Page 8 of The Fine Art of Faking It
“Never call here again!” Ned snapped. “And if you so much as look at my daughter Atlantis—”
“Actually, it’s Eden, sir.”
“Either one of them!” Ned screamed and hung up without finishing his threat.
Davis stared down at the phone in his hand. He was a low-key kind of guy and in the last ten minutes, he’d had four adults scream him into submission. This did not bode well for his evening.
“Davis! Hurry up! You’re going to be late picking up Taneisha,” his mother called from the living room.
Shit. He’d give Taneisha a ride and then catch Eden at the dance and clear this whole thing up, Davis decided.
5
Eden snuck the small mirror out of her clutch and checked her lipstick in the blue and purple strobe lights of the high school gymnasium. She’d locked herself into her house’s only bathroom for so long, her father threatened to climb in through the window to evict her.
But even rushed, she was satisfied with the end result. She looked good enough to be on Davis’s arm tonight.
With as much of an outcast as she’d tried to make herself at school, there was still a part of Eden that was desperate for arealboyfriend who made her feel special and interesting and smart and fun no matter how rebellious or boring or unspecial she was. And that’s exactly how Davis made her feel.
She just hoped the family drama from the afternoon hadn’t scared him off. Davis hadn’t been born with a desire to be contrary. Which meant, if he didn’t like her enough to defy his parents, she could get hurt. Badly. She swallowed the lump of fear that closed off her throat.
But hedidlike her. She knew he did. And Davis was the ultimate good guy. She steadied herself with that thought. He wouldn’t hurt her on purpose. Davis wasn’t like the rest of his family.
Eden took a deep breath and smoothed her hands over the black lace of her dress. Everyone else was decked out in reds and greens and golds for the holiday season. But Eden liked the mystery of black, the sexiness of the short skirt. She’d see how tonight went. Maybe Davis Gates would be the one to finally relieve her of her virginity. In a few months, of course. Once she made sure he was worthy of it. Not that she was particularly attached to it. She just didn’t want to give it away to any dumbass who wouldn’t know what to do with it.
“Is he here yet?” Moon Beam hissed, shoving a cup of punch into Eden’s nervous hands. Her cousin craned her neck to scan the gymnasium. Half of Blue Moon had turned out for the dance. The junior high schoolers stood in a line, swaying awkwardly to the music. There was a rowdy crowd of senior citizens dominating the center of the dance floor performing an enthusiastic group swing dance. Peppered in between were high school students and parents dancing, talking, and socializing.
“Not yet,” Eden said, burying her nerves under a false bravado of confidence. “But he will be.”
Moon Beam cracked her gum, eyes scanning the crowd for her next dance victim. “You don’t think his parents grounded him for life after seeing you two making smoochy faces at each other in the park?”
Eden shrugged as her cousin voiced her worst fear. “Nah. I’m sure he just got hung up somewhere. He’ll be here.” Davis wasn’t the kind of guy who lied or broke promises. He said he’d be here, so he’d be here.
“There he is!” Moon Beam pointed triumphantly toward the entrance to the gym.
And there he was. Tall and lean in an ill-fitting suit. His red and green Santa tie stood out starkly from the white button down beneath, and that shock of hair that never behaved lay across his forehead just the way Eden liked it best. She felt her dopey smile start to spread. And then it froze.
“Is that Taneisha?” Moon Beam hissed, clamping down on Eden’s arm.
Taneisha the willow-thin, model-like star of the girls track team was dressed in a green velvet dress. Her black hair was styled in dozens of tiny braids that coiled in a bun at the base of her neck. She was one of the nicest people in the entire school. And in Blue Moon, that was saying something.
But right now, Taneisha’s hand was tucked under Davis’s arm. And Eden was going to throw up.
“You should confront him,” Moon Beam decided. “Maybe do one of those really dramatic slaps across the face.”
It wouldn’t be the last time Eden had listened to her instincts, or her cousin’s bad ideas. She steamed across the rainbow- and paisley-painted gym floor fueled by rage and fear and the sliver of hope that there’d been some kind of stupid misunderstanding.
“Well, hello, Taneisha. Gates.” She said their names like they tasted badly.
“Eden, I can explain,” Davis said softly, putting himself between Eden and Taneisha.
“I’m going to go grab some punch,” Taneisha decided wisely.
Eden took one slow breath, felt her nostrils flaring. “Explain what? That my parents are right and you’redemon spawn?” People were looking at them and she didn’t care.
He winced and shoved his hands into the pockets of his dress pants. His shoulders hunched at her outburst. “I know how this looks—”
“This looks like you said you’d be my date and showed up to the dance with freaking Taneisha!” That beautiful unicorn of a girl who had unfairly escaped any of the awkwardness of puberty. Everyone around them had given up the pretense of dancing or talking and was watching with rapt attention.
