LOL #3 Romantic Comedy Anthology

by Anthology

  I could hear my voice getting more and more high pitched, more and more Kiki-like, the longer I talked. I could also feel him getting more and more bored, obviously pulling away. But I had no idea what to do about it.

  He reached for his water glass, apparently looking for anything to keep himself occupied, and found it empty. “Here,” I said hurriedly, grabbing the glass carafe of ice water and aiming for his glass—which he moved at the last minute, caught off guard by my attempt. The water I intended for his glass poured out in a steady, clear stream—right into his lap.

  “Shit!” he cried, jumping up.

  “Oh my God!” I reached for him with napkins but he was already backing away from the table, away from the crazy lady, no doubt. “It’s okay,” he said, forcing a smile. “Just water.”

  “I’m so sorry.” I rose into a half crouch, still brandishing napkins. “Let me help you—”

  “It’s fine. I’ll just go dry off.”

  He rushed to the bathroom so quickly you would have thought there was a fire behind him, leaving me to sink back into my chair, horrified by what I had done.

  This is a disaster, I thought to myself, resting my head in my hands. Why did I think I could do this? Why did I think a few hours of playing beauty salon with the girls would make me any more appealing than I ever had been before? Maybe there was something wrong with me, to repel guys as thoroughly as I did.

  God, maybe I was going to be a virgin forever.

  “Hey,” a soft voice said at my side and I jumped. Scott was back and kneeling next to my chair. He smiled at me, the first smile I had seen on his face in the last half hour. “It was just water. Couple minutes under the hand dryer and I’m good to go. No need to be upset.”

  I shook my head, feeling close to tears. “It’s not that. I just… I’m a terrible date, aren’t I?”

  “Because you spilled water on me?”

  “No… because I’m bad at this.” I waved my hands around the table, trying to make him understand.

  He watched me for a long moment, as if trying to figure something out, before he finally stood and went back to his side of the table. “Okay, can we just be honest with each other?”

  I felt a pit of dread in my stomach. He was going to tell me that this had been a mistake. I could hardly blame him. I nodded, feeling lightheaded.

  “Something feels off. Don’t you think?”

  I nodded miserably, bracing myself for him to tell me that it was me.

  Instead he leaned across the table, his expression concerned. “Did I do something wrong? Because you seem really uncomfortable with me.”

  “Did you… ?” I trailed off, confused. “You didn’t do anything wrong. This is obviously all me.”

  His face scrunched up—great, so he was totally adorable in addition to being sexy—in confusion. “What’s all you?”

  “This… this… disaster.” I waved my hands at the table once more, nearly upending the water all over again before planting my hands firmly under my knees, where they couldn’t do any more damage. “I totally screwed up this date.”

  He looked like he wanted to argue but I shook my head. “You don’t have to spare my feelings, Scott. I know that you’re not having any fun.”

  “It’s not that I’m not having fun. You just… you just seem different. That’s all. From what I expected.”

  “What, you didn’t think I would be jumpy and boring and pour water on you?”

  He smiled a little. “No. I didn’t think you would be… well, your hair, for starters. It doesn’t really look like you.”

  I ran my fingers through the giant mess on top of my head, cursing Kiki.

  “And you were talking so much about that actress. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she’s really cool. But I wanted to get to know you.”

  “You… you did?”

  “Of course I did. That’s why I asked you out. I’ve been… ” Suddenly he looked nervous and I realized for the first time that I might not be the only shy person at this table. “Look, don’t be freaked out, okay? But I’ve kind of been watching you all week, every time you came into the restaurant.”

  “You’ve been watching me?” The idea was so crazy I wasn’t entirely sure I believed it. I’d been watching him all week, giggling with Elaine about it, inserting him into my grand hookup plans.

  “I have. I couldn’t help it.” Was he blushing? He looked down at his hands as he continued. “I mean, you’re obviously totally beautiful. But you seemed really… interesting, I guess. Different from other girls.”

  I gaped at him for a few seconds, trying to make his words make sense in my head. He thought I was beautiful? That was shocking enough, but he’d said it was more than that…

  “What made me seem interesting?” I blurted without thinking. He met my gaze again, definitely shy.

  “You overhear stuff when you’re waiting tables, you know? Little bits and pieces of people’s conversations. When you work at a resort like this where you see the same people over and over again you start to piece those bits of information together. And with you… ”

  I had to remind myself to breathe. He sounded so… enthralled.

  “You just seemed really interesting. All that stuff about medical school and the mission trip and the books you like.” He shrugged, looking supremely embarrassed. “I just felt like you were someone I wanted to get to know.”

  Wow. He must see hundreds of resort guests a week but he had taken enough notice of me to remember details of conversations I didn’t even recall having. That was… wow.

  It was silent for a long moment before I finally barked out a short, almost hysterical laugh. Scott looked at me like he thought I might be crazy and I slapped a hand over my mouth. “I’m sorry. It’s just… God, I’m an idiot. I spent the entire day trying to figure out how I should act to get you to like me.”

  He looked really confused now. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I didn’t think I would be interesting enough for you.”

