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“If they were taken, why did one of them kiss me the other night?”
Eric bit back a retort. Immaturity never beat immaturity. The group of guys mostly scattered, but if they came back, he’d be waiting. Over his dead body would Collin kiss any girl in that apartment; he’d make sure of it.
The guys were waiting for him when he arrived at the apartment. “What’s going on?” he asked. “Going somewhere?”
“Yeah, and you are too,” Cameron said. “Have you gotten a suit for the dance? Or flowers? Or anything?”
“Oh, the dance.”
The finals and walking Holly home each day had taken all of his mental space. He had forgotten all about the dance.
The guys had planned to take the girls into town and eat at the Blue Bird, then head back to the school for the dance. Afterward, they were going to change and have hot chocolate and watch a movie in the guys’ apartment. It would be the first time he’d ever dated any of the three girls—and for good reason. They’d become friends with his roommates from the first week of freshman year, and he’d never wanted to mess up their dynamic. But he’d be lying to say he wasn’t excited to finally get to know Aimee a little more. Maybe to assure himself she wasn’t superficial and to make sure she kept her lips to herself in the future—if things worked out.
“I have a suit in the back of my closet for church and funerals. Does that count?”
“Nope,” Justin said. His roommates took one arm each and pulled him out of the room, without his backpack.
“Let me at least grab my books.”
“Nope,” Justin said. “This is strictly a guys’ night out. We’ll go eat somewhere and then find a suit. Hopefully, the mall isn’t out of them. If so, you might be pulling out your monkey suit.”
As they’d suspected, the mall’s formal-wear store’s supply was limited, and they ended up with unusual rentals. He’d fared better than the others with the most common, a navy-blue tux with a silver bib, but Cameron had a forest-green tux, while Justin wore a Pepto-Bismol-pink one.
On the way home, Justin pulled out his suit and smiled. “What are the chances that Holly wears a pink dress?”
Eric shrugged. “She’s not the frilly type.” On the other hand, Aimee would look perfect in pink. It would match her skin tone perfectly. “I think Holly will stick to black or even navy blue. Maybe I’ll match her more.”
Justin’s eyes flashed with competition. If he were a gambler, the poor guy would be broke. “Okay, you’re on. If you’re wrong, you have to pay for Holly’s and my dinner.”
Eric smirked, always up for a wager himself. “Fine. And if I match your date more than you do, you have to pay for ours and let me dance with Holly three times.” The last part had kind of slipped out. “Uh, I mean—”
“Deal.”
The finality in Justin’s voice precluded Eric’s correction. It would serve Justin right for having to dance with someone other than his date, and Eric would be fine dancing with Holly. As far as he knew, he’d never seen Holly at any of the college dances he’d attended. Diane and Aimee were always there with someone, but Holly had stayed back each time. It would be fun to spin her around the dance floor. He could imagine her smiling as he twirled her.
Cameron leaned forward and waved in front of Eric’s face. “And what about me? How can I get in on this?”
“You can’t,” both Eric and Justin said.
They all laughed as Justin pulled up to the apartment complex.
Justin’s phone buzzed, and he scrambled to check it. “Holly just texted and asked us to come over for dessert. Want to go?”
Eric thought of his books waiting to be cracked at home. “Okay, but I can’t stay for long, and you shouldn’t either.”
“Right, right,” Justin said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
“Two hands on the wheel, man,” Eric said, grabbing the wheel in time to avoid a parked car.
Justin hurried to move both hands back to the wheel. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
The girls’ door was open when they arrived. Maybe they were tired of kissing anyone who came in. Good!
Holly was the only one in the kitchen, moving back and forth from burner to burner every few seconds to stir something in two pots, one right after the other.
“Are we late?”
She turned for half a second. “Nope, just in time.” She waved with a spatula covered in chocolate.
