Get real, Marsh.
It’s not going to work out.
And it never was.
If she hadn’t been sitting in her blue plastic teacher’s desk chair, she’d have probably kicked herself—both for her stupidity and for her runaway imagination. Amanda needed Spring Break to hurry up and come. She obviously needed a week off to clear her mind.
Amanda hoped a week would be enough to clear her heart.
Because after Spring Break, Luke Baker wasn’t coming back to Port Provident High School. And she was just going to have to be okay with that.
Amanda packed up her bag, then put the fully-loaded canvas tote back in the closet. She wasn’t bringing grading home this weekend. She just wanted some downtime.
And maybe a big sampler box of chocolates.
Hopefully there wouldn’t be many caramel ones. She hated the caramel ones. And right now, she just couldn’t take sticky disappointment like caramel pretending to be chocolate.
“Amanda?”
Even with her back turned, she knew that voice. She knew it was Luke.
His voice sounded like sticky caramel.
Disappointment.
What happens to a dream deferred, the poet Langston Hughes once asked. She was about to find out. Because her dream of Luke Baker wasn’t just deferred. It was done.
Time to face the music.
The stupid, depressing, love song music.
“Oh, hey Luke.” She hoped she sounded casual. She certainly felt anything but casual. Her stomach rolled and her head began to throb just above the center of her right eyebrow.
He just stayed at the door—he didn’t make a move to come in. Amanda knew what was about to occur next.
“Have you talked to Violet today?”
Amanda tried to steel herself. She visualized her spine turning to shiny metal and she forced her shoulders back out of their slight slouch.
“She was in my last period. I gave her back her essay for the application.”
Luke swallowed visibly. “Great. So, did she tell you about the car?”
Amanda’s stomach twisted into a tight knot. “She did. How great for her, right?”
She tried to force a cheerful note into her voice, but if it was truly there, she couldn’t hear it. She’d gone tone-deaf.
“Absolutely. It’s great that her family could arrange that.”
“Oh, yeah, great. Absolutely.” Amanda had now moved into repetitious blithering.
It wasn’t how she wanted to end things with Luke after this wonderful week, but in all honesty, it didn’t matter. Things were ending. And there wasn’t going to be a good way. It just wasn’t possible to break a heart cleanly.
Luke nodded at her stammering statement. “So, I guess this means we’re off the hook, right?”
Was he staring at Cupig? She couldn’t tell, but she thought so.
Amanda wanted to scream no. She wanted to tell Luke that Violet may have solved her issue, but Amanda hadn’t solved her own.
In fact, she’d fallen in deeper than she’d ever thought possible in such a short period of time. When Luke kissed her in her living room, Amanda had seen stars. She’d felt a breathless rush, like standing on the moon with no air. She’d given in to her fairy tale fantasy because she thought she had a chance to make it come true.
She’d been terribly, terribly wrong. Crazy love, like the fleeting high-octane feelings she made her students read about, were best left in books. It wasn’t meant for her.
Amanda choked down the insecurity she feared would pour from her throat and battled her tear ducts to stay shut. “I’ll still be there. I’m a chaperone.”
Luke nodded, his eyes still on the stuffed pig and not her. It made Amanda feel ridiculous. Here she’d been telling herself she had a shot, but when it all came crumbling down, Luke didn’t even want to look at her. He was ignoring her again, just like he had for the last two years.
She should have known better. And she should have never let Lisa convince her that letting down her guard was a good idea.
“I had to work the winter dance, so I’m off the hook for this one.” His voice sounded as flat as the commercial-grade of paint on the wall. “I guess if they call our name in the finalists’ list, you can tell them we’re opting out like Ms. Pantego did.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure. I can do that.” She’d never felt so small in her life.
Luke straightened and moved a half step from the frame of the door. “Thanks for playing along and being a good sport.”
A good sport. Just a game.
A game with her heart.
Of course, he didn’t know that. The only person Amanda could blame was herself.
Well, and maybe Lisa and her silly, dramatic bent.
“Violet deserved the best effort. She’s a great kid.” Amanda needed Luke to leave. Now. Before she did something in front of him that she’d regret even more than giving herself a week of fooling herself that there was something there between her and Luke Baker.
“Absolutely.” Luke stuffed one hand into a pocket. “Well, then. I’ll see you Monday. Take care of Cupig, ok?”
She could only reply with a feeble gesture; she didn’t trust herself to make a sound. Luke took that as his cue to exit the scene.
As she watched him go out of her view, a stage direction from Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale came to Amanda’s mind.
Exeunt. Pursued by a bear.
Life would not imitate art today.
She wouldn’t allow herself to follow, to ask him the questions that were truly on her mind. She wouldn’t press to find out if he’d felt the same things in that kiss the other night.
There would be no pursuit of Luke by Amanda. She just needed to accept that Cupid’s arrow had missed the mark.
Luke sat alone at a candlelit table dinner table set for two.
He made reservations at La Griglia Bianca on his drive home after that incredible kiss. He’d left Amanda’s townhome wondering how he could make something as silly as The Cupid Caper dance into a night she’d never forget. He’d planned to pull out all the stops and then, at the end of the evening, if he saw any flicker of a spark on her part, he’d planned to tell her the truth.
