Chapter 16 #2
“She was peering over my shoulder,” she said. Daniela gave me a look.
“What were you photographing?”
“Just… something Alyssa and I had talked about. You started without us, and now Cat’s going to demolish all of us.”
“She’s already been demolishing me,” Alyssa laughed. “I’m just here for the ride.”
Cat didn’t push it, but I knew that gleam in her eyes as she looked at me.
And this time, when we sat three-to-one across from Cat, I ended up squeezed in between Alyssa and Daniela, and it was probably my imagination—probably just wishful thinking—but I swear Alyssa shifted closer to me every time I was talking to Daniela.
I tried to focus on the game, the drinks, conversation and laughter, and not on the delicate scent of Alyssa’s perfume and the delicate sound of her laughter next to me, but I knew I didn’t do very well, because once we finished the game and polished off our drinks, Daniela went off to the kitchen to clean up with Alyssa stumbling after her arguing you said you’d let me clean up after the party, and they barely left the room before Cat gave me a sly smile, and she switched to sign language.
“So, you said you don’t have a crush on Daniela.”
Oh, god. I really hoped this wasn’t going where I thought it was. “She’s just a friend.”
“So, what did you talk about?” She gestured in the direction of the nature trail behind the house. She didn’t need to know about how Daniela had asked me on a stargazing date. Nor how I shut it down without either of us acknowledging it as a date.
“We had a good conversation. About you and me and Drew and everything.”
She raised her eyebrows—sign language generally used exaggerated facial expressions, and you could tell when Cat had made the mental switch to full sign, because her facial expressions became so much louder, so much clearer. “Really?”
“I explained the situation. She hadn’t really heard much about it… she was surprised when I told her my side of the story. She basically said I don’t know what to believe about what happened, but whatever happened, it’s not right to let Cat shoulder all the blame.”
She laughed quietly, her gaze dropping briefly. “I feel weird about people having to take sides around me in the first place…”
She hesitated with her hands up like she was about to sign something else, but she didn’t follow through. I signed in small, careful motions. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t want it to come to this.”
“I know.” She sat up taller, her smile coming back. “So, you two didn’t go make out.”
I scowled, signing definitively. “No.”
“Because you have a crush on Alyssa instead?”
“No—” I groaned, putting a hand over my face, losing my signing flow.
She’d seen my heart stop when Alyssa was close to me with her hands on my jacket, had seen me sending Alyssa pictures of her favorite flowers, had watched me lose my cool with Alyssa sitting next to me for the game.
There was no way I was getting out of this cleanly.
“A little bit, I guess. Just… physically. She’s very pretty.
It’s natural to have a reaction to that. ”
She laughed. “It’s way more than that, and you know I know that. I was so focused on you and Daniela, I didn’t even notice you and Alyssa.”
“Cat—”
“It’s cute. I guess I see why you came out of your shell after all, once she was in town.”
“I’m not—” I started, but I stopped when Daniela came back out of the kitchen, giving us an incredulous smile.
“What are you two saying secretly out here?” she laughed. “I was wondering why you were so quiet, and you’re hatching a whole conspiracy in sign.”
Cat beamed, switching back to speaking. “We were hatching a plan to collude in the game and make sure you lose.”
“Oh my god, that’s so rude.”
“Did you get kicked out of the kitchen?” I laughed, and she dropped down on the chair next to me.
“Alyssa insisted on cleaning up. Said I spoil her and she wants to do something helpful too. So,” she said, leaning forwards, eyes lit up, signing keywords with an excited energy. “Do you want to come to the Birdhouse on Tuesday?”
Cat and I exchanged quick looks. “The Birdhouse on Tuesday?” she confirmed. “I probably shouldn’t, but Jade—”
“I’ll go,” I said. “If Cat goes.”
Daniela nodded at Cat. “It’s important to make sure people see you there hanging out with people, if we’re going to set things right.”
“You guys,” Cat said, hunching her shoulders, and I don’t know if she realized how much she was starting to tear up. “You can’t gang up to handle my interpersonal issues for me!”
“On the contrary,” Daniela said, “I do what I want. It’s not just me. I was saying the same thing with Alyssa…” She trailed off, searching for a name sign for Alyssa. Cat laughed, wiping her eyes.
“Alyssa?” she said, showing Daniela the falling-tree sign, and Daniela snorted.
“That’s a low blow. You can’t do that.”
“On the contrary,” Cat said, “I do what I want.”