  “Well, that’s stupid.”

  I laughed again, longer this time, the ridiculousness of my behavior hitting me like I’d just walked into a brick wall. I had been so busy making my plans and trying to act like the girl I thought the cute guy would want—and all along he’d just wanted me.

  Scott watched me for a minute before finally joining in, chuckling as he reached into his wallet to pull out a few bills. He placed them on the table and stood, holding out a hand to me. “Come on.”

  “Where are we going?”

  His answering grin lit up his entire face, making me decide that I didn’t care how stupid I’d been. I still got to be here with him.

  “We’re starting this date over.”

  I didn’t know what he had in mind but I knew I wasn’t feeling like a mess anymore. In fact, I was feeling pretty damn good. So I took his hand and followed him out of the restaurant, eager to see what plan B looked like.

  Chapter Four

  “I think you’ve got it,” Scott said, his grin cautious. “Now just move your left foot the same way… there you go.”

  “I am so not dressed for this,” I muttered, grasping his hands tightly in my mittened ones as I made another attempt to move my wobbly feet on the ice skates he had pilfered from the resort’s supply shed.

  “Hey.” He winked at me. “I offered to lend you a pair of jeans.”

  I snorted, gliding a little closer to him. “That would have been attractive, I’m sure.”

  In all honesty, I wasn’t that cold. I had a good, warm coat on, and mittens and a hat. I had opted to wear leggings under my dress, so my legs weren’t totally freezing. But I was starting to wish that I had taken him up on his offer to go back to his place to get a pair of jeans if only to have avoided the embarrassment of trying to ice skate. I was so not athletic.

  “Think you can try some longer glides now?” he asked, pulling on my hands a little. Scott was skating backwards across the frozen pond, making it look as
easy as walking, while I held on for dear life and tried not to fall as I took my wobbling, halting strides.

  “Okay,” I said, doubt clear in my voice. He pulled a little harder on my hands and I tried to keep up, thinking I might just pull it off—until one of my skates somehow got tangled up in the other one and we both went tumbling to the ice.

  “Crap,” I moaned, rubbing my hip. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” His hands traveled down my arms, squeezing gently. We had landed pretty close together on the ice, and my heart started beating harder. He was almost close enough to kiss.

  “I have to tell you,” I murmured, my eyes on his lips. “Even with the falling on my ass part, first date redux is turning out much better than the original.”

  He grinned, his eyes sparkling. “Agreed.” Then he was leaning closer, close enough for me to make out the individual lashes over those dark blue eyes, close enough to see the little shadow of stubble forming around his jaw…

  I’d been kissed before. I wasn’t completely inexperienced. But I don’t know if I’d ever been kissed quite like that. Scott’s lips were gentle against my own as he breathed out a little sigh. Then he increased the pressure, bringing his gloved hands up to my cheeks to gently cradle my face. Just when the breathlessness was starting to feel uncomfortable, he pulled back. “Definitely agree.”

  I smiled, not even caring that I was blushing before giving an involuntary shudder. His smile immediately turned to a frown. “It’s too cold out here for you to be dressed like that. Especially just sitting here on the ice.”

  “It’s fine,” I protested, even though I was shivering. I couldn’t care less, though. I would happily freeze to death so long as I got to do it with his lips against mine.

  I tried not to feel too disappointed when he pulled me back to my feet. What if he wanted to take me home now?

  “I think you might be warmer like this.” He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me tight to his side, and I couldn’t hide my smile. “There, much less shivery.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I can steer you a little better like this, anyhow. Let’s move—it’ll get your blood pumping.”

  I was pretty sure my blood was pumping just fine from the nearness of him, but I kept it to myself. He was right—it was much easier to skate with him holding onto me like that. He was strong enough that I didn’t need to worry too much about balance. I could just lean into him and let him pull me across the ice. Almost like dancing.

  “Okay, so where were we before the big fall?” he asked.

  “Um… favorite classes, I think.”

  “Right. So I had this English Lit discussion class that completely changed my life.”

  As he told me about the class I marveled at how easy it was to talk to him compared to that awful half hour in the restaurant. Now that I wasn’t trying so hard to be someone else, I found that Bella was actually really good at talking to Scott. We’d covered all the basics—school, family, jobs, friends—and it hadn’t felt stilted at all. When I told him about the nightmare that was med school applications, a topic which, according to Elaine, I tended to get rather caught up in, he hadn’t even seemed bored. I, in turn, found out that he was taking a year off after graduation before he decided on grad school. Apparently, there wasn’t a lot you could do with an English lit degree.

  “So where does the skating fit in?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you’re pretty good. Did you play hockey or something?”

  He didn’t answer for a long moment. When I looked up at his face, his expression was hard. “You have to promise not to tell anyone.”

  “Tell anyone what? Actually—who the hell am I going to tell? The kids I’m babysitting?”

  “Good point.” He sighed. “Fine. I didn’t play hockey. I… uh… actually, I used to figure skate.”

  I tripped over my skates, only managing to stay upright by holding his arm tighter. “You did?”

  He nodded. “I did. No making fun!”

