“I’m just thinking.”
“Great. Are we done here?” I ask. Jennifer is not a nice person, we know that. I need to be a bit more like her, so I work up my best snot-attitude.
I don’t wait for Jennifer’s answer, because her saying that she’s thinking scares me a little bit. She’s got quite the active, Machiavellian brain—clearly, based on her drunken comments to Victoria among other things—and staying in the same room with her alone makes me nervous.
So, I head out of the bathroom and feel her walking behind me as I go back to the booth.
Ryan and Luke slide out of their respective sides to let us in. Ryan puts his hand on the small of Jennifer’s back as she scooches over across the bench.
Luke simply gets back in next to me, and Jennifer’s eyes go as wide as saucers.
“That’s it!” she yells, slamming on the table so hard, I have to grab my mojito to stop it from teetering over.
“What’s it, honey?” Ryan asks.
“I couldn’t put my finger on it until just now,” Jennifer says, pointing a finger at Luke and I intermittently. “Luke, you’re the handsy-est guy I know. But just now, you didn’t lay a finger on her when she got in the booth. And now that I think about it, I’ve seen you two hanging around together and you haven’t even kissed. What gives?”
Luke scoffs. “Don’t be silly. It’s not as if you and Ryan are making out every hour of the day, either.”
Jennifer laughs. “Yes, but we’ve been together for over a year. And we’re married. So the honeymoon phase is over. So what’s the deal? Why have you been acting so weird together?”
I take a nice, long sip of my mojito, feeling my heart accelerate. It’s not lost on me that she already refers to she and Ryan as being married.
She thinks the cat’s already in the bag for her, I guess. That kind of makes me sick and sad for Ryan.
I rub the back of my neck. Since me and Roger’s chat this evening led down a rabbit hole of specifics about Luke and I, I’d been meaning to have a catch up with him regarding how well we are faking it together.
I decide that since Luke probably can’t make a direct hit on his best friend’s girl, I’ll be the one who fights back here.
“It’s really funny to me that you couldn’t remember my name earlier tonight, and now you’re suddenly an expert on our so-called ‘dating habits,’” I say, channeling a little bit of the Jennifer attitude in my tone.
She laughs. “Well, it’s kind of hard not to notice the change in his habits, now that I think about it. Seemed like Mr. Big over here,” she tips her head toward Luke, “had a new, screaming girl in his room just about every night. And this term—”
“It makes me happy to know you’re very tuned into my dating life,” Luke interjects.
“Oh please,” Jennifer waves him off. “You and I both know the walls in your apartment are paper thin. It’s impossible not to hear what you’re doing in there. And this term it’s just been radio silence. I’m not judging…I’m just curious what’s going on with you two.”
My mind races. Is she saying these things because…she actually wants to save Luke from heartbreak?
Or is Jennifer just the type who likes to throw a wrench into the world whenever she can, and watch things turn to chaos?
Luke stares her down, then glances at Ryan, who has been incredibly passive during this whole exchange, which I’m beginning to realize is par for the course. When Jennifer’s around, his body language sinks into that of an obedient little puppy.
“See?!” she says, pointing at us again. “Look at you two right now. You just look…awkward. You don’t even seem like a couple.”
“Huh. That’s funny,” Ryan even adds. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen you two kiss either. Just cuddle.”
I freeze up, my insides quivering, and offer a false smile. C’mon, Ryan. Do you really have to be that much of a lap dog for Jennifer?
Inside, I’m panicking, and I wonder if Luke is, too.
I think about worst case scenarios.
The first scenario that pops to mind is someone overheard us making the plans for Operation Romper. It got back to Jennifer, and she’s onto us, and since she’s the Regina George of Greene State U, now that we’ve tried to break her and Ryan up, she’ll find some devious way to make us pay.
Luke leans in, tilting his head at her.
“You’re one-hundred percent right, Jennifer.” He grins. “Clearly, I’m bringing a girl to the fucking senior baseball dinner, mind you, who I haven’t even done this with.”
The way Luke looks at me with a sparkle in his eyes should tip me off to what’s about to happen, but somehow, I totally miss the signals.
I am completely unprepared for what happens next.
Luke slides his thigh against mine in the booth, grabs hold of a knot of my hair at the base, and turns my face toward him with authority.
“Cielo,” he says my Spanish nickname like only he can, then growls close to my ear, just loud enough for Ryan and Jennifer to hear, “Let’s kiss like we did the other night when you were underneath me.”
A pit forms in my stomach before I can process what’s happening.
He grips me firmly with one hand around the base of my head. His other falls to my shoulder, and his thumb grazes my neck and throat slightly.
His lips land on mine, sending shockwaves through my body.
Jesus, does the man know how to kiss.
This is no half-assed fakery, either. I don’t feel one ounce of fake the way he touches me.
I take back what I said about the man needing acting lessons. Actually, maybe he should sign up for theatre, because this feels like method acting at its finest right now.
I melt into him, my hand loosely gripping his forearm as I moan into his mouth.
Luke kisses me with his full body, like he owns me.
Goosebumps raise up all over my skin, on the back of my neck, arms, and even my legs. Warmth floods every cell of my body.
I haven’t been kissed like this in…ever.
When he finally lets me go, and we both flit our eyes open, I’m actually a little disoriented and slightly dizzy.
Not like I haven’t thought about what it would be like to kiss Luke.
I mean, I figured that at some point during Operation Romper we’d have to kiss.
But a peck on the cheek. Not this.
This kiss—ah, this kiss feels like it’s from another universe.
And my damp panties, well, they agree. I feel like my body has betrayed me like Luke’s did the other night on the couch.
“You’re right, you guys,” Luke says, his voice gravelly. His gaze lands on Jennifer as he emphasizes the exclamation point we just made with our display. “We definitely don’t have much experience doing that. Clearly that was our first kiss.”
Both Ryan and Jennifer look at us open-mouthed, obviously not sure how to react to seeing an instructional demonstration from the master—yes I’m calling Luke the master—in how to kiss.
Luckily, our main courses arrive in the nick of time, to interrupt the flow of the conversation, and the food seems to make Jennifer less spiteful.
As we finish dinner, just looking Luke in the eye makes butterflies bat around my stomach.