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Right when we were about to get up to throw our trash away, Roxy walked up. “Hey, guys.”
“Rox, hey,” I said, tilting my head up as she leaned down to press a quick kiss to my cheek. “How did your nail thing work out?”
Roxy rolled her eyes and held out her hands for Shelby and me to look at. “They’ll do. Thank goodness I’m not a hand model.”
“They look great,” Shelby said with a warm smile as she stood to go, collecting our trash. “I was just getting ready to take off. Have a good night, guys.”
“You too,” Roxy said with a wave as she took Shelby’s seat across from me without a moment of hesitation.
I said goodbye to Shelby, then turned back to my girlfriend, keeping my eyes on hers instead of watching my best friend leave. Taking her hands in mine from across the table, I peered down at her nails, rubbing my thumbs over her fingers, imagining a ring on her left hand tomorrow. Then I looked up to meet her eyes and saw a flicker of hesitation there. Like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Her mouth popped open, then she closed it again. “Nothing. Sorry.”
The nerves crept in again, and I shifted on the wooden bench. “Are you sure?”
“It’s just… I got a call from my friend in Texas, you know, the one I told you about?”
My mind spun as I tried to figure out what friend she was referring to.
Before I could reply, she pulled her hands out of mine so she could use them to talk. She was a hand-talker. “You know, Carrie? She’s the one who opened her own dance studio. She offered me a job, but of course, I turned her down.”
My throat felt dry as I registered the searching look in her gaze. It was like she was trying to feel out my reaction. Almost like she wanted me to tell her she should take it. No, I was probably imagining that. If she’d wanted to take it, she would have, right?
I swallowed, leaning forward on my elbows. “That’s cool, though, that she offered.”
Roxy’s face fell ever so slightly before she plastered on a wide smile and waved her hand. “Yeah, sure made me feel like I’m in the right business, that’s for sure. What with someone asking if I wanted to come dance for their studio and all. I mean, it’s to teach children, of course. But it’s still nice. But you know, Texas is really hot. And dusty, I think. So I probably wouldn’t like it.”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, and then, um, that would mean we’d go back to long-distance again. Which would suck, right?”
She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Oh, totally. No, this is much better than long-distance.”
“I think so, too,” I said, reaching for her hands again. And while that was absolutely true for me, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t true for her.
