She laughs. My face turns redder.
“Wait,” she says, suddenly serious. Her eyes go wide. She glances at the guys, then lowers her voice so they can’t hear. “You’ve never,” she begins, then finishes the sentence by silently mouthing, “been eaten out?”
I make the mistake of sneaking a peek at Oliver. He’s frowning at Tina, but his stare switches to me almost as soon as I look at him. He raises an eyebrow like he’s waiting to hear the answer. I wish I could crawl into a hole and melt away. My face is so hot that I feel like I might. I take a bite of ice-cream to cool myself down, but all I accomplish is reminding myself of what Tina said about it.
“Of course I’ve done… that… before.” I whisper so the guys can’t hear, but I’m still ashamed of how unconvincing I sound.
Tina shakes her head. “You poor thing. We need to find someone who can fix that for you.”
I don’t want to have this conversation. Not in front of Ryan, and certainly not in front of Oliver. I don’t care if they can’t hear us or if they’re having their own conversation. They already know what we’re talking about. I should be used to the crass things Tina says by now. I already know that she has no filter. It’s one of my favorite things about her, but when it’s directed at me, I wish I could crawl away and hide in a hole. I stare at my ice-cream so that I don’t have to look at any of them while I muster up the courage to speak again.
“Who needs that anyway, when this ice-cream is clearly so much better?” I ask with a shrug. I eat another spoonful, but I think that Tina might have ruined ice-cream for me.
“Do you want to go to a Knicks game on Sunday?” Ryan asks loudly from across the kitchen.
I’m grateful to him for coming to my rescue, even if he doesn’t realize he has. It takes me a moment to realize that no one is answering him. I look up and realize that he’s watching me expectantly. Even then, it takes a few more seconds for it to register that his question is directed at me. I look from him, to Tina, and to Oliver. Tina raises an eyebrow. Oliver is still watching me, but he looks away when I meet his eyes. His face looks a little pink. I wonder if I’m imagining it. I return my attention to Ryan.
“Me?” I ask, confused.
“I have four tickets,” Ryan clarifies. “I figured we could all go together.”
I shrug. “Yeah, sure. Isn’t that in the city?”
“We can make a day of it,” he says. “We can all drive down together.”
I feel my gaze returning to Oliver. He’s watching me again, his expression unreadable. His eyes narrow ever so slightly. I feel like he’s trying to tell me something, but I don’t know what it is.
“Sounds like fun,” I say to Ryan.
“Great,” he says. He brushes his hand across Tina’s back as he makes his way around her, then heads out of the kitchen toward the garage. Oliver follows him out of the room.
Tina skips around the island until she’s right next to me. “Oh my God,” she whispers. “I can’t believe you agreed.”
I frown. “To go to a basketball game? Is that so surprising?”
“No,” she says, dragging out the word. “To go on a double date.”
“That’s not what I agreed to.”
“Sure it is. Me and Ryan in the front seat. You and Oliver in the back.” She says this in a sing-song voice. “The four of us together at a game.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s just a game. Besides, I fully expect you to sit in the back with me the whole way there and back. Ryan only invited me so that he can have bro-time with Oliver and you won’t feel left out.”
“Not gonna happen,” she says. “And this was Ryan’s idea.”
I turn my head to look at the door where Oliver and Ryan disappeared. “Ryan suggested a double date? Since when has he been into that sort of thing?”
“I was surprised too,” she says with a shrug. “Please don’t back out because of that, though. It will be fun. And if you have an absolutely terrible time with Oliver, then I’ll ride in the back with you on the way home.”
“Are you kidding? I’m not gonna let Oliver get in the way of me having a good time.”
She purses her lips the way she always does when she disagrees with something I’ve said.
“What?” I prod.
“I mean, you kind of let him get in the way a lot over the last year. The two of you are constantly bickering. Sometimes it seems like you’re just looking for reasons to hate each other.”
“Exactly,” I say, because she does have a point. “I’m done allowing him to stop me from having fun. I’m over it. I’m over him.”
