Make a Move

by Meika Usher

  “You know?” Sunny said after a moment. “I don’t even know most of these people.”

  I glanced her way. “Friends of Ben, maybe?”

  She shook her head, taking another sip. “Nah. Probably, Cat hired people to be here.”

  I snorted. “Wouldn’t put it past her.”

  As if she heard her name, Cat burst forth from the crowd. “Sunny, there you are!” she said, reaching for my sister’s arm. “You can’t just hang out at the bar all night, you’re the guest of honor!”

  “Oh, no. I’m good here,” Sunny stated, patting the bar top. “Here is a good spot.”

  Cat looped her arm through Sunny’s, ignoring her. “Let’s mingle,” she said as she pulled Sunny away from the bar.

  Help me, Sunny screamed with her eyes. I put a fresh drink into her hand and gave an apologetic smile as Cat dragged her away. She was gonna murder me for this later, but what was I gonna do? Engage in a tug of war with Cat? Because Cat would probably win.

  “Oh, isn’t that delicious?” Cat was asking as they disappeared into the crowd. “It’s called Unicorn Fantasy!”

  I rolled my eyes and turned to the bartender. “You got anything normal back there?”

  His lips tilted in a smirk as he reached under the bar. “Here you go,” he said, sliding a beer toward me. “Don’t tell the redhead. Supposed to be all unicorn, all night.”

  “Secret’s safe,” I answered before taking a long swig from the bottle. Leaning against the bar, I watched the crowd. Not that I was overly familiar with Sunny’s friends, but I had to admit—these people looked like pros. Was professional party goer an actual gig? If so, how could one get that gig? I could be into it.

  Nursing my beer, I watched as Cat located Ben and pulled him away from his conversation with Jude. You must mingle! I imagined her saying as she looped her other arm through his. Sunny took another swig of her pink drink as Cat led them to a group of people and initiated conversation. If she kept it up, Sun would be blitzed out of her mind in no friggin’ time.

  “Where’d you find beer?”

  I pulled my gaze away from the unfolding shitshow to find Nate next to me. He held up a mostly-full glass, making a disgusted face. “I attempted the pink thing and almost lost my lunch.” He shot a glance at the bartender and added, “No offense.”

  “None taken,” the guy replied, providing Nate with another clandestine beer. Then, he moved down the counter to serve a group of newcomers the pink stuff.

  “She’s furious,” I said to Nate once we were alone-ish. “She’s going to murder someone tonight. Whether that someone is me, you, or Cat, is yet to be seen.”

  “I’m pulling for Cat,” Nate said, glancing my way. “I’d rather neither of us kick the bucket just yet.”

  “Why’s that?” I glanced his way. He looked good tonight in a pair of dark jeans, a black blazer and a...Zombitch t-shirt? Well, I thought with a smile. Guess you can’t take the nerd out of the boy.

  And I wouldn’t want to.

  Without thinking too hard about it, I took a side step toward him, letting our arms brush. Would it be weird if I rested my head on his shoulder? Would people notice?

  “Well,” he said, and I looked up to find his eyes on me, serious and soft at the same time. “It’d be a shame to die when I’ve only just started falling for you.”

  My heart tumbled to my toes. Well. I had not been expecting that.

  “I...oh,” I managed as a torrent of emotions rushed through me.

  Falling for me.

  He was falling for me.

  Falling.

  That...that was a big deal. A real big deal. How did he—

  “I know I’ve been pretty weird this week,” he continued, tapping his fingertips against his beer bottle. I forced myself to focus on his words. On his words, and not on the buzz in my brain that edged on panic. But why was I panicking? This was a good thing. Right? “I’ve got a lot going on,” Nate was saying when I tuned back in, “and it has nothing to do with you. I—”

  “Nate, dear,” a voice called, and we turned to find my mother headed toward us. I silently cursed her for her always impeccable timing. “Can you give me a hand? I left my gift for Sunny and Ben in the car, and it’s heavy.”

  “Sure, Mrs. O,” Nate replied, sitting his beer on the bar. “I’ll be back,” he told me, eyes earnest on my face. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  I stared after him, his words replaying in my mind. I’ve only just started falling for you.

