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She checked the time.
Gah.
She had to get home so she would be ready in time.
For a benefit she had invited herself to and a date that wasn’t a date at all.
Yeah, André was the confusing one.
* * *
ANDRÉ
He got to the end of the stone steps and spun around, pacing the other way.
She wasn’t late.
He was just very early.
He hadn’t wanted to be late and had overcompensated, so now he was dressed in a tux and pacing the stone steps of the Field Museum in the hot July sun.
And hoping she didn’t give him everything he deserved.
He’d suspected that she’d been avoiding him all week. His mind had ping-ponged back and forth between two competing ideas. Sometimes they would collide with one another and turn into a super reason for why she was avoiding him.
First, she had changed her mind about coming to the benefit with him and wasn’t going to tell him.
Or, he’d imagined the intense looks they’d shared at the Blue Iguana and he’d made her uncomfortable.
And then the combination of, she was uncomfortable with him around and she wasn’t going to show up.
Though being stood up for a benefit was not the same thing as the night he’d ruined both of their lives.
* * *
He released his seat belt and paused.
The most beautiful woman in the world stopped outside the door as an older man with wispy blond hair held the door open. She laughed at something he said and then did an overexaggerated waltz through the door. The black dress she wore was super short and he could see where her rose tattoo ended on the back of her thigh. She wore her hair down and the blue and pink tips looked freshly updated. But it was her shoes that made the outfit.
Huge platform boots with black spikes all over them.
They looked like two heavy metal puffer fish attached to her slender legs and made her at least five inches taller.
The man, who was no doubt her dad, tossed his head back and held a hand to his chest as he laughed at his daughter’s antics.
Laughed.
Not berated.
Not scolded.
He didn’t shake his head in shame and make her go home to change.
Nope. He followed his punk rock princess into the fancy restaurant with a smile on his face.
André’s stomach soured and he swallowed.
The ring he’d gotten for her sat hot in his pocket.
