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His eyebrows shot up in surprise. It took me a full second, but suddenly, I realized how he could’ve taken my words differently than I meant. Blood rushed to my cheeks and I waved my hands in front of my chest.
“I meant on your love note. A feminine touch on your love note. You don’t need...a feminine touch. I mean, no females will be touching you. Here. Now. Today.”
Mason’s mouth twitched with the hint of a smile. If I could’ve welded my lips together to keep from spewing such embarrassing garbage, I would’ve. Instead, I slid off the desk and practically ran to grab the welding torch, gloves, and mask, hoping my humiliation would burn off in the flames.
After several minutes of welding the first two pieces together, I was ready to try again. Shutting off the torch, I ripped off my mask and turned to Mason.
“Okay, new tactic. Tell me what drew you two together when you first met at camp?”
There had to be something good we could use.
He rubbed his chin and stared into empty space. “Well, I guess it was because we were both cabin leaders. Polly walked right up to me at our first leadership meeting with a giant smile on her face and said hi.”
Good, we could work with that.
“All right, say that you like how confident she is, even when you know she’s not. How she can energize an entire roomful of people with just her smile.”
“That works,” he said, scrawling it on the notebook. “Anything else?”
“And that you think about her.” I stared down at the cooling torch in my hand. “Any girl would like that.”
Mason might think about Polly all the time, but I thought about him. And at this moment, I couldn’t help but think about how much I’d miss Mason once he got back together with his ex. Sure, we’d still have class together, but it wouldn’t be the same. And if we kept up a quick pace with the statue, I’d be done in no time and I’d really run out of excuses to see him outside of class.
“You know...” Mason’s voice came from next to me. I looked up to see him standing there with a smirk. He’d torn his love note from the notebook and was folding it up into a little triangle. “Speaking of thinking...I’m thinking you look pretty hot holding that torch. Better let me have a try so you can cool down.”
I put my glove on his shoulder and shoved him, but he barely budged. Instead, he gave off a deep chuckle and stashed the note in his pocket.
“Fine, you can have a try,” I said, ducking my head to check on an imaginary problem with the welding job I’d done. My cheeks burned with the fury of the surface of the sun.
Three seconds ago, Mason Finnick had called me hot. And no matter how much I told myself that it was just in reference to the blow torch in my hand, and had nothing to do with me, my heart rate just wouldn’t slow down.
It was ridiculous. I’d never been so silly around a guy.
“But d
on’t imagine for one second,” I added, glancing up at him with a forced smile, “that you’re a better welder than me.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t dare challenge your welding authority,” he replied, pulling on a pair of gloves. “I’ve never seen anyone look as legit as you, just now. If anyone ever tries to tell me again that art is for wimps, I’m going to have to tell them I personally know an artist who could kick their cans.”
Again, I was blushing. What was wrong with me? It seemed like every word out of Mason’s mouth was getting me going today. Maybe it was the lunch ladies’ chocolate brownie I’d had after lunch. I’d read somewhere that chocolate was an aphrodisiac. This one must’ve been pumped full of it. Teen-girl-heart-thumping-knee-wobbling brownies. My body clearly wasn’t to blame for its own reactions.
“Just weld these two pieces, here and here,” I said, pointing at the spots that still needed connecting. “And for goodness’ sake, don’t burn yourself.”
He took the torch and I backed away, glad once again for the space between us. As I watched him dive into the project, a newly revived feeling of determination entered my gut.
Everything was going according to plan.
If I could just pull it together and see this through, everyone would come out of this happier than when I started. Polly and Mason would both get what they wanted. My parents would get what they wanted. And I’d get to spend my summer at art camp. After all, that was the goal of Project Happiness.
I just had to stick to the plan.
And avoid absolutely all chocolate from here on out.
Chapter Thirteen
“You guys, I was looking at my sketches for the senior class gift and I think my statue might actually get done on time. And I might actually survive our senior year.”
I beamed at my friends as I joined them at our daily meeting by our lockers at the end of school. I was still running high from Research Methods class yesterday. Mason had proved to be a better welder than I’d expected. Between the two of us, we’d managed to get quite a bit done. Maybe soon, I’d actually have something to show to Savannah. So far, I’d been dodging her texts and DMs, but I had the feeling she wouldn’t be patient much longer.