“Hey!” Daniela laughed. “Okay, stealing my lines, I can fight you over it another time. But Alyssa agreed we want to see you at the Birdhouse with us,” she said, punctuating Alyssa’s name-sign, and Cat smiled wide, her eyes misty.
“Well,” she said, “if you’re sure… I’ve missed the place.”
It was well into the night when we finally said our goodbyes, and Cat and I headed back out to the car.
She climbed into the passenger seat, but I didn’t get to circle around to the driver’s side before the house door opened behind me, and I looked back at where Alyssa hurried out after me with a brown paper bag in her hands, and she thrust it out to me before I could say anything.
“I forgot,” she said. “A little gift for you. To say thanks for coming.”
Dammit, the way she looked in those cute little boots and her just-slightly-too-long sweater, her neat braided hair a little messy from the night, blue eyes sparkling in the soft light from the house.
I wanted to kiss her so badly. I wanted to kiss the spot on her shoulder that I could see where her sweater slipped down, bury my face against her and feel how soft her skin would be against my lips.
Or my cheek. My nose. I wanted to rub my face against her, like a psychopath.
It was all I could do to form a coherent thought.
“Normally it’s the guest who brings something for the host… ”
“Well,” she said, and she winked. “I guess I’m just not that normal, then. Besides, it’s just me being silly. Open it and you’ll see.”
“Hm. Spring-loaded spiders?”
“Hundreds of them. Now open it.”
I opened the bag, and thankfully, there were no spiders.
I did see what she meant, though—or at least, I saw how she thought it was silly, but to me it made me feel like I couldn’t breathe.
A bouquet of blue flowers. Trimmed from the same bush I took a picture of, I recognized.
She must have popped out while Daniela was with me and Cat in the living room.
“I’m even more certain it should be the guest bringing the host flowers,” I laughed, taking out a stem with a few of the tiny blue blossoms.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” she said, smiling sweetly, perfectly. “You know, for coming around. And bringing Cat.”
“Yeah, well…” I couldn’t get the thought out of my head, and I plucked one of the flowers, and I pinned it into the side of her braid crown. She drew a breath, short and sharp, her eyes going wide, and I wanted to keep staring into them forever. “None of this would have happened without you. So…”
She touched her fingertips to the flower in her hair. I shouldn’t have put it there. “I don’t think I’m the type for flowers in my hair.”
“It suits you. You look…” You look beautiful.
Look perfect. Look like the face I’ve been seeing every time I close my eyes.
I couldn’t find anything that was appropriate to say, and she blushed, softly, before—not taking her eyes off mine—she reached into the bag, plucked off a flower, and she reached up and pinned it into my hair too.
My heart ached, and when she let her hand linger there close to my face, it was all I could do not to lean in and kiss her.
“There,” she said softly. “Now we match.”
“You could do with matching with someone who’s not a mean bitch.”
“Hey!” she laughed, tugging on my jacket. “None of that.”
My eyes flickered down to her lips, and I stepped back, catching myself and forcing distance before I lost control and kissed her. “Well,” I said, “I’ll be seeing you on Tuesday.”
“Unless Cat grabs me to interrupt your work before then,” she laughed.
“All too possible,” I said. “Goodnight, Alyssa.”
She smiled wider, her cheeks flushing a little pinker.
Probably the cold. “Goodnight, Jade,” she said, and it bounced around in my mind the whole drive back, where Cat at least had the decency to pretend nothing had happened.
At least, for now—we could only have a one-sided conversation while I drove, so she talked random gossip and about the latest series she’d been binge-watching while we drove back to her place, and it was only once we stopped in her driveway that she turned to me and gave me a long, loaded smile.
“All right, get yourself out of here,” I said, and she just smiled wider.
“You deserve to be happy,” she said. My face betrayed me—I could feel I was blushing, even as I tried to scowl.
“Thanks? I’m glad to know you’re not planning to sabotage my life. Now get a move on, I’m tired and want to get home and sleep.”
She smiled wider—she could see right through me, but she didn’t push it, and she left the car and headed inside.
And like the fucking idiot I was, I put on that stupid Taylor Swift album Alyssa had been listening to when I first saw her, while I drove back to my house.
And when I got back to my house, I didn’t even go to sleep like I said.
I was exhausted, but my heart was wide awake, and I wound up at the candle-making table, and I took out the scents that felt closest to the components of her perfume.
I’d get the blue dye figured out later. I needed to make sure it was exactly the right shade.