“Hey,” I say, “just because he’s hot—”
X’s head whips around. “You think I’m hot?”
Gobsmackedis the word I’d use to describe his face.
In situations like this, most people wish for a hole to open up and swallow them into the ground. But I don’t want that. What I want is tobe the hole.I don’t know what that sentiment means, but I’m sure I mean it.
“I meant to sayshethinks you’re hot,” I say, stabbing my finger at Fifi.
Fifi cocks her head and stares at us the way you’d look at a piece of art you don’t quite understand in a museum. “Huh,” she says.
“What?” I ask.
“Finally, I understand what problem is.”
“Great. Maybe you could tell me,” X says.
“Never mind problem,” she says. “I have solution. Tomorrow instead of practice, you two go out and get to know each other.”
“We’re fine—” I begin.
“Not fine,” she counters. “One of most important elements of ballroom is chemistry. Go out and get to be friends.”
Put like that, it almost sounds reasonable.
X grins. “Yes, whatever it takes,” he says, because, annoyingly, he says yes to everything.
Of course I have to agree too.
We dance three more dances and earn another eighteen dollars.
Fifi takes a ten-percent cut.
Back at the studio, X and I exchange phone numbers before going our separate ways.
——
There’s a subgenre of romance books I like to call Shipwrecked. In them, the unsuspecting (and usually feuding) main characters are somehow forced to spend enough time together that they realize how much they like spending time together. For example, the couple is trapped in a (small, romantic) cabin in the woods because of a snowstorm. Or the couple is stranded on a (beautiful, tropical, not-at-all-dangerous) deserted island because of stormy seas.
What I’m saying is that Fifi is a storm, X and I are the unsuspecting main characters, and us getting to know each other for the sake of dance chemistry is a small cabin in a snowywood.
CHAPTER 18
A Strict Definition
Sophie, “Me,” Cassidy and Martin >
Sophie:So what you’re saying is you’re going on a date with the sexy new guy you met at your sexy new hobby. Do I have that right?
Me:It’s not a date
Sophie:I’m using the strict definition of the word
Cassidy:Which is what?
Sophie:Two or more people meeting at a fixed location at an appointed time for a predetermined reason
Martin:Where are you going?
