Page 103 of With a Little Luck

“Literally all you have to do is sway a little.”

“Yep. Sway. Got it.”

But I don’t. I do not sway, and since she’s apparently waiting for me, neither does Ari. We stay perfectly still, her gaze on my shirt and mine on a single strand of dark hair that has curled rebelliously away from the others.

Five seconds pass.

Ten.

We meet each other’s eyes.

Then, in unison, we both start to laugh.

Big, rolling, breathless laughs. The kind of laughter that has Ari buckling forward until her forehead smacks me on the chest. Then her hand is over her mouth like she might be able to hold in the uncontrollable giggles, and that just makes me laugh even harder.261

I pull her closer and wrap my arms around her shoulders. Just a hug. Just two friends, sharing a moment of temporary madness spurred on by temporary awkwardness.

By the time we’re catching our breath, Ari is tucked into my arms, her head beneath my chin, rubbing tears from her eyes.

“Youarehopeless,” she says again.

To which I blurt out, “I’m not taking Maya to prom.”

Ari goes still for a heartbeat.

She pulls away, and I reluctantly allow it, though one hand lingers uncertainly at her waist. “What?”

“Junior prom. Any prom,” I amend. “We’ve decided to just be friends.”

“Oh, Jude. I’m sorry. Are you okay?” She lays a hand on my arm, and for some reason, this prompts me to edge closer again. Just a tiny bit. Just enough to keep her close to me.

I shouldn’t want to keep her close to me.

I do, though.

It’s a problem, but Ido.

“I’m fine, actually.” I swallow. “It turns out I don’t like Maya as much as I thought I did. At least … not in that way. I’ve thought about it a lot this week, and …” I don’t know how to finish that sentence.

Soft music swirls around us but we aren’t dancing. And since it seems way weirder to just stand there, motionless, in something halfway to an embrace, I take a breath and reach for Ari’s hand. She starts at the unexpected movement, but as soon as I start dancing, swaying gently back and forth, Ari follows. She lets me lead her in slow, steady turns around the store. Our feet sliding inch by inch, shuffling slowly to the beat of the music.

“This might sound strange,” I say, once I’ve had a moment to gather my thoughts, “but I think maybe my crush on Maya was like … a defense mechanism.”

She keeps her eyes on me, but something has changed. When she was urging me to dance with her before, she was carefree and eager. But now there’s something guarded in her expression. “What do you mean?”262

“I never planned on asking her out. Taking her to the concert was kind of a fluke, and if I hadn’t won those tickets, I never would have done it. So it’s like, having this huge crush on her wassafe. I never had to act on it. Because when the feelings are real, then the risks are bigger, and … that’s a lot scarier.”

Ari looks like she’s trying to puzzle through my words, like maybe I’ve been speaking in code. And I guess, in a way, I have been.

Because speaking in code is safer, too.

“But once I did ask her out,” I continue, “and got to know her, she wasn’t just this impossible dream anymore. She’s real, and she’s great, but … we’re not right together. And I’m okay with that.”

Ari doesn’t respond. The tips of her hair brush against the hand I have spread against her lower back, and it’s nothing but sheer willpower that keeps me from taking a strand of that hair and wrapping it around my fingers. Feeling its softness. Running my hand down its length.

I would give up my LegoMillennium Falconto know what Ari is thinking in that moment, but she doesn’t say anything about my genius revelation. She doesn’t say anything at all.

“You were right,” I say, once the silence has stretched out for too long. “This floor is made for dancing.”

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