That The Cupid Caper stopped being a joke the minute he really looked at her.
That he’d been caught up in his own world for two years and never really seen her, and he couldn’t explain why.
That no reaction he’d ever had a hand in creating within a lab matched the fire he felt when he took her in his arms and kissed her.
But then Cupid got the last laugh and she didn’t need him anymore. Violet got her car without the need for any silly schemes of theirs.
He should have known this would never work. That’s why he preferred science. Rules. Order. Even on his pursuits of adventure, he operated with a plan. They weren’t folly.
Well, maybe not the BASE jumping.
But he just did those crazy jumps to say that he could, to check a box. He liked checking boxes. Get a result, move on to the next task on the list.
And then Amanda changed that. He realized he wanted to spend a summer night with her lying on a blanket in the park, listening to her quote sonnets under the stars. He wanted to go to London, and see the world through her eyes—not just through a pair of goggles with some attached safety helmet. He wanted to kiss her again, to let time pass without counting anything but the beats of her heart and the staccato of her breathing.
He wanted Amanda.
Luke pushed his glass away with a shove and turned as the waiter walked by.
“Check, please.”
The pulsating multi-colored lights were visible through the narrow windows in the gym door when Luke rounded the corner at the far end of the hallway. He’d heard the thumping of the DJ’s music almost as soon as he’d walked in the doors of the school.
Cupid may have badly missed the mark in Luke’s own life, but that little diapered cherub sure knew how to throw a party.
; “Hey, Dr. B!” Two football players reached up to give Luke a high-five as he walked into the gym. He smiled and played along, but right now, he only had eyes for one person on the Port Provident High campus.
Amanda.
He saw her after only a moment or two of searching. She stood by herself, near the candid photo booth.
She looked like an angel. Cupid would have been proud.
Her red hair had been pulled softly back from her face at the crown, and fell across her shoulders in a cascade of curls. The top of her dress appeared to be a fully-lined white lace halter top that tied just at the base of her neck. A sash of hot pink tied around her waist. And the skirt of the dress was made of layer after layer of white tulle and skimmed just above her knees.
Luke drank in the sight of her like bottle after bottle of water at the end of a marathon. Even her hot pink platform heels seemed irresistible to him. He had to remind himself not to charge through the dance floor area and take her into his arms.
Except that he wanted to.
He really, really wanted to.
But now wasn’t the right time. She was busy and he didn’t want to interrupt. He wanted her focused and all to himself when Luke told her what he needed to say.
He decided to just stay out of the way for a moment, until Amanda had a break in her chaperone duties. He climbed up a set of open bleachers and found himself a seat about two-thirds of the way up.
Liz Langton stepped in front of the DJ’s set up and grabbed a microphone.
“Port Provident High, are you ready to cast your vote for the winners of the Cupid Caper?”
A cheer erupted from the assembled students. They’d been waiting for this.
“I’m going to call out the names of the finalists,” the assistant principal continued. “If I call your name, make your way to the front. Then we’ll have the vote for the best couple.”
Even without the blaring music from the DJ, the sound levels in the room remained high on the decibel chart.
“Mike O’Connell, Laura Blake, Cara Percy, Peter Stephenson. You are all finalists in The Cupid Caper.” Applause and whistles and cheers broke out. The students parted, clearing little stream-like paths for their friends to make it to the front. “Congratulations. You’ve completed all the challenges of The Cupid Caper and were selected by the Student Council committee to compete for a chance to win that one-year lease on a new car that was so graciously donated to the school. And we have one more pair to come up front. Their inclusion this year was a little unorthodox, but Student Council voted to name them finalists as well.”
A tingling sensation kicked Luke in the gut. He knew this feeling. He got it every time he was about to make a jump or take on a new adventure.
He knew what Liz Langton was about to say before she even finished her explanation.
“Welcome to the stage our last couple, Luke Baker and Amanda Marsh!”
Luke saw Lisa Fleming poke at Amanda, who just waved her hands. He could see Amanda’s lips moving, but the noise in the room drowned out what she was saying.
Except he knew what she was doing. He needed to do something before she was heard.
They might not be trying to win that car anymore, but Luke wanted to win a prize much more valuable. He remembered Lisa’s words about Amanda’s high expectations and her being in love with love.
If Amanda wanted the fairy tale, he would give it to her.
He stood up and cupped his hands around his mouth.
“But soft! What light through yonder gymnasium breaks? It is The Cupid Caper, but Amanda is the sun!”
Several hundred heads turned at once to look at the corner of the bleachers. Luke only cared about the reaction of one.
His heart raced, partly from the stunt he’d just pulled. But partly because he didn’t know how Amanda would react.
She stood in front of the bleachers, drop jawed.
It still wasn’t clear what was running through Amanda’s mind. But Luke figured the adage of “in for a penny, in for a pound” rang true in this instance. At least if he lost Amanda, he’d know he’d pulled out all the stops he could.
He could see a few drops of wetness collecting in the corners of her eyes.
