Page 51 of One Small Secret

“We’ve known each other all our lives,” I say.

Daphne waves her hand in the air. “But when did you first know who you were going to be to each other?”

“Sophomore year of high school.” Ruben steps closer to me, and suddenly my barstool has a backrest. A warm, tuxedo-wearing backrest.

“Yep,” I say wistfully, trying to play along. I’m not sure why Ruben pulled that year out of his pocket, but at least I remember a few things from it. “The year our debate team took state.”

“The year my Teen Heartthrob picture came out,” Ruben says, and I’m almost certain it's the first time I’ve ever heard that magazine’s name on his lips. His embarrassment about the picture seems gone, too.

Amira nods like that makes so much sense. “So you were able to lock him down before the world went crazy over him. Smart move.”

It would have been a smart move, but I had been way too busy trying to beat Ruben. The thought of dating him had never really crossed my mind. “I wouldn’t say I date Ruben because I’m smart.”

“Why do you date him, then?” Daphne asks.

I can think of a thousand reasons why I would date Ruben, his selfie being one of them, but more than that, it’s the way he looks out for everyone. The dictionary he bought me. The apple charm he bought Mom. But to say any of those things out loud would make me die of embarrassment. It would also be overkill. Ruben would never let me live it down. I crane my neck to look at him, hoping for help.

He saves me. “Probably because she knows she’ll never have another man look at her the way I do.”

Daphne and Amira nod. “That’s legit,” Daphne says.

“Plus,” Ruben adds, because the man doesn’t know how to quit when he's ahead. “She has photographic proof of it.”

My neck starts to burn, and I know I must be turning red. Luckily, the lighting in here isn’t great. If he makes me pull out that skin picture, I am sure it will be obvious how much I’ve looked at it. There’s no way I can mask that kind of voyeurism.

“Ohhh, photographic evidence," Bernard says. “That sounds like a good story.”

I place my hand over Ruben’s. “No, Ruben, don't tell it. I’ll die of embarrassment.”

“We were in history class,” he starts, and immediately I’m on high alert. He isn’t telling the shirtless photo story. “No, actually, I think we need to go back to the night before history class.”

I have zero clue what Ruben is talking about. If we were going to make up a story we should have made it up together. “It was our last debate tournament and our team all sat together at the awards ceremony. Cadence was wearing a white button-up shirt with black slacks, trying so hard to look grown up. But her hair was in two braids, and it spoiled the effect.

“She won the award for best speech and, thanks to that, our team made it to state. Everyone was hugging her and I realized I was going to get to hug her too. But when I came up to her, so excited to hug this girl I’d known my whole life, do you know what she did?”

Everyone shook their heads. I wanted to join them. “She stuck her tongue out at me.”

“Burn,” says Bernard.

But Ruben laughs. “Are you kidding me? I was delighted. I felt like I'd won because she’d been trying so hard to be grown up, but she could still be childish with me.”

This story does sound vaguely familiar, but I’m not sure he’s telling it right. “I’m not childish.”

Ruben runs his thumb down my jaw line. I wish so badly I could see his face. “We were on the same team, Cadence. I was happy you’d done so well.”

I’m not one to blush. Really, I’m not. But in this moment, my body is trying to. Ruben has me pegged and for the life of me I can’t remember if this even happened. Well, except for my winning speech. That definitely happened.

“The next day in history class, Cadence had her hair in two braids again. We were getting our test results back, and guess who scored the highest?”

Daphne waves a hand at him. “We all know it was Cadence. Continue.” Daphne winks at Ruben.

Ruben wags his finger at her in return. “I'd watched her get the test from the teacher, so I saw the moment she realized she had beaten every single person in that class. And after a little fist pump, she turned to me and did it again.”

“Stuck her tongue out at you?” Daphne asks.

I feel Ruben nod behind me.

“And that’s when you knew?” Amira asks like it’s a totally believable story. I don’t remember that test or the braids. I’ve stuck my tongue out at him plenty of times, but that’s hardly a reason to fall in love with someone.

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