Page 5 of My Sweet Cherry
Beth
“What do you mean, ‘nothing happened’?” Amy rested her elbows on the counter and tilted her head. She had been following me around since I got to the coffee shop. It was like the only task she had on her to-do list was finding out what I had done.
“I mean, nothing happened.” I shrugged and looked at the rag she was holding but not using. Did I look casual enough when I put my hands on my hips? When her brows lifted and she smirked, I knew I didn’t. “Are you going to just follow me around and bug me about my date or are you going to do something?”
Amy laughed. “I’m going to follow you around and bug you about your date.” She winked, half-jumping over the counter when I walked away from her. “You got home at likemidnight.”
“I know.” I brushed my hand over the counter in front of me, wishing I could disappear. I ripped the top off a pack of sugar, dumping it into the less-than-steamy cup in front of me.
“So then when you say, ‘nothing happened’…?” She reached over my shoulder, taking the cup from me like it was the only thing keeping her from the details she was dying to have.
I sighed. “I mean, nothing happened.” Amy looked disappointed, dropping her guard long enough for me to take back the bitter-and-still-in-need-of-cream security blanket she’d stolen from me. “We went roller skating. He was really bad at it, like,reallybad at it, and then we went back to his place and—”
“You went back to his place?” she shrieked, drawing attention from students passing by the front of the shop.
“Yes.” I ignored the excitement buzzing off her when she started to bounce from one foot to the other. She was already filling in the blanks herself. “We were just watching a movie. His roommate was there until he kissed me, and—”
Amy interrupted me with another loud gasp. “Hekissed you?”
“Yes.” I shouldn’t have said anything.
“That’s something!” The excitement and pride on her face made my stomach sink. It wasn’t like it had been some life-changing kiss—or even a night-changing one.
I shook my head, wishing she would drop the subject when a couple of girls I recognized from my algebra class walked into the shop. Their laughs erased any awkward silence, and I turned toward the counter. “It wasn’t that great,” I said quickly before clearing my throat. I turned my attention to the customers I was thankful had interrupted. “Don’t you need to help them?”
“I’ll be with you in just one second,” Amy said, holding her finger up before the girls could order.Please don’t say anything.I begged her with my eyes, but she didn’t seem to care about that. “When you say, ‘not that great’…?”
“I mean he wasn’t a great kisser. Now can you drop it please?” I gritted my teeth and loudly whispered as if the more-interested-than-they-let-on girls couldn’t hear me. The way their eyes got wider proved they could, no matter how quietly I pretended to whisper.
Amy rolled her eyes. “What can I get you?” she asked when she decided I wasn’t answering her question.
The girls looked at each other like they were biting back laughs. “Just two coffees, please. With extra sugar,” one said.
“And also maybe more about why the dude was a bad kisser,” the other added. My cheeks warmed instantly and when Amy giggled with them, I glared.
“Two coffees it is.”
She busied herself pouring two cups while I chewed on my lips as if to bite back the embarrassment or the frustration—or both. “Oh comeon,Beth! Dish! Give us all the dirty little details.” Suddenly I had an audience, and it was one I didn’t ask for.
I groaned like I was being forced into it. “He just… wasn’t very good at it. It was… sloppy.” They all cringed, and it was enough for me to end the story. “I don’t know. It just wasn’t… good?”
“That sucks,” one of the girls said, taking the two mugs of coffee Amy set on the counter.
“So are you going to see him again?” Amy stood up, pouring a mug of coffee for herself and mirroring the girls’ actions when they both took a drink at the same time. It was like I was being surrounded by a carbon copy of the same nosy friend.
It was a good question though. Was I going to see him again? Ihadturned him down right when he was really starting to get excited. In my experience, that usually meant I didn’t get a call back, but then I remembered what she and Isabella were saying at the bar the other night.You need to lighten up.
“Yeah, maybe.” I wasn’t sure I believed it but when Amy’s brow twitched, I knew she did. "If he wants to. It was a good time.”
Amy clapped too excitedly for a date that didn’t exist yet. “And maybe next time you won’t just stop at a kiss. I bet he’s better in bed.”
I choked on my next breath.Next time.I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
Chapter 6
Carter
“I’m just saying, you all doubted me.” Benny held his pool stick in one hand and used the other arm to lean against one of the high tops. His one lifted eyebrow made his face twist in a too-cocky-for-his-own-good way that dared us to ask him for details he was just dying to divulge.
