Page 83 of One Night

I take a deep breath. "Yeah."

"You go first. Tell me if anyone's out there."

I open the door a crack and say, "Coast is clear." I go out in the hall and wait for him.

He comes out, acting completely casual, as if nothing happened.

I turn to him. "What about the supplies? People are going to ask why we didn't come back with anything."

"We'll tell them they were out of whatever we needed."

"What did we need?"

"Printer paper? Staples? I don't know. I'll make something up."

"This is so bad," I whisper as we walk back. "They're totally going to know."

"Only if you give us away."

"ME? What about YOU?"

"I can keep a secret. You're still blushing. You need to stop that."

"I can't control it."

"Then we'll have to come up with an excuse for why you're blushing. We'll tell them you tripped. In front of a group of doctors. Who were really hot." He laughs.

"Yeah. Real funny. Let's just go in there and not say anything. We don't need to explain where we were. We work for Donna, not them."

And yet when we get back in the room, I feel like we have to explain ourselves because I can tell that nosy Mary is suspicious of us. As soon as we walked in, she was eyeing us, and now, ten minutes later, she keeps looking over here.

Dylan and I shouldn't have done that. But damn, it was fun.

Chapter Eighteen

Dylan

"You've gotta come on Thursday," I say to Amber as we sit at our favorite booth at Patty's Pizza Palace. We've only been here twice so I guess the booth couldn't technically be considered a favorite, but I'm officially naming it that because it's private, tucked way in the back, allowing us to make out all we want without people bothering us.

"I'd feel weird being there," Amber says, picking up a slice of pizza, the cheese strings hanging down. She swipes them up and takes a bite. I like that she doesn't get all uptight when eating in front of me. I've been out with girls who will only eat pizza with a knife and fork, fearing the mess it might make if they picked it up.

"Why would you feel weird? Because you think it's too soon?" I assume she's worried about that. I'm worried about it too. I never bring girls home to meet my family but I don't want Amber sitting home alone on Thanksgiving, eating some shitty frozen dinner.

"Exactly." She wipes her mouth with her napkin. "It's too soon."

"Then we'll tell them we met last May. It's the truth and it'll make it less weird that I invited you to dinner."

"You can't tell your family how we met! Are you kidding?" She tries to swat at me but I catch her hand and kiss it, then lean in to kiss her lips.

"I won't tell them how we met, or at least what we did when we met. I'll just say I met you at a party and we've been friends ever since."

"So you won't tell them we're dating." She turns back to her pizza. "I was thinking the same thing. It'd be better if we told them we're just friends."

"My mom already knows we're dating." I pick up my glass of pop and take a swig.

"You told her?"

"She assumed we were. She could tell by the way I talked about you. My mom's very perceptive. She picks up on things, especially with her kids. When I was living at home, I never got away with anything. She always knew if I was lying. Same with my little brother."

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