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“This is even better than I imagined,” I gushed.
“Me too. I thought it’d be cheesy.”
I laughed. “Same. Or like that time Meg went out into society and everyone called her Daisy.”
“Laurie saved her then,” he reminded me as he pulled me out onto the nearly empty dance floor.
“Laurie was an ass!”
He grinned devilishly. “Yes. He generally was. But they danced all night after he apologized.”
“True.”
“As we shall.”
I gasped as he spun me around in a quick circle. “And who taught you how to dance?”
“I, unfortunately, was part of a cotillion last year. I had to be an escort and dance and everything.”
“Oh my God.” I chuckled, picturing him being so uncomfortable, doing just that. “Who did you escort?”
He frowned slightly. “Shelly.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Yeah. Ancient history.”
I chose not to think about that fact and went back to dancing. I knew everyone at my school. It was impossible not to with only three hundred and fifty in four grades, but I wasn’t friends with pretty much anyone. Not after how Shelly had treated me about the ski trip. Even the other girls I’d grown close to distanced themselves.
“Y’all!” someone called, rushing into the ballroom. “Shelly just showed up in a Hummer stretch limo!”
A group of girls hastened outside to see the vehicle. I rolled my eyes and kept dancing. But I was anticipating the moment when she showed up. It was hard not to with that kind of entrance.
Shelly Thomas made quite an appearance with Chuck Henderson on her arm and her group of lackeys following in her wake. She had on a bright red dress that clung to her skin and rippled in the lighting. She’d bragged over the last weeks about how she’d had it custom-made by a designer in Paris. Her dad had flown the designer in for adjustments.
I’d rolled my eyes then, but it was truly stunning. Definitely nothing off the rack for her.
I chose to ignore her, and while Shelly and her entourage were outside, taking pictures, I spent the next hour enjoying the freedom to be with Ash exactly how I’d always wanted. It wasn’t like we were hiding our relationship, but we weren’t not hiding. So, this felt like a whole new world with him.
We danced and ate dry cake and watched one of the Holy Cross guys spike the punch. “Hey There Delilah” came on the set list, and we both groaned. But then I said fuck it, and we were out there, singing and dancing louder and bigger than anyone else. The night was like a dream that I never wanted to end.
Until Shelly appeared out on the dance floor.
I tried to pretend that she wasn’t there, but she tapped me on the shoulder.
I took a deep breath and whirled around. “Hey, Shelly! Love the dress!”
“Thanks, Delilah. Yours is … nice too.”
A few people snickered behind her.
“Thank you,” I said, pretending that she wasn’t trying to insult me. “Have a nice night.”
Shelly sighed heavily, and I could feel her eyes on us. “I can’t believe it’s come to this.”
“Come to what?” I asked.
Ash looked steely. “Let it go, Shelly.”
“I mean … you two really are dating.”
“We’ve been dating for months.”
“Yeah. It was one thing for you to say that and another thing for him to bring you here.” She looked over at Ash. “It was funny at first, but now, it’s just sad, Ash.”
“Stop it,” he ground out.
My stomach fluttered. “What’s funny?”
“I don’t know how long this joke can go on, Ash.”
My voice was very small. “What joke?”
“I mean, obviously, he went out with you as a joke because I asked him to,” Shelly said, as if it were obvious.
“What?” I asked. “That doesn’t even make sense. Why would you do that?”
“It was a joke. Just one date and I’d tell everyone that it was fake.” She shrugged.
“But no … it’s not fake.”
Shelly pulled out her phone and scrolled through her texts. “Here. See for yourself.”
I numbly took the phone out of her grasp and read the text messages. My eyes rounded as I read and the last two jumped off the screen at me.
So, you’ll do it? You’ll go out with her?
Yeah, I’ll ask her out. It’ll be funny. She’ll think I’m actually interested.
I shoved the phone away from me. My hands shaking. I didn’t want to believe this. I didn’t want to believe any of this. This was Shelly Thomas. She wanted to hurt me. And Ash…Ash and I had something special. We did, didn’t we? It wasn’t just a joke concocted for Shelly’s benefit.
My eyes found Ash, but he had his closed, as if he couldn’t believe this was happening. Then, those ice-blue eyes opened, and I saw the truth in that look. A gunshot went off in my gut.
I staggered back a step. “Ash?”
“Lila …”
“No, no, no …” I said over and over again.
