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“Want to check?” Dana asked, lowering her head. “It’s some pear thing.”
“Pear and nectarine,” Samara said, and shecouldsmell it on Dana’s hair now.
“Was that a mistake? Are you mad? I should’ve asked first.”
“No,” she said, running her hand through Dana’s hair. “It’s even softer now.”
“I assume that stuff is more expensive than the five-dollar stuff I buy at the drug store.”
“You only spend five dollars on shampoo?”
Dana laughed and said, “No, but it’s close to that.”
“My stuff is fifty dollars a bottle.”
“What?” Dana asked, looking worried now. “Shit. I’ll pay you back for what I used. I’m sure it was only, like, two dollars worth or something.”
Samara laughed again and said, “Dana, I don’t care. And your hairisextra soft now. You should use my shampoo more often.”
“Is this you maybe suggesting that I’ll get achanceto do that?”
“Take a shower?”
“In this room. One night, maybe? In the future. Distant future. Very distant future is also acceptable if that’s what you need.”
“Very distant?” she asked with a smile and wrapped her arms around Dana’s neck. “I don’t want that.”
“Whatdoyou want, Samara? You’ve been a little hot and cold on me lately, and I honestly don’t know what to do. You are dressed up like this is a date, and I wore a sweater because I didn’t want you to think I was treating it like one.”
“What if we just eat dinner? It should be here any minute. And we talk. We get to know each other a little more and see where it goes. We don’t commit to it being a date or going on one. We just have dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“With the wine you brought,” Samara said.
“But your fingers are playing with my hair right now, and I want to hold you.”
“I’m not stopping you,” she replied.
Dana wrapped her arms around Samara’s waist then and pulled her in.
“Were you jealous today?” she asked, running a hand up and down Samara’s back.
“You mean withKathy?”
Samara lifted an accusatory eyebrow.
Dana laughed loudly and said, “I knew it.”
“That’s why you told me, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, a little bit. I also genuinely couldn’t remember her name, so it was bugging me. I felt like an asshole because shehasa name, and I’m normally good with names, but I’ve been thinking of her as Maggie. I didn’t exactly get in any real rehearsal time to get to know everyone. Then, she asked me out, and I couldn’t say, ‘No thank you, Kathy. You seem great, but I’m not interested,’ because I didn’t know her name.”
“Would you have still said no to her if you and I weren’t doing whatever it is we’re doing right now?” Samara asked.
“I don’t know. Probably,” Dana replied.
“Why?”
