Page 4 of Party Favors
“Amanda? Is that you?” a voice with a slight drawl called from the opposite side of the pool.
Amanda searched out the owner of that voice, and when she found it, the heat in the room made her dizzy. At least, she was blaming the heat. Wren was across the pool sitting with her feet in the water.
Amanda sometimes studied pictures of Wren on Instagram. She had an interesting, expressive face that probably dreweveryonein, madeeveryoneclick on her pictures, even if they didn’t have an account. Amanda had seen photos of Wren in her usual punky, rock-star attire—combat boots, tight jeans, loose T-shirts, leather jackets.
Now, Wren was all skin, and slicked-back wet hair, and a tiny black two-piece, and glistening water droplets, and a smile so big Amanda wanted to drown in it. She felt like a flurry of champagne bubbles had burst in her veins at once.
Holy shit.
Amanda took a wobbly step toward Wren, but she wasn’t watching where she planted her foot, too preoccupied by the pull oflookingversusnot looking.
Her toe and heel should have planted on the weird, textured cement surrounding the pool. Instead, she hit air. Then water. She tried to catch herself, flinging her purse in the process, but it didn’t work.
She tumbled into the pool. Thedeep endof the pool.
She went under and thought about staying down there. It would be nice to take a moment to live in the reality that existed before she resurfaced. Before she was the woman who fell into a pool the first time she met Wren Rebello in person because she’d been surprised by an inconvenient zip of attraction.
Happy New Year to her bisexuality.
It was time to wrap those feelings up and ignore them like a regifted white elephant present.
It wasn’t the first time Amanda had seen a woman and thought, “Wow.Yes. That.” But it didn’t happen that often, so when it did, she felt it keenly.
Strong arms reached her and started to tug her toward the surface. She helped them by kicking her legs. It wasn’t like she was drowning, just drowning in embarrassment. She surfaced and came face to face with Wren for the first time. All that skin she’d been perving on before tumbling into the pool in front of dozens of people was against her.
“Oh my hot damn, Amanda. Are you all right? I’ve got you. I’ll help you.”
Amanda let Wren help her because it was nice. She didn’t tell Wren that she had been an All-State swimmer in high school because that would have required full sentences, and Amanda was too mortified to attempt that.
Wren kept her hand on Amanda’s back as Amanda climbed the ladder at the edge of the pool. Her coat was heavy and stuck to her legs, and her boots were full of water. A man helped her take the last step out of the pool.
“Hi, I’m Benji. That was hilarious. Are you okay?”
The man standing slightly behind Benji, William presumably, covered his eyes with his palm.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just, you know, humiliated. I’m Amanda.”
“We’ve heard a lot about you. Glad you could save Wren from a few days of being a third wheel.”
“Oh shush, Benji,” Wren said.
Amanda took her coat off. It was sopping. Her cream-colored top was also soaked … and see-through.
Wren corralled Amanda toward a lounge chair and magicked a fluffy white robe out of nowhere, wrapping it around Amanda without asking.
Amanda stared at Wren, and Wren stared back. Wren was shorter than her by a good half a foot, but her charisma seemed to fill the room. Or indoor pool. A slow, devastatingly ornery smile pulled at Wren’s lips.
Coming here for New Year’s had been the right decision, if only to see that smile.
Chapter Two
Amanda Ellis was blonde. Wren’s brain kept snagging on that point. In her profile picture on Twitter, her hair was a creamy, caramelly brown, and that was the only picture Wren had ever seen. But now, Amanda’s hair was blonde and very long. Wren liked it that way, all golden and sunshiny.
Amanda was also tall and curvy. Her legs looked a mile long in those fancy black boots with the spiked heels, and her skin was sun-kissed.
Basically, she was intimidatingly pretty even with melting mascara making a mess of her face.
Wren wasn’t easily intimidated, though, and nothing in the world would keep her from running full speed ahead into this time with Amanda Ellis. Wren had wanted this for so long. Had wanted to see if the butterflies she’d felt for years when her phone lit up with messages from Amanda transferred to seeing Amanda’s smile. To being in the same time zone as her.
