Page 50 of Old Acquaintances

The orchestra began tuning their instruments, and I jumped. “I have to go!”

Before I could leave for the stage, Tucker snatched my hands back. He wove his fingers into mine, pressing our palms together.

Wide-eyed, I gritted, “What are you doing?”

He flashed his perfect smile. “Making you the most popular girl in ballet class.”

“Wow. You think highly of yourself, huh?”

“Yes. I do.” He paused. “I’d kiss you, but I don’t want to mess up your makeup.”

I growled, “You kiss me and you’re going to need anice pack. Tucker, I have to go!”

He smiled, tightening out hands together, looking at my chest rising and falling. He dipped his head and kissed the side of my neck. I inhaled sharply, my shoulders lifting.

Someone screamed, “Ella!”

“Shit,” I gasped, tearing myself from Tucker’s hands. I ran toward the wings, careful not to fall, seeing Jeffrey on the other side of the stage holding his arms up. I mouthed that I was sorry and watched the angels shuffle into a new formation, waving plastic candles around. My skin burned from where Tucker had kissed me. I palmed my temple, feeling lightheaded, and prayed that my bodice had been properly buttoned back up.

The music reached its crescendo and I ran out on stage.

Chapter Fifteen

Today

Wrapped in my towel and sitting at the kitchen island, I wipe my teary eyes and watch everyone in the pool. They’re talking emphatically to Tucker, except Johnny, and Tucker’s hand movements tell a clear story: he doesn’t want to hear it. He’s shrugging, waving his hands around. Johnny’s nodding in agreement, but he’s the only one.

There’s a sound of footsteps. Jen comes around the corner.

“Oh!” she says, seeing me. Her dress is a little crinkled.

“Hi.”

She opens the refrigerator and digs into a bowl of fruit. “How’s the pool?”

“Can I have one of those?” I answer, “And it’s crowded.” When she drops an orange into my hand, I snatch her fingers. “That isquitethe ring.”

She blushes. “Thank you.”

“You know, if Johnny was a girl, he would have told me everything. I would have seen pictures of the ring, and he would have told me how he proposed. But…nothing.”

She wavers in front of the oven. She was obviously planning to return to watching television.

I rip into my fruit and say, “You don’t have to tell me, either. I’m just curious.”

She takes a quick peek at my bikini top. Wow, Jen isreally not comfortable with exposed flesh. As she tentatively takes the seat beside me, I wonder if they’ve had sex. I wonder if Johnny goes to church with her. I wonder why they got engaged so quickly, all things he either didn’t explain or I can’t ask him. Well, I could ask him about the church thing, but not the intimate details of their lives. I never really cared, but he’s never dated anyone so buttoned-up and particular before. Unprompted, Serena had offered up details of their sex life that made me plug my ears and pray for death.

Jen and I may never be girlfriends like that, but we could be something.

Light bounces off of her delicate earrings. “He proposed on my birthday in November. We went to the outdoor orchestra. We had a picnic. And then, he proposed.”

“Wow.” I try to imagine Johnny listening to orchestral music without falling asleep. “You do that kind of thing a lot - listen to music without words?”

“We love the orchestra. We go to the opera. We go for bike rides. We take cooking classes.”

“Wow,” I repeat. This is all new information to me. I wipe a drizzle of orange juice from my jaw. “The Johnny that I knew was into video games and Beastie Boys and competitive wrestling. Sometimes he’d agreed to go see a romantic comedy with me at the movie theater.”

Even Tucker would come. He’d sit beside me and make a mockery of it. He’d take out a little notebook and pretend to be taking notes on wooing women. He’d stick an extra straw in my soda and drink at the same time, pressing our foreheads together to be annoying.

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