  I’m falling for you, too, I imagined myself saying. And then I imagined the smile that would light his face. Imagined the way he would kiss me. Imagined the path our relationship would take from there. First the words, then the actions. The moving in together, and the proposal, and the marriage, and the babies.

  Panic surged through me. With one single sentence, everything was laid out before me in a straight, perfect line. I’d only been joking when Mrs. Kim had asked how many grandbabies I would give her, but if I married her son, she’d expect those babies to become reality.

  And maybe Nate would, too.

  Shit.

  “That’s one hell of a look on your face, little sis.” Sunny plopped down on the stool beside me, her cheeks flushed, her eyes bright. Apparently, that unicorn shit was potent. “Wanna tell me what it’s about?”

  “I’d rather not,” I replied, trying and failing to kill the panic. “You’re drunk.”

  “Ish.” She shrugged and held up her empty glass. “This shit packs a punch.”

  I nodded absently, eyes finding Nate again as he weaved through the crowd. What would he say if I told him that I might be falling for him, too, but all the expectations that came along with that were too much? Would he understand? Or would he be hurt? Confused? Would he get it at all?

  “He’s a good one, you know,” Sunny said and I jerked my attention back to her. She was watching me, eyes narrowed. “I’m pissed at him right now, but he’s a good one.”

  “Who, Ben?” I looked around for her fiancé. “What are you pissed at him for? What’d he do now?”

  “No, not Ben.” She waved a hand. “I’m always sort of pissed at Ben, but I love that doofus. I mean Nate. He’s a good one.”

  “Oh.” My stomach did a little flip. Did she know about us? It wasn’t exactly a secret, but I hadn’t told her yet. Unless Nate did. Would he do that? Would he tell his best friend about me?

  He would if he was falling for me.

  “Yeah, he seems like it,” I said casually, staring hard at the bottle in my hand. I needed to get out of here. I needed some fresh air and a second alone to process what Nate said. I needed—

  “But he’s a cinnamon roll,” Sunny continued with a determined nod. Her eyes sharpened on my face. “He must be protected at all costs.”

  At that, I laughed. “You’re not wrong,” I said, the smile clinging to my lips. “He’s a total cinnamon roll.”

  I could feel her gaze intensify and I looked up. “You like him, don’t you?” she asked. “You’re not just fucking around?”

  “I—”

  She waved off my words before I could get them out, as if she were expecting a denial. “It’s all over your face, sister dear. Has been for a while.” She gave the bartender a smile of thanks as he slid another drink her way. “Plus, Anya told me.”

  Of course Anya told her. Anya of the big mouth. But, you know what? I wasn’t even mad about it. And Sunny didn’t seem to be, either. Then again, I thought, recalling the matching drawings she’d given us. She wouldn’t be. Not if she was pulling for us to get together all along.

  I thought about asking her about that, but I still hadn’t wrapped my mind around my own feelings for Nate. I didn’t need an outside opinion.

  She stared into the swirling pink liquid for a long moment before she spoke again. “He likes you, you know.”

  I swallowed. “I know.”

  “At first, I wondered if maybe you two were just hanging out. Like, maybe you offered t
o take his virginity or something. Because that’d totally be a Birdie thing to do. But then, I realized—”

  “What?” I froze, her words buzzing in my brain. “What are you talking about?”

  Sunny froze, too, eyes widening. “What?” she repeated.

  “What do you mean, take his virginity?”

  She shrank into her seat, cradling her glass in two hands. “I didn’t know you didn’t know,” she said, eyes wide. “I thought for sure you knew.”

  Snippets of my time with Nate zoomed through my head like fighter jets in battle. Our first makeout session—when he came in his pants. The way he wouldn’t let me touch him. The...the lightning speed orgasm after we—

  “Fucking hell,” I muttered, dropping my beer to the counter to replace it with one of Sunny’s unicorn jizz drinks.

  “Hey,” she said. “That’s mine.”

