Page 63 of First Impressions of You

We hurdle up to one of the computers, waiting to see ourselves on the screen.

“That’s us!” She points out, recognizing us in one of the four pictures they show at a time. She clicks on it, and the image fills up the whole screen.

The six of us are all in different states of despair.

Cece and Olivia are both jumping, mouths open and eyes closed. Their torsos curled in towards each other. Julia is hiding her face in the crook of Cam’s arm, hands covering her eyes, while he has his arm wrapped around her waist, his right hand stretched out as if to stop danger from reaching them. His face is frozen in a hilarious expression of fear.

Then there’s me and Winter at the back. His right arm wrapped tightly around my waist, my left hand gripping the back of his T-shirt as if my life depended on it. I’m hiding my face in his chest, which I have zero recollection of doing. But what’s most surprising of all is that he’s not scared at all. Winter looks like he couldn’t be more comfortable in the middle of that scary-ass scene. He’s looking down at me instead, as if nothing is happening around us. His eyes are focused on me using him as a safe place to hide. And under the brim of his baseball cap, I can see his lips curved in a smug smile.

“Look at you.” Cece laughs, nudging my ribs and nodding to the picture. Then she gasps. Loudly. “Oh my God. You know what I just realized? You’d actually be a good-looking couple if you didn’t hate each other.”

I snort a short laugh, trying to hide the way my heart skips a beat at the thought of me and Winter being a couple. When I turn around, he’s right behind me. Cece looks between us, then gives me a quick apologetic look and scampers away.

“Hate each other, huh?” Winter gives me a knowing look.

“I… I haven’t talked to her in a while.”

“Huh.” He pretends to consider my answer. “But I agree with her, you know?” I give him a quizzical look. “We do look good together.”

If this had happened just a few weeks ago, I would have hated when Winter decides to join us for a late-night bite after we leave Nights of Terror. Right now, though, I can’t deny the lightness in my chest. The way my pulse quickens and my insides vibrate at the thought of spending more time with him.

Who would’ve thought that Winter’s company would one day spark joy in me?

The six of us walk along Film Strip looking for a restaurant that doesn’t have park employees spilling out of its doors. It seems that everybody had the same idea as us, and the promenade is more crowded than it usually is this late at night.

“I never realized,” Cam starts saying. His hands are in the pockets of his jeans, his shoulder slouched in that posture I began to recognize as his. His eyes travel around, studying the storefronts, the cartoon-like façades, the shop windows that could very well belong in an animated movie. “Film Strip reminds me a lot of Horton Plaza.”

Julia looks over at him, then her eyes follow his gaze and go back to him. “It does,” she agrees, and they share a smile.

“What’s that?” Cece voices the question I, too, want to ask.

“A place in San Diego,” Cam answers, but his eyes are fixed on Julia, who’s looking at him with a dreamy expression in her face.

This girl can deny it all she wants, but there’s no way she isn’t dying to forgive him.

We end up getting a table at La Serenata, an Italian trattoria inspired by Movieland’s Oscar-winning movie, Whispers of Roma. As we step inside, we’re immediately transported to 1960s Rome in all its elegance and opulence. The hues of dark green and rich gold scattered around the restaurant create an ambiance of warmth and intimacy, as the black-and-white pictures of Rome adorning the walls display the most iconic scenes of the movie.

Everything in this place is designed to make you forget you’re in the middle of a theme park just north of Los Angeles. From the soft jazz playing in the background, to the bar area reminiscent of Italy’s most exclusive cocktail lounges, and the chairs upholstered in luxury fabrics, everything looks chic.

We place our orders after a chaotic minute of debating how many dishes we should get, and then Cece breaks the silence by making the last joke she should make around us.

“Damn,” she blurts out. “This place is fancy. I should come here more often, and maybe I’d finally find my green card.”

There’s a clear shift in the air. The silence takes on a different tone after her voice quiets down.

“She’s joking,” I intervene before the awkward escalates.

Cece doesn’t get it, though, and she insists, “Just a little. I’d definitely be up for it.”

“You should talk to Colin,” Olivia, oblivious as always, suggests. “He said he’s marry Luiza. If she doesn’t take him up on his offer, I bet he’d marry you.”

“Cece doesn’t date men,” I remind my sister.

“I don’t have to be attracted to him to marry him. It’d be purely transactional.” She shrugs as if she’s talking about buying a T-shirt that doesn’t fit perfectly, and not marrying someone who’s not even of the gender she’s sexually attracted to.

I rack my brain for something to say. Anything to change the topic. I can already sense Julia’s discomfort, and Cam looks like he’d rather be anywhere else but right here in the middle of this discussion. The wound is still too fresh to be adding salt to it.

“So, Olivia.” Winter comes to the rescue. “Your classes have started? What are you studying?”

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