Oh no. He’d embarrassed her in front of her students.
“Luke? What are you doing?” Even though the gym full of students had fallen largely quiet in order to follow the unfolding drama, he could barely hear Amanda’s words.
“The fairy tale, Amanda. I know you want the fairy tale.” Luke reached his hand out to Amanda and hoped against hope that she’d take the offering.
She delicately placed her palm in his and a flood of memories from the other night came crashing back as he touched her soft skin again. He tried to focus and not trip over the last bleacher.
“Shall we?”
She nodded, but the glisten of tears was still there and he didn’t know what to do about it. He wanted to kiss them away.
But not in front of all the kids. He wouldn’t do that to her.
Luke guided Amanda through the crowd and he could hear the tapping of Lisa’s heels following closely behind. As they neared the front of the expansive room, the students started to cheer and whistle again.
Even if Amanda appeared completely unsure of the idea, it seemed the students liked what they were seeing.
“Dr. Baker. Miss Marsh.” The assistant principal couldn’t contain her grin. “As I said, you were both a very unorthodox addition to The Cupid Caper. But thanks to a very generous donation from the Port Provident Baccheus Society that completely funded several scholarships for our Student Council leadership to attend the annual Student Government Congress held this summer at the University of Texas, we didn’t feel that we could turn your entry form away. Four students will be attending the program because of four entries funded in The Cupid Caper. Unfortunately, the other two teachers were not able to participate. But I was glad to see the two of you having some fun with it. Nice work on the giant pig, Dr. Baker.”
“His name is Cupig, Ms. Langton. But what is the Port Provident Baccheus Society? It seems a little strange to have a high school club named for the Roman god of wine.”
A throat cleared behind them. “Baccheus is also the Roman god of the theatre.”
Amanda’s head snapped around. She flinched and gripped Luke’s hand tightly “Lisa? You actually did this? After I told you not to?”
“I love a good love story,” she said simply, without remorse or apology. “And luckily, so does Ms. Langton.”
The assistant principal spoke up before Amanda could get her next words out. “Well, well. Let’s just vote, shall we? Mike O’Connell, you’re first. Tell our voters why you should win The Cupid Caper. As you know, the winner will be voted on by the crowd’s applause.”
Lisa walked in a wide circle behind Amanda and picked up a giant thermometer-looking prop.
“Thank you, Ms. Fleming. You can work the applause meter.”
Lisa just grinned like a child at a birthday party.
“So, Mike? Tell us why you picked Laura to be your secret Cupid.”
The basketball forward towered over the petite cheerleader. “Well, Ms. Langton, she’s come to all our games this year and cheered for us, and I don’t think we’d be going to the district playoffs without her support. She makes me want to play better.”
Mike leaned way down and gave Laura a peck on the cheek as the other basketball players and cheerleaders led the rest of the students in celebration for the first couple.
Luke couldn’t even focus on what was going on as the next couple had their turn. This time, it was the girl who had picked the guy. She told a little story about sitting behind him in math class, but as she spoke, Luke zoned out.
His fingers still wrapped around Amanda’s hand. She stood still and quiet. Luke wished he could read her mind. He’d seen the tears earlier and couldn’t help but think the worst. But he knew he needed to follow through.
Luke knew no experimen
t was complete until you’d worked through the steps and drawn the conclusions. No scientist just acted on hypothesis alone.
So, he would take the microphone and say what he needed to say.
If it backfired on him, well, he’d just stay hidden in his lab for the next two weeks until Spring Break and his transition to his new role.
“And finally, our third couple. Dr. Baker, should we have Ms. Fleming do the honors, since she’s the one who filled out your entry cards and wrote your initial poems?” The carefully-coiffed blonde held out the microphone in Lisa’s direction.
“No, that’s ok. I’ll do it.” Luke braced himself for the leap. He reached for the microphone with one hand and gave Amanda’s palm a slight squeeze with the other.
She squeezed back.
“Amanda, I know I tried to toss that poem in the trash. Thank you for saving it. Neither of us knew it at the time, but that one simple act saved me. My whole life, I’ve analyzed things to death. Even love. I thought this would just be a role to play for a week—like an actor in one of those Shakespeare plays you love to quote. But it’s made me realize there’s a role I want to play for the rest of my life. It’s the role that’s by your side.”
He reached the hand with the microphone out, but kept his eyes focused on hers. The gray in her irises retreated as the deep emerald green spread from pupil to the edge of the center boundary.
Amanda gave a shy smile. “’My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite’.”
“More Shakespeare? Romeo and Juliet?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Does your friend Shakespeare say anything about Cupid?”
“As a matter of fact he does. ‘Love goes by haps; Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.’ That’s actually from Much Ado About Nothing, not Romeo and Juliet.”
“I think Lisa intended this to be a trap.” Luke flicked his eyes up at the drama teacher hovering behind her best friend’s shoulder. “But it seems Cupid’s arrow flew true. I’ve definitely fallen in love with you, Amanda Marsh. And no matter who gets the most applause here at The Cupid Caper, as long as you walk out of here with me, I know I’m the real winner.”
The Cupid Caper Page 8
