“We’re in,” Sean says. But as he starts to stick his hand out, Jamie-girl steps forward and wedges herself in between Sean and her boyfriend. “Wait! Before we agree to anything”—she glances at me and for a second almost looks embarrassed—“you guys are a couple, right? I mean, because otherwise, this could get…”—she glances at her boyfriend, who is still staring at me—“…awkward.”
“No, we’re not a couple,” Sean says slowly, shaking his head. “Where did you get that idea? We’re brother and sister!” And then without missing a beat, Sean reaches up and puts his hand on the back of my neck. He turns so he’s facing me and then starts gently pulling me toward him. I see his face coming closer, closer, his lips are starting to part. I can’t breathe. And then, his lips are touching mine, his mouth slightly open. I close my eyes. I’m floating in space and the only parts of my body I can feel are the ones he’s touching. He holds me against him for one more moment and then let’s me go long before I’m ready. Jamie and Jamie stand there with their mouths wide open.
“Kidding!” Sean puts his arm around my waist and gives me a little squeeze. “Ellie’s my girl. Right, El?”
And all I can do is nod because I’m too shocked to do anything else.
Eighteen
Sean and I are sitting in the car pulled up in front of the Jamies’ apartment building, acting like nothing happened. Or rather, Sean is acting like nothing happened, while I am silently freaking out.
“Riding for twelve hours with the Jamies is definitely going to be funny,” Sean says. He pauses. “Question is will it be the kind of funny that makes a person laugh? Or the kind that makes a person barf a little?” Sean grins. I try and laugh too but it comes out sounding like a cough. I know it didn’t mean anything, Sean was being resourceful, just doing what he needed to do to get the Jamies to come with us, but I can’t stop thinking about the kiss. Lip against lip, the heat from the inside of his mouth entering my own. I know it was just for show, and I know I don’t have much experience to judge it against, but I swear, I swear, that kiss felt real.
Sean’s phone starts vibrating. He takes it out, looks at it, presses a button to make it stop. I glance at him, half expecting him to say who it was, but he doesn’t, just shoves the phone back in his pocket.
“Oh!” I say loudly, awkwardly. “I should call Brad. At work. I’m supposed to go in tomorrow.”
“Uh-huh,” Sean says. “Go for it.”
And as I dial Mon Coeur, I hear a buzzing coming from Sean’s pocket. His phone is vibrating again. He reaches into his pocket and makes it stop without even looking at who it was. A thought I don’t want in my head pops in and won’t leave. What if Amanda was right? What if all those “wrong numbers” he’s been getting are actually some poor girl calling to see where her boyfriend is, and all the while he’s off in another state with me, ignoring her calls? I shake my head. I am thinking Amanda’s thoughts here. Not my own. I press Talk and hold the phone to my ear.
Brad answers on the second ring with a singsongy, “Bonjooooour, Mon Cooooouer.”
“Hi, Braddy,” I say.
“Ellie-face! Hello! So is he your boyfriend yet? Are you preggo? Are you naming the baby after me?!?”
I laugh. “Um…” I feel myself blushing. I glance at Sean. He’s staring out the window, his expression blank.
“Don’t you ‘um’ me, missy. So how was the ride home? Did you invite him up? Did you smooooooch him?”
“It was good,” I say.
“What was good? The ride or the smooch?!”
I don’t say anything.
“Ellie…” Brad says slowly. “You are not answering with the candor to which I am accustomed…Are you with him right now?”
“Yeeeesss,” I say. “I am.”
“No way! What are you guys doing?”
“We’re in Denver. And we’re on our way to Phoenix.”
Brad pauses. “Hold on,” he says. “I have to go put my head back together because you just made my brain explode. Are you serious?” Brad sounds thrilled.
“Yup,” I say.
“What are you doing there? Is this your honeymoon?”
I bite my bottom lip. I really don’t like lying to Brad, but I know he kinda shares Amanda’s view that there’s not much I can do about Nina being gone. And he sounds so excited about the idea of me dating Sean, I don’t want to burst his bubble. Then again, omitting some details is not really the same thing as lying, is it? “We’re going to see a band play,” I say. “This band called Monster Hands. Which is part of why I’m calling you, actually. Would it be okay if I didn’t come in to work tomorrow?”
“You’re calling me to say you suddenly, out of nowhere, hopped in a car with a hot stranger and now he’s driving you to Phoenix to see a band and you want to know if you can have off work?”
“Um…yeah?”
Brad lets out a loud WHOOOP. “Well, of course you can! Hold on!” And then I hear him repeating what I just told him to a guy in the background. Thomas probably. The guy lets out a cheer, too. “You just have to promise me one thing, Ellie-bean.”
“What’s that?”
“When you and hot skater are sexin’ it up, you’ll videotape the entire thing.”