  “Why would I make fun? I think that’s awesome.”

  “You do?”

  “Of course. Were you good?”

  He shrugged. “I guess so. I used to compete but I never got too far. My coaches said I got too tall to be graceful.”

  “Well, now you have to show me something.”

  “Show you what?”

  “A move! Do one of those things—you know, a snowcow thing.”

  He laughed. “A Salchow?”

  “Yeah, that.”

  “I don’t know.” He stopped skating, his eyes narrowed as they examined the pond. “This ice is a little rough.”

  “That sounds like an excuse to me.”

  “Oh, really?” his eyes flashed as he looked down at me, something in his expression making my stomach do backflips. “Is that a challenge?”

  “It’s definitely a challenge.”

  “Fine. You stay here.”

  He left me at the side of the pond before taking off, his strides lengthening as he skated the perimeter of the pond once, twice, three times, picking up speed before finally breaking out to the center of the ice and hurtling himself into the air—

  “Scott!”

  He landed with a thud right on his butt, his legs skewed out in front of him. “Well,” he said, sinking down onto his back. “That could have gone better.”

  I rushed across the ice to get to him, completely forgetting that I was wearing ice skates and that I did not, in fact, know how to ice skate. I made it only a few feet before my ability caught up with my good intentions and I too went tumbling to the ice.

  “Are you okay?” he called.

  “Are you?”

  “I’m fine. My pride, on the other hand.”

  I struggled back to my feet, falling again. “Damn it!”

  Scott was laughing. “You’re going to break your legs.”

  “It looks like you already broke your ass!”

  I climbed to my knees and watched as he pulled himself up. His wince was visible even from across the ice. “You’re hurt.”

  “I’m fine.” We eyed each other across the ice. “Well, this is no good.”

  “Can you crawl? I think I can crawl.”

  “Let’s give it a try.”

  It took some slip-sliding across the ice, and I ripped my leggings in the process, but we finally managed to reach each other on our hands and knees.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked. I hadn’t liked the look of that fall at all.

  He looked supremely embarrassed. “I’m sure it’s just a bruise. I shouldn’t have done it—I haven’t done a move like that in years.”

  “Then why didn’t you say so?”

  He shrugged. “Men have done far stupider things to impress a girl.”

  I pushed his shoulder. “You dummy. I thought my display at the restaurant was enough proof that we should never do things just to impress someone else.”

  He nodded grimly. “I should have learned from the example of your terrible, giant hair.”

  “Hey!” I pushed him again, harder this time, and he stumbled backwards, pulling me with him.

  “Damn it,” he said. “How’d we get back down here?”

  Before I could say a word, he pulled me on top of him and brought his lips to mine. There was nothing gentle about the kiss this time—it was heart-stoppingly, gut-wrenchingly passionate. I kissed him back, pressing myself tighter against him, ignoring the cold. I wanted to feel his skin, run my fingers through my hair, but my mittens provided too much of a barrier.

  “Oh, screw it,” I muttered against his mouth, pulling back enough to rip the garments from my hands.

  “You’ll freeze—” he started to say, but I pressed my mouth to his again, silencing him, while I ran my fingers through his hair, just like I had imagined doing back in the dining room.

  I kissed him until I couldn’t breathe. Until my nose and fingers were numb. Until I was sure I’d start removing actual clot
hing unless we stopped. Only then did I pull away. The look on his face filled me with a rush of power I had never experienced before—he looked bewildered, like he’d knocked his head against the ice instead of his rear end. He also looked very, very happy.

  “Wow,” he whispered and I grinned.

  “Wow indeed.”

  There was a pause. “Do you want to go back to my place?” he asked, his voice equal parts shy and hopeful.

  So this was it. My big chance. All I had to do was say yes, agree to go back to his place. I was pretty sure the outcome would be exactly what I had planned for in that giggling, whispered conversation with Elaine our first night here.

  I looked down into his face, this handsome, kind boy who had made me feel amazing just by wanting to spend time with me. He would be nice to me, I knew. Would take things slowly, wouldn’t pressure me. It would probably be pretty perfect.

  But the night had already been perfect, disastrous part one included. I had almost ruined everything by acting so out of character. Is that what I would be doing by going to bed with him now? Was it in my character to sleep with a guy I had just met on the first date?

  I wasn’t sure. But I figured I had a little time to figure it out.

  “I don’t think so,” I said softly, more than a little disappointed by my own decision. “But I’m here for another few days. Maybe I can take a rain check?”

  His face lit up. “That would be great. I’d love to see you again.”

  “Next time I’ll wear jeans,” I said. “And, you know, normal hair.”

  He laughed, pulling himself up before reaching down for me. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  Since my fingers were pretty much frozen by then, he helped me get my skates off and my boots back on before walking me across the quiet, snow-covered grounds.

  He walked me all the way to the villa, claiming he wasn’t cold. We paused at the door, kissing again in the near total darkness. I was starting to wish I would have just gone with him, but when he finally pulled away, smiling down at me, and promised to see me tomorrow, I decided I could wait a little longer.