  I ignored her and lifted the glass to my lips and chugged the overly sweet drink. A sort of numb buzzing settled over me as it hit my veins. All that time, I’d wondered what was wrong. Was there something wrong with me? Something wrong with him? Why wouldn’t he let me touch him? Did he just not want me? So much doubt and confusion and hurt, and all because he—

  “Shit.” It all made sense. It made perfect sense.

  I searched the sea of faces for a bespectacled nerd in a blazer. Something inside my chest twisted, sharp and hot, as I caught sight of him coming back inside, a large box in his arms.

  He said he was falling for me. He was falling for me, but he didn’t trust me enough to tell me he was a virgin when we had sex. So many chances...so many moments, and he just...didn’t tell me. Such a big, important thing, and he didn’t tell me.

  Why?

  Well, I thought, pushing through the crowd. I was about to find out.

  47: Nate

  “Right this way, dear.”

  I followed Mrs. Oliver through the crowd to the table set up against a wall for gifts, a three thousand pound box in my arms. What did she get Sunny and Ben for their engagement? A set of weights? A rock collection? My arms burned. I was not The Rock, or hell, even Jude. This was a bit much for my scrawny ass.

  “That’s it, right there,” Mrs. Oliver was saying, oblivious to the fact that I couldn’t see where there was. I’d just been following her voice this whole time.

  “We need to talk.”

  That voice didn’t belong to Mrs. Oliver. Tilting my chin upward, I peered over the package. Birdie stood between me and the gift table, arms crossed, eyes flashing. She hadn’t looked this pissed when I walked away. Had something happened?

  “What’s up?” I asked as I inched forward to drop the box onto the table. Once my arms were free of the excess weight, I sighed and shook them out. “Has Sunny murdered Cat?”

  Birdie didn’t reply right away. She glanced over at her mother, who looked between us, her blue eyes curious. “No one’s been murdered,” she said after a long moment. “Yet.”

  I nodded. “Okay, that’s good.” Wiping my hands on my jeans, I studied her face. Pink cheeks, wide blue eyes. “You drank the unicorn jizz, didn’t you?”

  “Honestly,” Mrs. Oliver said, shaking her head. “You kids and your slang.” She squeezed my arm. “Thank you for your help,” she said as she moved past us to rejoin the party.

  “No problem,” I replied before I turned back to Birdie. “So, about this murder. Who’s it gonna be?”

  She didn’t speak immediately. She crossed her arms over her chest and studied me, face impassive. I shifted from foot to foot, discomfort settling over me. That look on her face was a look I had never seen before. A serious look. A scary look. A look that had me thinking that maybe I was the one about to be murdered.

  “You know?” she finally said, holding my eye with a steady, unblinking stare. “You really ought to tell a girl she’s the first person you’ve ever fucked.”

  Every muscle, every bone, every cell in my body froze.

  Around us, people laughed and talked and enjoyed the party. But right here? Right here, I was pretty sure a circle of hell had just opened up, and I willed for it to swallow me whole.

  “You were a virgin.” Her eyes flashed with anger—and betrayal—and it was like a physical blow. I actually took a step back. “You were a virgin and you didn’t tell me.”

  Shit, I thought. Shit, shit, shit. “I...” I stopped when I realized I had no idea what to say. Didn’t matter, anyway. Birdie wasn’t going to give me the chance to say anything.

  “That’s kind of a big deal, Nate,” she went on, trying to keep her voice low. Still, it simmered with fury. “That’s kind of something you should tell someone.”

  “Why?” The question was out before I fully formed the reason for asking it. But once posed, I wanted her answer. I wanted to know what she would have done, what she would have said, if I told her. How knowing I’d never had sex would have changed things between us. Because it would have. I knew that like I knew my own damn name. “Why does it matter?”

  “Because it fucking does,” she shot back. She blinked and I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I caught a glimmer of tears. My stomach dropped to my feet. Fuck. I didn’t want to be the reason for those tears. “Because—”

  “Uh, Nate? We’re gonna need a hand over here.”

  Birdie and I turned to find Jack standing on the edge of the crowd, eyes wide.

  “What’s going on?” Birdie asked as I said, “We’re kinda in the middle of something.”

  “So, the blushing bride? She’s had a little too much of that pink shit. And she’s pissed.”

