Page 32 of With a Little Luck

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“Do you know about what time you’ll have Maya home by?”

“The concert starts at seven thirty,” I say. “So maybe ten or so?”

She nods. “That’s just fine. If it runs much later, Maya, you can text and let us know. Sweetheart, do you want me to take those, put them in water?”

“Thanks, Mom,” says Maya, passing the flowers to her. Then Maya takes my arm and lightning jolts through my body.

“All right, we don’t want to be late. Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!”

I wave disjointedly with my free arm. They tell us to have fun as Maya guides me outside, but my senses are flooding with a potent mix of exhilaration and terror. Maya has her arm wrapped around mine. Maya is touching me.

Somehow it hadn’t really felt real until just now, this exact moment.

I am going on a date with Maya. An actual, honest-to-god date.

Maya draws up short on the front stoop, staring at the limousine. “Oh, wow. The radio station sent this?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty cool inside. There’s, like, a refrigerator. And buttons that make it light up like the StarshipEnterprise.”87

Maya glances at me, and I cringe inwardly, remembering Lucy’s warning.No nerd talk.

But Maya’s smile only grows. “Are you ready?”

Nope.

“Yeah, let’s do this.”

She all but drags me toward the waiting car, and I can feel the giddiness in her step, the way her smile is brighter than the setting sun as the chauffeur holds the door open for us.

“I’m so glad you asked me to this, Jude,” she says as we settle onto the leather benches. Then, to my absolute shock, she slips her hand into mine, our fingers interlacing. “This is literally a dream come true.”

My brain explodes. My hand is on fire. “Yeah,” I choke. “Me too.”

In the next second, though, her hand is gone.

“Is that a remote?” Maya launches herself to the opposite bench and grabs a remote control off a tray beside the ice bucket, which has been stocked with Pellegrino. “What do you think it does?”

“Engages warp speed,” I answer automatically.

Gah.I am bad at this.

Maya doesn’t respond, just starts pushing buttons.

Within seconds, the interior of the limo is transformed into a tiny nightclub. Bass-driven music starts to thump from hidden speakers, and a band of lights around the ceiling shifts from purple to blue to pink.

“Wow,” says Maya, sitting so that she is facing me, her eyes wandering around the limo. “I bet a lot of unsavory stuff has happened in here.”

I snicker. “There’s a reason these aren’t blacklights.”

Maya lets out a peal of laughter and makes a show of setting the remote back where she found it, like she’s no longer sure she wants to be touching the thing. She turns back to me, and I notice her heels are bouncing on the floor, making her knees jump up and down, up and down. She’s practically vibrating.

“So,” she says, leaning forward, “I have to ask. Do you evenlikeSadashiv?”88

“Oh. I mean …” I scratch the back of my neck, where the blazer’s tag is itching against my skin. “I’ve nevermethim, so …”

Maya scrunches her face into the cutest grimace of all time. “That’s a no, then.”

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