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Ella grinned. “Crap. Sorry.” She giggled. “But even though it’s sort of terribly tragic, it’s also one of the most romantic things, you searching the stars like that.”
Hope spread inside my chest like an eagle’s wings. Romance was Ella’s love language, so if I was speaking it, I was doing something right.
“My turn,” I said, needing a little levity. “What’s your favorite fairytale?” I asked, hoping to glean something from the answer.
“Easy. Cinderella.”
“It’s because of the talking mice, isn’t it?” I smirked.
“No. Although they’re adorable, it’s the makeover that gets me. Hands down. Love a good makeover story. I mean, come on. Cinderella was still Cinderella, this poor girl who’d been tormented and treated like a second-class citizen, all but forgotten by the people around her. Then she’s transformed into this beautiful princess, and it’s not like she completely changed. She was just as beautiful before. But her beauty was kind of . . . obscured. She never lived up to her potential because she wasn’t given the right tools or the freedom to do so. And then she met Prince Charming, and he changed everything. He swept her away from all the difficulties of life into his own world where she’d be protected.”
“I like that perspective,” I said, thinking about my own pending makeover.
“Plus, I’m named after her,” she said with a chuckle.
“Ella. Cinder-ella,” I said, like it suddenly made sense.
“Yep.”
So she was named after a fairytale princess. No wonder she was such a romantic; it was part of her namesake. Suddenly, I felt like I understood her a whole lot better.
“My turn.” She rubbed her hands together, and I wondered if I should be worried. “Do you think my sister’s cute?”
This seemed like a trick question. By all accounts, Mia was pretty, but not my type. Apparently, I had a thing for blondes with barely-there dimples and dark eyes. But I couldn’t exactly tell her that, so I shrugged and answered with a simple “yeah,” which seemed to please her. Then, without a preamble, I asked, “Why’d you and Adam break up last year?”
She shrugged like it was no big deal, but I knew better by the way she bit her lip and glanced down at her lap. Just like I knew she’d avoided telling me the full story over the phone earlier. I hoped now that we were in person, she’d share.
“Simple. He had another girlfriend.” She hugged her knees to her chest. “Turns out, he just wasn’t that into me.”
I swallowed, holding back all the things I wanted to say. Things that would probably scare her. Like how stupid he was. How lucky he’d been to have Ella’s attention for even a moment. Or how if I’d been her man, I would’ve treated her right, never taken her for granted. How I’d give anything to call her mine.
“Anyway,” she continued, “he was just a player being a player.”
The comment reminded me of what I’d said earlier about JT being JT.
“And maybe there’s another reason . . .” She glanced down at her hands, staring at her nails while she bit her lip, as if deciding whether to say what was on her mind. “You were super honest, so I might as well be,” she muttered, almost to herself. “My parents fight. A lot. I’m pretty sure my father cheated on her. Their relationship is basically everything I don’t want, the anti-fairytale. And so . . . I probably wouldn’t have stayed with Adam anyway. I could tell he wasn’t as invested as I was. So now, even more so, I guess I want someone to go above and beyond, you know? Like maybe if they care about me enough to go the extra mile, they won’t hurt me like he did. Or like my dad did to my mom.”
My smile faded, and if I thought I wanted to be that man before—the one to win Ella’s heart and sweep her off her feet—I wanted to be him even more so now. So desperately, in fact, my chest ached with want.
Releasing her legs, she straightened. “Now that we got the heavy stuff out of the way . . . ” She cleared her throat. “I’m just going to cut to the chase. Do you like Mia? Or, rather, do you think youcouldlike Mia? Because I think the two of you have a lot in—”
“No,” I blurted, and my bluntness must have taken her off-guard because she snapped her mouth closed and blinked back at me. “Mia seems great. Don’t get me wrong,” I rushed to add. “I just . . . she’s not the one I want.”
I waited, hoping she’d ask the obvious question–Who is?–even though her turn was over. But she didn’t. Instead, she glanced around her as if to gain her bearings, and so I decided to rattle the cage further. I’d come this far. I might as well be bold. “Do you think you could ever see yourself with a nerd like me?”
She swallowed. “I don’t know,” she stuttered. “Maybe.” She shifted on the floor beside me, facing me more fully. “Have you ever had a girlfriend, Barry?”
I hated the truth because the truth made me sound like a loser, but I wasn’t a liar, so I shook my head and hit her with another question. One to take the pressure off, one I was curious about. “Why were you so intent on hooking me up with her?”
Her eyes widened in surprise, and I wanted to laugh because she’d been so obvious about it, I couldn’t imagine how she thought I didn’t know that was her plan all along.
“I worry about her,” she said simply. “Although, if you ask her, she thinks I’m projecting.” She shook her head. “And who knows, maybe I am. But also, because I like you. You’re cute and sweet and genuine. You’re always yourself, no matter what. That’s exactly how she is. It’s one of the things I love most about her. She doesn’t conform. She’s just Mia, twenty-four-seven.”
There were probably several things I should pick up on from her statement, but instead, all I could focus on was the fact that she called me cute, monochromatic hair and skin, geek glasses and all.
“My turn.” She cocked her head and looked at me. “You said you’ve never had a girlfriend. But have you ever kissed a girl?”
Great. Now she’d really think I’m a loser.