  “Yeah, and?” Birdie’s brow furrowed. “Sunny’s always pissed.”

  “Ahh,” Jack started, but he didn’t get to finish his sentence because there was a loud crash, followed by a “Jesus, Sunny, really?”

  In unison, we all turned toward the commotion. Cat and Sunny stood in the middle of the crowd, face-to-face. Jack hadn’t been kidding. Sunny looked pissed. And not her usual pissed.

  “I really just need,” she was saying, stepping closer to Cat, “you to back the fuck off!”

  A murmur rumbled through the room, followed by a slow hush.

  “I don’t know what your problem is,” Cat replied, backing up. “But you’re making a scene.”

  A snarl crawled across Sunny’s face, and I knew that look. She was about to lose her shit. I had to get over there. Now.

  Turning back to Birdie, I said, “We’re not done talking about this, okay? Just...stay here.” Backing toward the crowd, I added, “Please.” And then I headed into the fray.

  “I don’t give a fuck about making a scene,” Sunny was saying as I reached them. “Take your scene and shove it up your—”

  “Okay, okay.” I eased an arm in between them, forcing both women to separate. “What’s the problem here?”

  Sunny and Cat started speaking at the same time, and not a damn syllable could be deciphered. To our left, Ben and Jude stood, each with a pink drink in their hands and dumbfounded looks on their faces. Were they hoping for a wrestling match or something?

  Shooting them a way to be useless look, I raised my hand and said, “One at a time. Sunny, you start.”

  “Why does she get to start,” Cat protested. “She’s the one who attacked me out of the blue. I—”

  “She gets to start because this is her engagement party,” I replied, turning Sunny’s way. “Now, Sun, go.”

  “I was just telling Catharine here that maybe she should back away from my wedding. Nothing about this is what I wanted. I don’t like parties. I don’t like people.” She paused and glanced around the room at the horde of people swarming them. “No offense.”

  Beside me, Cat crossed her arms over her chest, watching Sunny through narrowed brown eyes. “I’m only doing all this to help you,” she said, deceptively calm. “That’s all I’ve been doing from the start. And you’ve just been so ungrateful and mean and—”

  “Maybe because I don’t want your help!” Sunny cut in, ste
pping forward. “I never asked for your help.”

  “But you need it.” Cat stepped back. “You didn’t have a clue where to start planning your wedding. I—”

  “You’re not planning my wedding,” Sunny interrupted with a snarl. “You’re planning yours.”

  At that, Cat stilled, her arms dropping to her sides. Her forehead crinkled as she raised her eyes to Sunny. “But I don’t want to get married.”

  “Then why the hell have you hijacked my wedding?” Sunny raised her brows. “From the flowers to the dresses to the damn season. This is your wedding, Cat. Not mine.”

  “Jude and I are not getting married,” she said softly, her face awash in confusion.

  At that, everyone’s eyes swung to Jude, who merely shrugged his agreement. “We’re not.” But then he paused and looked at his fiancée, face lighting with a thought. “But maybe...”

  “Maybe what?” Cat asked, turning to face him. Sunny moved in beside me, and I was relieved to note that the murderous gleam had left her eye.

  “Just because we’re not getting married doesn’t mean we can’t have a wedding,” Jude said, and all around him, people looked confused.

  “It kinda does, sweetie,” Cat said with a wry smile on her face. “Weddings are parties for people who are getting married.”

  “Okay, so what if,” he said, moving closer to Cat. “What if we just do the party then?”

  “What are you talking about?” Cat let Jude take her hand as he drew closer. “How many of those drinks have you had?”

  “Not a one,” he replied. “They’re disgusting.”

  “A-fucking-men,” Sunny chimed in. “Strong as fuck, though.”

  “Clearly,” I muttered her way, earning a trademark Sunny glare.

  “Anyway,” Jude continued. “What I’m proposing is...an engagement ceremony. You know, just like a wedding ceremony, only without the marriage part.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Cat said, though a smile had crept onto her face. “You’re ridiculous.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” he replied, dropping to one knee. “But I’m willing to be a little ridiculous for you.”