Page 74 of Nobody in Particular

Ouch to my head, and my pride. There’s nothing better than eating dirt—or ice, I guess—in front of a massive audience.

“That was a hard fall,” Edmund says from behind Rose.

“She’s fine, Rosie,” Alfie says, and there’s a warning in his tone.

“Can you see okay?” Rose asks me, helping me sit up.

For a second, I think I might be seeing stars. Then I realize it’s the cameras flashing. “Rose, back up,” I whisper, trying not to move my mouth.

She bites her bottom lip hard, takes a deep breath, and shuffles backward. Alfie grabs her hand and pulls her in to whisper something.

Edmund takes Rose’s place by my side. “Anything broken?”

I do a quick body check. “Nope, but my tailbone might be bruised.”

“Not thetailbone. I had the worst tailbone bruise from falling once. I was just standing there, too. One minute I was up, the next I wasdown.” He helps me up, and, together, we leave the ice, Alfie and Rose at our heels.

My back is aching like nobody’s business, and we have the photos we needed, so we decide to call it a day. Edmund gets his skates off first and runs to the bathroom—a cute little brick structure I think must have been built next to the lake just for this—and I’m left alone with Rose and Alfie.

“So,” I say. “I could’ve used a heads-up that Edmund’s into me.”

Rose and Alfie look at each other.

“What?” Rose asks Alfie.

“I needed someone to join us so you could have Danni here. He mentioned he finds Danni hot, so I thought he would be interested in coming.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little odd?” Rose whispers.

“I thought it couldn’t hurt. I’m sure they’ll end up great friends.”

“She’s my girlfriend,” Rose says, and if I thought I did a good job at speaking without moving my lips before, Rose puts me to shame. “You just set mygirlfriendup on anactualdate.”

“I didn’t think it would matter! It’s not like she likes guys anyway,” Alfie says under his breath.

“Well,” I say, and both of them look at me. “Icanlike guys,” I clarify.

Rose looks sort of horrified by this. She knows I’m bi, so I guess it’s more that I made it sound like some sort of confession, so I add hastily, “But not when I’m taken. I’m just as capable of monogamy as anyone else.”

“It does change things a bit, though,” Alfie says. “I wouldn’t have brought Edmund if I knew that.”

“Why are you saying that like it’s my fault?” I ask.

“I’m not! I’m apologizing for my oversight.”

“Oh.” I wince. I guess I’m as easy to rile up as Rose is today. “Sorry.”

“Next time I’ll make sure I bring a guy who finds you hideous,” Alfie promises.

“Actually,” Rose says, “if the two of you don’t mind, I’d rather drive this toe pick into my eyeball than do this again.”

“Okay, okay,” Alfie says, wounded. “Failed venture. Got it. At least we got some good photos, right?”

Rose forces a smile and claps her hands rapidly. A flash of light tells us the paparazzi got that on camera, too.

“So, what did you and Edmund talk about?” Rose asks me once we get out of her car at Bramppath and have a second of privacy.

“Not a whole lot. Mostly small talk. He’s nice, though.” She raisesboth her eyebrows and looks anywhere but at me. “Nice enough,” I add, smiling.

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