Page 94 of The ABCs of You & Me

“Foster?” she says, her lips, an inch from my neck.

“Mm-hmm?” I hum back.

“Take me dancing.” She pulls back beaming.

“Yes, ma’am,” I try a western accent which leads to a snort and a laugh from her. Sunshine.

FORTY

SOPHIE

“What are you doing over here?” Foster asks when he joins me where I’m sitting at the bar, examining my feet.

“I’m checking to see if I have two lefts.”

“No way, you were killing it out there,” he assures me, but when I look up at his face I can see him trying to hide his grin. He’s failing.

“Nearly killing others is more like it,” I scoff.

“Nah, you weren’t?—”

“Foster, let’s not play the game where we pretend I’m good at something I’m not. I’m okay with not being good at things. Especially things that are, well—” I wave at the floor where six couples decked out in various levels of western wear are boogying around the dance floor. “Will you please go back out?”

“I don’t want to do it alone.”

“You won’t be. That woman’s partner bailed.” I point at the only single woman on the floor who’s now awkwardly shuffling around. “He took a phone call. Probably won’t be for that long.”

He looks down at me and back out at the woman. When he looks at me again, I think he’s about to say that he actually doesn’t want to do it without me, but he doesn’t. “Just a dance or two, then I’ll be back. Start thinking about M.”

Foster approaches the woman whose blush I can see from here, and I’m instantly filled with regret. Is this when it happens? He finally finds the woman he’s going to bring to all the silly friend barbecues and hockey games? Is she the one who’s going to go to the emergency vet with him at three in the morning and eat the food he makes?

It’s fine if that’s what happens. This was never a real thing anyway. It’s fun, I won’t deny that, and he has made me feel all the things I’ve heard people talk about, but it’s not real. If he comes back and says he’s actually going to head out with her, I’d be fine with it.

You’re a fucking liar, Sophie Hore, I can hear Maya hiss. Look at how sexy he makes line dancing look. See how his hips move. He can probably do so much with those hips, and you’re sitting here trying to tell yourself that for the past two months what you’ve been doing is purely friendship-based. Bullshit wrapped in horseshit, deep fried in a big old vat of denial.

I keep one eye on Foster as I pull my phone out.

I think I’m in trouble.

Maya

Because you’re in love with the jolly red giant?

I’m not in love with him.

Soph, you’re so head over heels for that man that Simone Biles is going to be asking you for tips.

What do I do?

I don’t know. Do you FEEL ready for something real?

I don’t know.

Can I be honest with you?

Please

You’ve been dating the guy for two months. Like one hundred percent in a relationship without the sex and if that’s not some serious edging I don’t know what is.

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