“I can’t believe you didn’t text us about this immediately after,” Gabby said once I paused to take a sip of my blueberry matcha latte.
“I know. But there wasn’t really time.” I shrugged. “And now you know why I need your help with BamBam. She cannot find out.”
“I’m fully freaking.” Nittha fanned her face. “We could have helped you get ready.”
I snorted. “Get ready for what? Being sweaty? Riding in a toy car? Drowning in the awkwardness of seeing his ex while we were working?”
“Your date,” Nittha said with a little shake of her head, like it was obvious.
“Where in that story did you get date?”
“The part where you went to the Bellagio fountain. Literally, the most romantic spot in all of Las Vegas,” Gabby said. Her smile was absolutely massive.
“First, that is not true.Sharknado 4.” I set Cricket in my lap so I could use my hands to number my list.
“There are four of those?” Nittha asked.
“Better question: Why did you watch all of them?” Gabby added.
“Yes. And my dad wanted to,” I answered, then toyed with the silver ring on my index finger that my parents had given me for making the honor roll my sophomore year. “Second, not a date. We didn’t even get dinner. And third, we are literally working together on the project neither of you would partner with me on, remember?”
“He bought you chips, which low-key feels like dinner. So basically you had a dinner date.” Nittha bounced on the bed, ignoring my entire list.
“I don’t have any dating experience, but I’m pretty sure that is not how dinner dates work.” I pushed a flyaway curl out of my face.
“Hate to agree with Nittha, but I do kinda feel like that was a date,” Gabby said, her lips pursed to one side. “Like one of those sneaky dates. You know, like where you thought you were only going to the movies with a friend, but then they have their arm around you and suddenly, you are making out with them instead of eating your overpriced Swedish Fish and—” Gabby cut herself off as she looked between Nittha and me. “What? That hasn’t happened to you?”
“Nope.” Nittha shook her head.
“I can’t say that it has.” I wrinkled my nose at her.
“Huh.” Gabby tilted her head to the side as if this was the first time she was hearing that this wasn’t a universal experience. After a moment, she shrugged and said, “Regardless, I’m sure you know what I mean. Everyone has been out with someone and then realized that it might not be the sort of hangout they thought it was.”
“Okay, that has happened to me.” Nittha nodded and pointed at Gabby. “When my girlfriend invited me to go glow-in-the-dark mini golfing, I thought it was going to be a whole group thing, but it was just us.”
“But that didn’t happen here,” I protested. The memory of whatever electricity seemed to pass between us yesterday—the smell of him, the feel of his body near mine—managed to fight its way out of the expanding corner of my mind where Ethan details were stored. Looking back on it, maybe that wasn’t as in-my-imagination as I’d thought? Maybe my friends were right, and it was a sneaky date?
I replayed the night and felt my face flush all over again for a different reason. It wasn’t like he’d tried to hold my hand, or wrap his arm around me, or even extend our night past when we needed to have the car back. Indeed, I’d picked the location, so unless I was subconsciously planning dates, there was literally no sign of a sneaky date. This was Nittha and Gabby getting in my head.
Looking first at Nittha then Gabby, I said, “I know that wasn’t the case, because we ran into his ex, and there is clearly something going on there, since he—”
“Wait. You still haven’t googled their breakup?” Gabby stopped me.
“Why would she do that?” Nittha said, sounding like Gabby’s question was the silliest thing she’d heard all morning. “She doesn’t internet.”
“I internet.” Nittha threw me a don’t-lie face, so I added, “Kind of.”
“But like, you’ve googled him, right?” Gabby asked, her mouth dropping open when I shook my head no. “See. This kind of behavior is why I know you don’t know when you are on a sneaky date. I pity anyone who has ever had a crush on you.”
“I mean, I watched some of his videos last night. I’m still playing catch-up.” My voice sounded a smidge defensive and a part of me wondered why I was trying to explain myself. Giving Cricket a calming scratch behind the ears, I added, “I’m not dating Ethan, so why would I Google-snoop on him?”
Nittha rolled her eyes and started listing on her fingers back at me. “Maybe because he is a boy you don’t know, he randomly decided to be your friend out of nowhere, you were getting in a car with a relative stranger, who for reasons you’re not clear on is smitten enough with you to risk murder-by-grandma, or that he—”
“Fine, tell me about the breakup,” I said, cutting Nittha’s list off before she managed to convince me that googling everyone on the planet was reasonable behavior.
“It was bad,” Gabby said, pursing her lips. “She cheated on him with some gaming guy and then the guy revenge posted all about their relationship, with pictures, when he got mad at her over something.”
“Yeah, and the internet was mad. Like big mad. Because like E squared were the cutest,” Nittha said, using her best Valley-girl voice. “Most of his followers are a bump that came from her. Before they dated, he was more or less under the radar. Like a normal car fix-it person with 10K followers.”
