Page 53 of The Do-Over

I pushed his Ray-Bans up my nose. “My mom and her husband have a puggle named Potassium—and I can’t even remember where they came up with that ridiculous name. He’s cute but we aren’t close.”

That made him smirk.

“My dad and his wife have a cat—Big Al—who is amazing, but he’s been known to pee on the straw rug in the laundry room, so he definitely has issues.”

He pushed open the door to Zen Coffee and held it while I walked in. “I also have two little brothers who are my dad’s. Man, that sounds utterly dysfunctional, doesn’t it?”

“No,” he said, but when I raised an eyebrow he amended with, “Maybe a little.”

He was giving me another funny look that warmed me, and when we moved into the big line, I said, “The questions were supposed to be for you. Brothers and sisters?”

“Are you always this nosy?”

“Nope—only on the DONC.”

“We should talk about this DONC of yours.” His eyes flitted down for the briefest of seconds when I unzipped the big coat, and the mere idea of him being interested in my body made my heart pound.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” I looked at that face that I knew really well and said, “Let’s just say it’s a social experiment. What will happen if for an entire day, I do exactly what I feel like, consequences be damned?”

He shrugged. “You’ll have a fun day today and a nightmare tomorrow.”

“Which is why,” I said, lowering my voice a little, “I’m refusing to think about tomorrow.”

We moved up in the line, and Nick looked deep in thought. He was probably thinking that I was marginally unstable; I mean, I would think that in the reverse. He didn’t even look at me while we waited, which made me worry that he was going to bail on me. That he’d realize my particular flavor of hot messiness wasn’t worth detention and he’d make a break for it, leaving me alone downtown.

When we got to the front and the barista looked to me to order, I said, “Could I please have a large Americano? And the gentleman will have a large… Sleepytime…?”

I glanced at him and he rolled his eyes before saying, “Large green tea, please.”

I laughed at his obvious annoyance in my rightness, and we didn’t talk again until we got our drinks and went back outside. We both started walking without even discussing where we might be headed, and I was just starting to feel my cup’s heat through Nick’s gloves when he said, “For the record, I think your DONC idea is really terrible because youwillhave to face the consequences tomorrow.”

I glanced at him and said, “You don’t—”

“But I still want to do it.”

I stopped lifting my cup toward my mouth and froze. “Youdo?”

“I’m in my own head too much, and I also fucking hate Valentine’s Day,” he said, looking straight ahead, “so the way I see it, being a dipshit like you for a few hours might be a nice break.”

“Awww—so sweet.” I finally managed a sip of the deliciously dark caffeinated beverage.

“But you don’t want to steal a car or anything, do you?”

That made me snort and choke a little on my coffee. I held up one finger while I coughed, and then I said, “I already did that this morning.”

He looked at me with deadpan eyes as a jogger went around us. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Um, sort of…?” I went on to tell him about my dad’s car, getting pulled over, and then watching my dad’s precious baby get towed away. I managed to make him look scandalized over every word, which felt like some kind of a win. I said, “So I’m not going to get arrested for GTA or anything, but I did, in fact, start my day by taking someone else’s vehicle.”

He looked at me through narrowed eyes, turning sideways to keep eye contact while we walked. “This is blowing my mind thatyou, the girl I’ve seen reading in Chem, in the cafeteria, who’s always digging in her backpack, which is—of course—fullof books, is out being a deviant. Before today, I would’ve guessed you were a candidate for ‘Most likely to work in a library.’?”

“That’s actually my number two career choice,” I said, fascinatedby the fact that he knew things about me after pretending he didn’t on multiple days.

He ignored my words and kept going.

“But here you are, joyriding in Porsches, ditching school, and destroying your ex-boyfriend in a very public way. Was there some sort of a final-straw event that started this thing?”

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