“Which you didn’t want to attend,” Tara interrupts, grinning. “I distinctly remember Troy practically dragging you downstairs.”
“I was busy.”
“You were hiding in your room doing God-knows what!”
“I was…” drawing, “busy.”
Paige laughs. “So, what happened?”
I glance at Tara, surprised to find her already looking at me. “She was dancing on a table?—”
“I was not dancing on a table! I was using it as a stage to demonstrate the proper way to appreciate Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.”
There she was, up on that table wearing sequined white shorts and a pink tank top, hips swaying as she sang. All that golden skin on display, blonde hair wild, completely uninhibited. My first thought was ‘trouble.’ My second thought wasconsiderably less noble.
“Right, because that’s so much better.”
“Anyway,” Tara continues, “this grumpy guy in the corner kept giving me these looks?—”
“Concerned looks. You were very enthusiastic about the guitar solo.”
“—and then someone bumped the table, and suddenly Mr. Spencer launches across the room like some sort of superhero?—”
“You fell,” I whisper. “I caught you.”
The table goes silent. Tara’s eyebrows shoot up before she hides her surprise. I remember with perfect clarity how she’d felt in my arms that night, laughing and slightly drunk and so alive it hurt to look at her.
“And then”—she sighs—“I spilled my entire drink down his shirt.”
“It was red wine,” I add, grateful for the break in tension. “Ruined my favorite hoodie.”
“Please, that hoodie was already a disaster. I did you a favor. Plus, it was black anyway, so you couldn’t see the stain.”
“You still owe me a new one.”
“Add it to my tab, Spencer.”
Paige’s watching us with a knowing smile. “Love at first sight, then?”
“God no,” Tara says quickly. “He thought I was a disaster and I thought he was an ass.”
“You’re still a disaster,” I mutter.
“And you’re still an ass.” She bumps my shoulder lightly. “But I guess you’re growing on me.”
If only she knew how much she’s grown on me.
“I had no idea that happened, man. That night I got so hammered I—” Whatever Ethan was about to say he stops himself.
“You got so hammered you….?” Paige presses.
Ethan’s cheeks flush. He’s got a light complexion due to his strawberry blonde hair, and one of the best partsabout it is that he flushes easily. He’s not usually embarrassed though.
“I passed out in bed.”
Paige eyes him but drops it.
“I didn’t know that story about you guys though!” Ethan repeats. “I’ve heard Alex and Freddie’s story that night. That’s the night two of our other friends met and eventually realized they were meant for each other,” Ethan explains to Paige.
