Page 24 of Grinch Girl

“There.” Nate pointed. Bella and Michael were standing on the edge of the dance floor, nodding in time to the music and intermittently sneaking glances at one another.Ugh.My lips and jaw tightened. Two hours in and Michael was completely under her spell again.

Unbidden, a memory from our prom flashed in my mind: Michael looking awestruck at Bella in her pale blue gown as she was crowned queen. Bella’s face drawn tight as she looked away from him and found my gaze in the crowd of buzzed high school seniors. Me giving her a steady, reassuring nod.

She’d hated the attention, hated that Michael was so distressed at the thought of them going to colleges so far apart. He’d gotten a football scholarship to a small Division III school only an hour away from Falworth. “Come with me,” he’d earnestly tried to convince her earlier that day.

Which was ridiculous because Bella’s grades and test scores had earned her an incredible scholarship, a full ride to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, arguably one of the best public universities in the country. “I don’t want to hurt him, but I’m not changing my plans,” she’d sobbed to me before the dance, crying off half her makeup.

“Of course you’re not,” I’d said, ignoring the stab of jealousy. With my less-than-stellar academic performance, there’d been no scholarship for me. No acceptance letter to a university either. I was planning to move to Madison as well, though. I was going to live in an apartment with Bella, get a job, and enroll in a community college. Hopefully, I’d get good enough grades and make enough money to transfer in within a couple of years.

Now, I wished I’d chosen the spiked version of hot cocoa. How silly I’d been.

“I’ll ask Bella to dance,” Nate said. “Or is that against the rules for theSingle Bellsdates? Are we not supposed to cross streams?”

I gratefully shook myself out of the memories. “There are noSingle Bellsrules,” I said wryly. And Nate breaking up the darling couple for a dance with Bella would be good drama. Although I didn’t want it to seem like there’d been something lacking with his original partner. “Just make sure you say something nice about Nicole in your confessional though. Make it clear that you asked Bella to dance because it was clear Nicole wasn’t interested in you or something.”

Nate paused and looked down at me with a quizzical, amused expression. “For someone who comes across as so prickly, you’re actually kind of a softie, aren’t you?” I ignored him.

With a determined stride, he walked through the half dozen dancing couples, approached Bella, and dramatically offered her a hand while cocking his head toward the dance floor. The two cameramen who’d been filming Bella and Michael perked up. One followed Bella and Nate to the dance floor, the other focused on Michael’s darkening expression.

That was my cue.

I sidled up next to him, flicking my hair back over my shoulders and hoping I still had some remnants of lipstick on. “Hi, you.”

He glanced down at me. “Oh. Hey, Jane.” His eyes went straight back to Bella.

On the dance floor, Nate twirled her around expertly. She laughed at the unexpected spin, and Michael blew out a long, huffy breath. I bet he’d been too chicken to ask Bella to dance. Michael was good at a lot of things, but dancing was not one of them. It was something we had in common.

I licked my lips and tried again. “Having a good night?”

He didn’t look down at me, but his expression softened. “Yeah. Really good, actually.”

I waited for him to return the favor, maybe ask me something about my night. But he was too busy staring at Bella, and the silence between us stretched on. Inwardly, I sighed. He was never going to pay attention to me when Bella was literally dancing in front of him.

The song ended, and the swaying couples parted to applaud the music. Another yawn attacked me—it was time for me to head home for that nap. The cameramen were due to be off shift in fifteen minutes anyway. Sean and I would regroup in a coupleof hours to edit tonight’s footage. We needed to get the first dates episode posted tomorrow.

I walked away from Michael—without him noticing—and headed back to the tent.

In my confessional, I said lots of nice things about Brian. “Still waters run deep with this one. Turns out that the strong, silent type is very sexy, you guys.”

I also mentioned that he might be a good fit for Bella, hoping a few voters might be curious enough to vote for that pairing instead of putting her with Michael again. I spoke snarkily about Tripp, saying that he looked like he could use a lesson on being a better date because Mabel looked so bored.

Contestants talking shit about other contestants was a hallmark of reality competition TV.

Nate joined me in the tent just as I finished. “Well?” he demanded. “How did it go with the himbo?”

I flicked my eyes heavenward. “Not well,” I admitted. “Michael’s never been able to see anything else when Bella is around.”

“Ah. Well, when you have your date together, you’ll just have to make sure she’s nowhere nearby so he can seeyou,” he said.

I was too tired to even appreciate his support. “Mm-hmm.”

“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “he did glance in your general direction as you were walking away, and then the cameraman shifted to film you walking away too.” He snapped his fingers and elbowed me. “I think you could edit it to appear that Michael was checking out your arse. Give those voters something to think about, eh?”

A laugh escaped, despite my exhaustion. “That’s a pretty good idea,” I admitted.

“It’s a pretty good arse too,” he quipped, those white teeth flashing.

I glanced up, mock-offended. “Only pretty good?”

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