I swallowed hard and did as he asked, willing myself to think about anything other than how we were barely six inches apart. If I wanted to kiss him, his mouth was right there. The cotton round slid across my eyelid, leaving a greasy trail, and I pushed away the thought of Ethan’s mouth. “This probably makes us friends, doesn’t it?”
“Finally.” I felt Ethan’s chuckle where his body rested on my knees. “I’ve been waiting for you forever.”
The cotton round moved to my browbone, and I opened my eyes to see Ethan’s honey-brown gaze studying my face again. He bit down on his bottom lip but didn’t move away. My heart thudded in my chest. This was it. He was going to try and kiss me, and I was going to let him.
“Can I tell you something?” he said softly. “Now that we are friends?”
“Yes.” My eyes searched his face as I waited for him to close the distance between us. I held my breath.
Ethan moved even closer to me, his voice tickling thesensitive spot below my ear as he whispered, “You look like a raccoon right now.”
With that, Ethan burst into laughter, and I shoved his shoulder, mad at myself for even imagining that he was going to kissme.
Leaning across the sink, I looked in the mirror. Ethan was correct. While he had managed to remove a whole mess of glitter, the Vaseline had smeared big dark circles of mascara, eyeliner, and eyeshadow around my eyes. In short, I resembled a raccoon.
“If I kick you right now, it’ll really hurt.” I huffed, sitting up straight.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Ethan wheezed.
“Give me that, and I’ll do the rest myself.” I held out my hand for the toner and cotton round he was holding.
“No, no. I’ll finish,” Ethan said, gently pushing my hand aside. “But you have to admit that you do look funny.”
“I do not,” I managed to say.
“Stubborn. Close your eyes one more time.” Ethan’s voice was still infused with humor. When I didn’t immediately comply, he said, “Please. I promise I’ll be nice.”
“I’m no longer sure you’re capable of that.” He reached for my face with his free hand. His expression grew serious as I said, “Some friend you are.”
“Don’t say that, Jamie.” Ethan’s voice was low. I liked the way my name sounded when he said it. Soft, like it was a prayer. His thumb traced the edge of my jaw. Ethan swallowed. Whatever playful energy he’d put between us seemed to disappear, the room going completely still as his gaze jumped to my lips.His eyes traced a path along the curve of my cheek and across my nose, until they met mine. Exhaling a shaky breath, he said, “And what if I wanted to be more than—”
The sound of two mechanical beeps came, indicating that the door had been unlocked and was about to open. Both of us froze. Ice water ran through my veins. Then fear.
“Shit,” Ethan said.
“No,” I said at the same time. I dove off the counter, the faux leather of my dress squeaking as Ethan jumped back to the other side of the sink.
“Ethan, are you here?”
He reached toward the counter and grabbed an armful of makeup-removing stuff right as Buzzy’s crisp New England accent floated through the room.
For one wild moment, I considered hiding in the shower, which wouldn’t have been a bad plan if the thing hadn’t been made of frosted glass. My heart slammed in my chest as I searched for some escape. Literally, if there were a window I could have dangled from, I would have done it. When that didn’t materialize, I turned back to Ethan, his eyes wide with panic, even as he took a breath to respond. “In here.”
I shook my head violently, hoping to buy myself a second to see if maybe I could turn into a towel rack, but it was too late.
“I didn’t think you’d be back so soon. I would have ordered—” Buzzy stopped midsentence as she rounded the corner to the bathroom. Her lip curled slightly as she took me in, from the tips of my tennis shoes to my head. When her eyes landed on my face, her expression changed. Then she glanced over at Ethan,who aside from looking guiltier than a kid caught shoplifting candy was still clutching all her makeup remover. Turning back to me, she simply said, “Oh my.”
Then Buzzy started cackling. And I mean truly howling. She slapped her leg and leaned against the bathroom doorframe, completely ignoring Ethan and me as our eyebrows shot to the ceiling.
“I’m trying to help Jamie. She went to a makeup panel, and it went badly,” Ethan said over his grandmother’s uncontrolled giggling.
“I can see that,” Buzzy wheezed and swiped at her eyes with one of her coral-manicured hands. Looking at me carefully, she added, “Darling, you look awful.”
“I…” I peeked at myself in the mirror. I still had the massive, greasy raccoon eyes. Even better, the grease had started to work on the glue of my false eyelashes, so one of them was peeling awkwardly off my eyelid. Turning back to Buzzy, I said, “It looks better than it did.”
That seemed to send Buzzy over the edge again. After a full minute of additional cackling, she said, “You should have used Pond’s Cold Cream. Doesn’t your grandma have any of that?”
“I’m not sure. Ethan found me before I had to show my face to too many more people,” I hedged, careful to avoid telling her the fact that my own grandmother had covered my face in more makeup than a drag queen could go through in a month. “I should probably ask her.”
