Page 102 of Holidating
He grinned. “My sister. Sorry. Let me get rid of her.” He jerked the phone out and swiped to answer. “Delia. Go dissect a cadaver or something. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” There was a pause. “I love you too, even though you’re bossy like a drill sergeant. G’night.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “I think you got the last word.”
“It’s only a temporary victory. She always wins eventually. But that’s okay, because she’s already doing me a big favor.”
“What kind of favor?” Together we walked out of the Fresh Court gate, heading down College Street, toward Fraternity Row. I kept our pace slow, and it wasn’t even because of my three-inch heels. I was dreading this party.
“Well, Delia is going to med school. Every Jewish family needs a doctor, see. And now the pressure is off me.”
I laughed again. That was, like, twice in two minutes. “Really? Are your parents doctors?”
“Nope. Dad is an accountant, Mom is a librarian. But that doesn’t matter. It’s a cultural thing. The deli by our house even has a platter on their catering menu called the ‘My Son is a Doctor’ plate.”
“But they won’t be ordering it for you?”
“No. I might go to law school, though. That’s second best.”
“Interesting. My mom doesn’t care what I do, just as long as I look pretty doing it.” I shouldn’t have said that. It was really too much sharing for the first ten minutes of a blind date.
“Well…” he cleared his throat. “At least one of us is a shoo-in for meeting the parental expectations.”
My face burned a little then, because I’d made it sound like I was fishing for compliments. “That’s nice of you,” I said quietly. “Do you have just the one sister?”
“Nope” he said cheerfully, giving me another smile. When Andy smiled, his angular face softened up, taking him from ordinary to pretty damned attractive in one leap. It was kind of spellbinding, really. “I have another sister, too. Spent my whole life getting henpecked and waiting for the bathroom. I thought I came to Harkness to get away from them. But then I couldn’t figure out why my freshman bathroom was so gross and smelly all the time.”
“See, girls aren’t so bad,” I said.
“True dat.”
We were within a hundred yards of the Tri Psi house now, and I had slowed our pace practically to a crawl.
“Do your feet hurt?” Andy asked, looking down.
That made me smile, because it was so obvious that Andy didhave sisters. “My feet are fine. I’m just having second thoughts about tonight, that’s all.” I stopped walking altogether.
Andy stopped too, folding his arms. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. (Even though “yeah” sounded cheap. Sorry, Mom.)
He stood very still, studying me. “Look,” he said, tugging on an ear. “Is it me? I mean, if you changed your mind…”
“What?”Oh, hell. I reached out to put a hand on his arm, giving it a squeeze. “Jeez, no. You arenotthe problem. This is all on me.”
But he was still frowning, and his brown eyes were filled with concern. “Then what’s the matter?”
“Well…” my eyes drifted toward the big white house on the corner. I’d always had fun there. But tonight I didn’t want to set foot in the place. “I’m pledging that sorority. And we just spent a whole lot of hours setting up a holiday toy drive. The party for the kids is tomorrow. And tonight we’re supposed to wrap the gifts, which should be fun, right?”
“Sure?”
“But the Beta Rho guys are setting up our tree on the sun porch. And I really don’t feel like seeing them tonight, that’s all.”
“Is one of them your ex, or something?”
I let out a big old sigh. “Yes. But also his friends… There areseveralguys that I don’t want to see.”
Andy looked toward the house, and then down at me. “Do you mind if I ask why? I mean… are they scaring you?”
I shook my head. “It’s not like that. It’s just…” The moment stretched out, because there was no way I could actually tell him why. It was deeply embarrassing to me, and if he knew what I’d done, he’d stop looking at me the way he was looking at me now. His eyes were soft, and he’d given me his complete attention. He looked at me as if I were important. And I didn’t want to see how that expression would change if he heard the stupid thing that I’d done.
