Page 25 of Party Favors

“Hi,” she said, drawing out theIin a long exhale. “So nice to meet you. You’re from Monterra? How long have you been in New York?”

He answered her questions, and all I could think about was that he’d come over here because he’d seen me cry. My ears started to ring as I was crushed by the memory of one of the worst things that had happened to me in high school. My mom’s best friend was the mother of the most popular boy in school, and without my knowledge, she forced him to ask me to the spring formal our senior year.

My mother and I weren’t well off, and I was stuck with a dress that didn’t fit me very well and shoes that were way too tight. I’d hadhopes of feeling like a princess, but instead I was dressed up like an ugly stepsister.

My so-called date didn’t say a word to me during our drive to the school and then ditched me entirely once we got to the dance. It was humiliating, knowing he and his friends were making fun of me while I stood there in a too-short dress, feeling gangly and awkward, my shoulders hunched forward in an attempt to make myself smaller. I’d had to call a rideshare to get back home.

And Max’s confession that he’d only approached me because he’d felt sorry for me was making me feel like that gawky teenage girl all over again.

Someone else approached the table, and it was Otis. I scowled at him, but he didn’t take any notice of me. He kissed Vella on the cheek and said, “I’ll meet you outside, babe.”

Why did she let him call her that? She hated that kind of thing.

“Be right there,” she said, and then directed her words at me. “I’m leaving with Otis. Will you be okay getting home by yourself?”

“Really? Otis?”

“He’s hot and I’m bored. You can do the math,” she said. “See you later.”

She walked off before I could object further, and my phone beeped. I looked down to see a message from her.

I’m taking your coat. Borrow Max the Monterran’s and have him take you home. The apartment will be empty! Or you can go back to his place and let him warm you up.

She added an emoji with suggestive eyebrows and some other explicit symbols that I couldn’t think about because Max was sure to notice my embarrassment.

Did she not realize that there was no possibility of either one of her suggestions happening? Not to mention that she had officially abandoned me to freeze to death—she and I had walked here and I didn’tcurrently have enough money in my checking account to pay for an Uber.

Now that I knew Vella was gone, it was like this built-in security to keep me in line and behaving had disappeared. With her here, I wasn’t going to do something like make out with a random stranger, because she would have teased me endlessly about it.

But with her leaving ... all bets were off.

Which made me a danger to myself.

“I should probably get going,” I said to Max, alarmed at the direction of my thoughts.

“Really?” I couldn’t read his reaction. Was he disappointed that I was leaving? Or relieved, glad that his duty of keeping an eye on the crying girl was over? It was hard to tell. He added, “No one’s here to watch you, so it’s time to duck out?”

That, and I was concerned that despite how pathetic I currently felt, I still wanted to ravage his mouth or else spontaneously combust because he was sitting next to me. There was no in-between that I could see, so staying was not an option. “Something like that.”

“You strike me as the kind of kid who stayed put in her seat if the teacher left the classroom.”

“Guilty. I’ve always been a big rule follower.”

“That’s too bad,” he said in a low, raspy voice, and all of my desire to leave instantly evaporated as his words made me desperately regret all of my life choices up to this point.

If I were bolder, more sure of myself, maybe I would have made a move and I wouldn’t care about why he’d come over. It was what Vella would have done. But despite how I might look on the outside, I was still that teenage girl who’d been abandoned at the dance.

Time to get back to real life. “I should head out. Thanks for everything. I really appreciate all your help.”

“Any time.”

I packed up my notebook, put it away, and slid my purse onto my arm. I was trapped in place, a sleeping Basta on my left and Max on my right.

“Oh, right,” he said. “Sorry. Let me get out of your way.”

He scooted along the bench and stood up. I gave Basta one final pet and then scooched over to the end of the booth.

Max offered me his hand just as I was about to stand up, and I had a serious internal debate as to what I should do. Take it one final time to experience that delicious electricity again? Or be strong, ignore his hand, and leave with some of my dignity intact?

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