Page 2 of Twenty Years Later

That finally snapped me out of my stupor. "Um, no," I managed to utter.

Those stunning eyes grew wider once again. "You're not?"

Had I maybe heard disappointment in his voice or just imagined it? "I had no clue there was even a reunion going on."

He smiled at me, and my heart did that fluttery thing I'd attempted to capture with words so many times in my books. "Yes, tonight," he said. "And if you don't have plans, I think you should be my date."

What in the world was going on? WastheAlex Hernandez asking me on a date? Was I hallucinating? Or had I entered into some other dimension? My brain just seemed to get even dumber, and I had no clue what to say. This couldn't really be happening.

"She'd love to go," I heard the slightly amused voice of Kaileen say.

"W-what?" I sputtered in her direction. "Don't we have, you know, things to do tonight?"

She gave me a look that I instantly recognized, like she was scolding her toddler. "No. We donothave things to do tonight."

"Great," Alex said. "Hey, if you have a second now, maybe we could catch up."

"Um, um," I said. Yikes, I was acting like an idiot. Seeing this god was transporting me instantly back to my dorky, insecure teenage self.

"Yes, she has a second," Kaileen said.

Why was she answering all of his questions? "Um, Kaileen, can I talk to you for a minute? Over there?" I pointed to a quiet, empty corner.

She nodded, then said to Alex, "We'll be right back."

We huddled in the corner, and now, Ireallyfelt like a damn teenager—whispering and giggling with my friends while staring at Alex Hernandez.

She gave me that look again. "What is going on with you, Jayda? Why are you acting so weird all the sudden?"

How could I even explain it? "That guy... that guy right there?" I resisted the urge to point as my eyes darted back and forth between Alex and Kaileen.

"Yeah?" she asked in an exasperated voice.

"He was the hottest, and I meanhottest, most popular guy in our whole school."

One perfectly groomed eyebrow shot up. "So?"

"So I can't go on a date with him," I tried to explain. "To my twenty-year reunion, no less."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because..." I sighed in frustration. "Because I get completely tongue-tied whenever I'm around him, whenever I even see him. And apparently, twenty years hasn't changed a thing. You saw what an idiot I turned into."

She gave me an epic eye-roll. "Yeah. It was hardnotto see that."

I felt my right eye twitch. "So you see? There is no way on earth that I can go out with him."

She put her hands on my shoulders, capturing all of my attention, her gaze burning into mine. "Get yourself together, girl. You are a grown woman now, a mom, a hugely successful novelist. You are not an insecure teenager anymore. You owe it to the teenage girl still inside you to go on that date. You are going, and I will not take no for an answer."

I closed my eyes, trying to imagine it, walking into whatever big room and seeing all my old classmates. Oh, God, I didn't think I could do it.

"Did you go out with him in high school?" she asked, interrupting my momentary panic.

"Are you kidding me? He never would have askedmeon a date. We were friends, though, and had quite a few classes together."

"Well, as your agentandyour best friend, you are going. You'll have a few drinks, and you'll be totally fine," she said, waving her hand in dismissal.

I sighed again because I knew there was no chance of winning this argument, and a part of me kind of did want to go. I hadn't turned out all bad. Plus, didn't a petty side of me want to go to see how all the super popular girls had fared, in hopes that they hadn't aged well?

---