Page 82 of Ruthless Rose

He rakes his teeth over his lower lip, grinning. “You call it no filter. I call it the truth. And you can always count on me for that.”

“I know. I appreciate it.”

Scarlett’s aunt appears with not only her phone, but also a fancy camera with all the bells and whistles, and she declares she has to get all the right poses. We give in, letting her take as many shots as she wants of each of us individually, both couples, just the girls, just the guys, and all together. We’re having a lot of fun with it, which I never would have dreamed could be the case, but there you have it. My only regret is that I won’t have photos with Micah unless we take some at the dance. My heart twinges a little with that thought, and then squeezes harder. I pull my phone from the super cool pocket hidden within the flounces of my skirt and shoot him a quick text.

Me:See you soon? We’re leaving Scarlett’s now.

I breathe out hard after several seconds. Nothing. He must be getting ready.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Mm-hmm. I was just texting Micah.”

Max wriggles his eyebrows. “Oh yeah? You want me to send a shot of you to him?”

I give a quick shake of my head. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.”

He nudges me. “Sure you do.”

“Fine. I’m nervous. This doesn’t feel like me.”

“Daph. You have a right to feel however you do, but you look fantastic, so no worries there. You said he wanted to hit the dance floor with you, right?” Max does a few little dance moves designed to make me laugh, which I do.

“Yeah. Yeah, he did.” I plaster a bright smile on my face, and decide to make the best of things. This is going to be a great night.

After Scarlett’s Aunt Liz takes so many flash photos, I’m convinced I’ll see spots for the next three days, we step outside to find Xander and Max have sprung for a limo for us. More photos are taken, and then it’s finally time to go. Scarlett and I climb inside, followed by Max and Xander.

The conversation is lively and before I know it, we’ve arrived. As we pull up, we find we’re not the only ones with a limo. In fact, there are so many limos, I don’t know how we’ll find ours at the end of the evening. Just another one of those elite-as-hell Rose problems, I suppose.

When Max and I enter the lunchroom through the wide double doors, I smile to myself. All of the homecoming committee’s hard work has paid off. It’s stunning—even more beautiful this evening than it had been when I’d left this afternoon. The twinkle lights strung around the room bathe the space in soft light. It’s magical. It’s a dream. Why I ever thought attending a dance like this would be boring is beyond me.

Max places his hand at the small of my back as we make a slow circuit of the room. “This is gorgeous. How’d you guys do this?” He points at the billowing fabric that has been hung across the ceiling and down the walls to completely transform the place where we eat lunches most days into something out of a fairy tale.

I shrug with a smile. “It was pretty easy, actually. There’s this chandelier contraption at the center and magnets and all this drapey fabric and hooks and—” I laugh. “It’s really not hard to set up, it’s just hard to explain how we did it.”

Max chuckles shooting me his best crazy face. “I no longer wish to know how it was done. It’s nice, though. Well done.”

For over an hour, we spend time with Scarlett and Xander at the refreshment tables, then out on the dance floor. I’m not a great dancer, but Max can bust a move, so everyone watches him instead of me, which suits me just fine. In fact, Max is pretty much the perfect date for a girl like me. He keeps me entertained and happy.

The only person I’d be happier with is Micah, but he’s nowhere to be seen. My eyes drift over the room. When I see Xander and Scarlett off at the side of the dance floor taking a break, I tug on Max’s sleeve and point. We head over to join them.

“Having fun?” Xander scans the crowd behind us before looking at me for my answer.

“Yeah. I was just wondering if you knew where Micah is.”

He gives a regretful shake of his head. “I wish I knew. He brushed me off when I asked if he wanted to go in on the limo with us. Said he was already doing something with Beau.”

I frown, watching Beau across the dance floor, trying his best to twerk along to some Miley Cyrus song pumping through the speakers. “But he’s not with Beau, either.”

Xander nods, sliding me an uncomfortable glance. “I know.”

A sinking feeling hits me square in the gut and trying to steel myself, I look Xander in the eye. “Do you know something you’re not telling me?”

When Xander looks down at his feet, Max wraps an arm around my back. “Look, Xander, we get you’re caught in the middle. But where the fuck is your friend?”

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