Page 86 of Debugging Love

We both take off, churning through water, sending bubbles left and right. I peek to get my bearings and then squeeze my eyes shut again. Power emanates from Chance as he pushes handfuls of water behind him.

At the wall, we’re neck and neck. We do open turns and push off for lap two, making more waves as we muscle to the finish. My hand touches the wall before his. Our heads emerge and we suck in air.

“You let me win,” I say, panting. Chance sinks next to me and grins.

“I would never do that.” He’s out of breath too. At least he had to exert himself a little. “You’re a fish, Danni.”

The way he says my name. It’s like sipping on sweet wine. I want more, but I should stop at one glass. “I’m not swimming into your capture thingie.”

I meant it as a joke, but Chance is serious. The air thickens as he wraps his arm around me and pulls me close. Before my rational mind can stop him, he presses his lips onto mine, wetwith cool water, plump from exertion, his tongue velvety soft. This must be my trophy. I claim it readily as the water holds our bodies in suspension.

Afterward, we look at each other in stunned silence. Water drips from his hair, beads down his cheeks, and as I watch it descend, my rational mind sputters awake.

“I’m sorry,” Chance says.

Sorry for what? The best kiss of my life?!My mind is screaming it, but my mouth won’t move. I take a few deep breaths to flood my brain with oxygen. So I can start straightening my tangled thoughts.I wasnotsupposed to kiss Chance. I want to kiss Chanceagain.Multiple systems overload. Rational Danni pushes the panic button, and it’s the jolt my muscles need to spring into action.

“I…gotta go.”

I hoist myself out of the pool and wander, dazed, to the table where my dress and my uneaten plate of food are waiting. I don’t have a towel.

I’m dripping wet and I don’t have a towel.

“Danni.”

Oh no, you don’t. Don’t go saying my name. I’ve already had enough of your wine. I don’t need any more.

I throw on my dress, grab my plate, and set my sights on the open doorway, dripping while I trip over a lounge chair and nearly fall on my face.

“I’m okay,” I say, not daring a glance at shirtless Chance, with his wet hair and his wet muscles and his wet kiss. Is this what dying feels like? If so, I love it. I mean, I hate it.

Chance is my coworker. And he’s a player! What was Ithinking?

I stumble back to the theater room, find my keys and my phone while Morgan and Kayla ask why I’m so wet. I mumble something about avoiding the pool because it causesotherworldly possession, and then I duck out, relaxing only when I’m in my car, alone, still alive. Barely.

Chapter 20

Chance

Ironworks Pub is busy on a Saturday evening at six o’clock. Patrons hover on the sidewalk and inside the waiting area, everyone coupled up. I scan them for a single woman with blonde hair and gray eyes. My quick perusal comes up short.

Savannah never texted me back after I told her I wanted to cancel. We’d already set the day and time, so here I am, too polite to stand someone up, but still reeling from my kiss with Danni last night. My first kiss. That I initiated.

I think it went well. For me anyway. All I can think about is kissing Danni again. And again. Unfortunately, she made a quick exit, ignoring my apology, tripping over things. She held tight to my arms as we kissed, offered no resistance whatsoever. And then she left abruptly, mixing her signals.

After fifteen minutes of waiting, Savannah hasn’t shown up and I’m still thinking about that kiss, Danni’s quick exit, and our trip to Chai World on Monday. What if we find another opportunity to kiss while we’re in Atlanta? I don’t know whether I’m nervous or ecstatic.

Both. Definitely both. I need to get this date over with so I can go home and pack.

At twenty after six, a blonde-haired, gray-eyed woman in revealing clothing approaches me. Her tight red dress exists to show everything off, including several inches of cleavage.

“Are you Chance?”

I warned Savannah over text that I’m not Thor but quite the opposite, on several counts.

“Savannah?”

Her wide smile reveals perfectly aligned teeth. Too perfect. I’m not asking dental hygiene questions tonight or any of the questions on my list. Kissing Danni made me forget most of them anyway.

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