To Be Your Last

by Rae Kennedy

  “You are so right.” I smile sweetly.

  Now all I need is for him to realize he’s the right one. I’ve known it for years. We are destined to be together. He’s reserved and sweet and I’m—well I’m not exactly those things, but we’ll complement each other, opposites attract and all that. I know he’ll be the perfect husband and father—not that I’m looking to get married and have kids quite yet—I’m only nineteen, almost twenty, but someday I will be ready and I want him for my partner.

  The song ends and Wes drops his hands from my waist and puts them in his pockets as he takes a step back. He stands there awkwardly for a second giving me a shy smile and I’m just about to ask if he wants to dance some more when Eric swoops in between us.

  “I’ll take this dance.”

  What the actual fuck?

  He grabs my hand then wraps his other arm tightly around my waist so that our chests are almost touching. The next song is more upbeat than the last and he starts swinging me around and doing spins and shit. He’s only a couple inches taller than me, but with these four-inch heels he is firmly in shorter-than-me territory and it feels awkward as fuck dancing with him after having to crane my neck to look up at Wes.

  “What are you doing?” I screech as he dips me so low my head almost hits the dance floor.

  He leans over me, his face close to mine and looks at me with a mischievous glint in his honey-brown eyes. “Fuck me, but I think we’re dancing, Rosenbaum.”

  I roll my eyes as he lifts me up out of the dip and spins me around again. It makes the skirt of my knee-length dress twirl around and, yeah, okay, that’s kind of fun.

  “No shit we’re dancing. I meant why are you dancing with me.”

  “Oh. I didn’t realize I was supposed to answer the question you meant to ask instead of the one you actually asked.” He starts doing this shuffle step so I have to follow him back and forth and then side to side. I think we’ve taken a tour of the entire goddamn dancefloor.

  “You’re annoying.”

  Taking both of my hands he turns me around again, this time whirling me in close so my back is to his chest and our arms are crisscrossed across my stomach.

  “I think you meant to say charismatic.” He spins me out away from him so we are facing each other again.

  “I actually meant to say you’re a pain in the ass.”

  “Charming.”

  “Infuriating.”

  Eric just smiles and pulls me in closer, slowing his steps, one hand firm on my back and the other laced through my fingers. “To answer your question of why I’m dancing with you, when you so eloquently pointed out to Wes and me that we hadn’t danced with anyone all night, I thought you were offering to help alleviate us of our loneliness.”

  I try to hold back my eyeroll again, but dammit I can’t. “I wasn’t—”

  “Right. You were just offering your company to Wes, then?”

  I narrow my eyes at him.

  “Oh come on. It’s obvious you have a crush on Wes. So what, are you finally making your move on him?”

  “Something like that. Not that I want to talk about it with you. But since you’re obviously so interested in my life, I’ll have you know that Wes and I would be perfect together. He just needs to open his eyes and look at me. I mean, hello, I’m right here in front of him.”

  The song ends and Eric dips me low one more time, holding me there for a moment to lean in close again. So close I could count the freckles on his nose if I wanted. His gaze flickers down to my mouth for a split second.

  “Yeah, must be frustrating.”