Page 63 of Absolutely Not in Love
Felix:Sure.
Gracie:So trusting…
Felix:Should I not be? What kind of game are we talking?
Gracie:I’m teasing. It’s nothing scary. I ask you a question, and you can either answer or pass. But if you answer, then I have to answer the same question too. And you can only pass three times, then you have to answer everything.
Felix:Ahh. So we shouldn’t ask anything we aren’t willing to answer ourselves.
Gracie:Right. And use your passes wisely.
Felix:Okay. Let’s do it.
Gracie:YAY. First question: are you a cat person or a dog person?
Felix:Hmm. I’ve never actually been either. We never had pets growing up. But if I had to pick, I’d say probably a dog person? You?
Gracie:Definitely a dog person. I don’t trust that a cat won’t turn on me and eat me in my sleep.
Felix:Even with my limited cat experience, this…feels like it tracks. Okay, next question. How old were you when you had your first kiss?
Gracie:Wow. You’re really going for it with that one.
Felix:I’ve never been the kind of man who messes around.??
Gracie:Noted. ?? I was seventeen. It was horrible and I wish I could take it back.
Gracie:Actually, that’s not true. The kiss itself was fine. I still liked the guy at the time, and I felt all the fun, tingly things you feel with a first kiss. But the memory is tainted by how badly he behaved later.
Felix:Now I’m curious. And angry on your behalf.
Gracie:He was just a stupid kid. A hockey player on my brother’s team who stood me up on prom night to sleep with a college girl who had come to see him play and waited outside the locker room like some kind of weird, junior league puck bunny. I mean, he was eighteen. But she was in college and it just…felt awful. I got all dressed up and waited for him to pick me up, but he never showed. I saw pictures of him on Instagram the next morning, lounging shirtless in her dorm room.
Felix:That’s…really not cool. No wonder you don’t want to date hockey players.
Gracie:He definitely didn’t help.
Felix:I’m sorry he did that to you. Did you end up going to prom at all?
Gracie:Not my junior year. But I went my senior year with a group of orchestra friends, and we had a great time.
Gracie:Okay, your turn! Thinking about Gavin is making me feel gross.
Felix:How about thinking about a fourteen-year-old Felix kissing a girl and making her cry?
Gracie:You did not.
Felix:I did. Caroline Williams. She cut her lip on my braces. She dripped blood onto her sweater, then freaked out because it was her favorite sweater and started ranting about how she hadn’t wanted to kiss me anyway. I was so mortified, I ran away and threw up in the bushes outside the school.
Gracie:That’s a really terrible first kiss story.
Felix:Here. Photo evidence. You might as well get the whole picture.
Felix:
Gracie:FELIX YOU WERE SO CUTE. Look at all your fluffy hair!
Felix:Trust me, no one thought I was cute then. I was so awkward. The only reason it even happened was because a bunch of guys on my hockey team put her up to it. I was the only one on the team who hadn’t been kissed.
