Page 94 of Party Favors

Vella went over to the windows and looked outside.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Making sure that there isn’t a plague of locusts or a hail firestorm signaling the end of the world. Because I thought that was where we’d have to be before you finally kissed him.”

I didn’t even smile, and this seemed to alarm her. “Do I need to take my superglue over to Max’s place?”

“No.”

She sat next to me. “So, are you two like, together now?”

“We just kissed. People can kiss and it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Otherpeople can kiss and have it not mean anything. Not you.”

“Okay, you’re right,” I conceded. “But I don’t know what’s going on. He kissed me and then he didn’t say anything else. He just putme in a cab, mentioned he had an early-morning flight, and sent me home.”

“What was he supposed to say? I know it’s been a while for you, but guys don’t usually give a relationship speech after they kiss you.”

I reached for the blanket folded up on the arm of the couch and put it over me. “I’m just confused. Does he like me? Or is he only attracted to me? Does he want something more? Or to casually kiss from time to time while still being just friends?”

“Did you ask him?”

“No, my brain was a little scrambled.”

“I’ll bet his was, too. And I’ll bet that he is interested in more.”

I hadn’t expected her to defend him or to choose the optimistic route. “Just because we made out doesn’t mean he wants to be with me. You know that better than anyone.”

“I do.” She nodded. “But given that I can’t read minds yet, I can’t tell you what Max does or doesn’t want beyond this. Maybe he’s only looking for somebody to hook up with, but he doesn’t seem the type. Although he is really good-looking, so we can’t rule that possibility out completely.”

I was absorbing what she’d said when she added, “But if that was all he was after, he would probably choose someone who is less of a challenge.”

“Hey!”

She shrugged. “I’m just saying you’re not a casual-hookup kind of person, and he has to know that.”

He did know that, in excruciating detail. I’d shared so much of my not-at-all-sordid past with him. I put my hands over my face and let out a groan. “Him and I kissing is basically all your fault.”

“How am I to blame? I mean, I accept the actual possibility that I might be, but how?”

I moved my hands and gestured at my head. “You made me look like Queen Katerina and that’s the only reason he kissed me.”

Vella was looking at me like I was stupid. “Are you serious?”

He had reassured me that it wasn’t the reason earlier, but I wasn’t feeling particularly rational at the moment. “Yes!”

“Max liked you long before I slapped some mascara and blush on you.”

I just grumbled in reply, burrowing myself deeper under the blanket.

“Did you ever see that movieDumbo?” she asked.

It was such a random question, so far from what we’d been talking about, that it kind of snapped me out of my funk. “I have.”

“Dumbo didn’t need a feather to fly. It was just a prop. You don’t have to do your hair and makeup like that queen, or wear clothes like her, to be your best self or to have Max be interested in you. You’ve always had the ability to fly.”

It was one of the nicest things that Vella had ever said to me. “Aww,” I said, and she gave me a disgusted look.

---