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“Soooo without further ado.” Allison tugged Row closer to the red button. “I present to you Ambrose Casablancas! Chef, celebrity, and reality TV star with a combined twelve Michelin stars, and the holder of the Guinness record for fastest sushi ever rolled.”
Row stepped forward, nodding stiffly at the crowd as I treaded behind Kieran and Dylan. I didn’t want him and Allison to see me cry. They didn’t deserve my tears.
“Well, big man, now’s your time to shine.” Allison draped a hand on Row’s shoulder, leaning into him intimately. “All you have to do is press that button right here. Even though he is a man, let me tell you, he has no problem finding these things.” She winked again.
Laughter rang across the square. I shivered in my coat.
“Ready for the countdown?” Allison flung her arms in the air. They looked perfect together. Perfect. These tall, photogenic people. With their successful careers and superior bone structure. I was mad at myself for telling him what Allison had done to me. For believing him when he’d said he liked me. How stupid could I have been?
“Yes!” the crowd cheered in unison. The first tear rolled out of my eye down my cheek, freezing an inch before it reached my jawline.
“Ten!”
Row’s mouth quirked one way, revealing a dimpled smile.
“Nine!”
I bet he’d run to tell her I’d snitched on her after that night we’d kissed. That Allison had found a way to explain everything to him. Maybe he was taking her side now.
“Eight!”
Another tear ran down my cheek. Kieran and Dylan stepped away from each other, bracketing me on either side, shielding me from view. Dylan rubbed my shoulder, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “Don’t, Dot. You know I’m your no-bullshit friend, and I’m telling you as someone who can see the bigger picture here—there’s nothing between Row and Allison.”
“Seven!”
But even if Dylan was right, tonight proved I couldn’t chance a heartbreak.
“Six!”
“Stop looking so miserable,” Kieran ordered through gritted teeth. “Allison is having a field day watching you.”
“Five!”
Row was staring at us with an intensity that burrowed into my bones.
“Four!”
“Argh.” Kieran ran a hand over his hair. “I hate being a good guy.”
“Three!”
Allison shimmied her shoulders in anticipation, giving me her best Ursula-in-human-form smirk.
“Two!”
“Fuck,” Kieran muttered, bending forward to catch Dylan’s eyes. “Just so you know, the next thing I’m about to do doesn’t mean anything and is solely being done to impress you.”
“One!”
Kieran grabbed me by the waist, tipped me down, cradling the back of my head, and pressed the coldest, driest, most platonic kiss I’d ever been given to my lips. One of my legs tipped in the air, like in the iconic V-J Day nurse and sailor smooch.
My breath caught in my throat. My eyes were wide with horror.
Kieran. Kissed. Me. And I was cold all over. Humming with terror and dread. Scared down to my tiniest bone.
Stop touching me, my mind screamed. Let me go right now.
I noticed the sky was ink-black save for a few lonely clouds. No Christmas lights were turned on. Row had never pressed the red button.
