora and Duncan jogged over to the end of the ballroom.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
