Big Day
Irollover in bed and shut my alarm off. The first thing I do once the fog has cleared from my brain is sit up and send a text toChristina.
Good morning, Princess Peach. Ready for the bigday?
‘Peaches’ has started to lose its grating effect on her, so I’ve switched to Princess Peach, which she can’tstand.
Since our studio sexy time two weeks ago, we’ve given up on denying that there’s something between us, but Christina wants to wait until after the showcase to figure out exactly what that something is. I’m totally fine with her strategy. Ever since we had sex, the weirdest things about her, and about us, have been making me panic. It was easy to admire her from a distance, but now I’ll catch myself wondering what her favourite food is, or memorizing the freckles on her arm, and the familiarity of her, the proximity, makes me break out in a nervoussweat.
Getting close to people is dangerous. The more you let someone latch themselves onto you, the more they rip out when theygo.
I may still put up little barriers, like giving her dumb nicknames she hates, but physically neither of us can put this on hold anymore. Most of our showcase planning sessions have ended in furious make-outs that usually lead to most of our clothing getting torn off. While we haven’t actually slept together again, I’m getting pretty familiar with the face she makes when shecomes.
Her answer to my text pops up on myphone.
Today is not the day to be calling me names. I’ve already been up for over an hour, and I barely slept. Meet me at school as soon as you can. Bringcoffee.
The showcase is happening today, and I’m sure Christina is already a bundle of nerves. I send her anothertext.
Take it easy. If it doesn’t go well, you can just offer to strip for the Epsilon reps. Oh wait, you’re kind of doing thatalready.
Her answer is just a single word, but I can hear the menace behind it:PENN.
Kidding, I type back quickly.We’re going to rockthis.
Forty minutes later I pull up into the school’s parking lot. Christina is leaning against her Subaru a few spots away, mumbling something to herself as she stares at herphone.
“Talking to yourself already?” I ask, stepping out of mycar.
Her head snaps up. “Rehearsing thepresentation.”
She walks over and thanks me for the coffee I deposit into her hands, then leans down to inspect the presentation materials on my backseat.
“You got everything?” sheasks.
“Yep. I checked your list to besure.”
“Did you double checkit?”
I laugh but she keeps a seriousexpression.
“Yes, Christina. I double checked, just foryou.”
She starts to slide one of the posters out, but I reach out to wrap my hand around her bicep. I’m still surprised, and extremely turned on, every time I realize how strong she is. I can feel the firm muscle under mygrip.
“Hey,” I say, “we’re going to be awesome. There’s no one more prepared for this than you are. You’ve got this down, Dominguez. There’s going to be a riot over who gets to hireyou.”
She pauses, reaching her other arm over to give my fingers a quick stroke. Then she breaks away and bobs herhead.
“Thank you. I needed to hearthat.”
We carry our gear into the large meeting hall where the showcase is taking place. It looks like a more sophisticated version of a grade school science fair, with a table, poster stands, and projector screen set up for each group. The event doesn’t start for several hours and only a few other presenters are here already. We sign in at the entrance and then begin setting up at ourtable.
“You brought your laptop, right?” Christina asks, as she centers a poster on itsstand.
“Yes. Like I said, I doublechecked.”
“Right. Sorry. I’m feeling a little highstrung.”
