“No kiss?” Gray storms into my room at nine the next morning after I finally texted her back with all the humiliating details of the night before. She shuts the door and sits down on my bed, where I’ve been since my alarm woke me up at six. Apparently, I forgot to turn it off. “Not even at the end of the date? You know, the obligatory goodnight kiss? I mean, I’ve even kissed guys after awful dates just because it’s what you do.”
I shook my head and squeezed my pillow to my chest. I’ve never kissed someone because it was expected, but maybe she was right. “Is there something wrong with me?”
“No!” She takes a deep breath and counts to four. She never makes it higher than that. “Okay, tell me everything. Did he touch you at all? Or was the date completely friendly?”
It was both, which makes no sense now that I think about it. “He held my hand a few times and touched my back. He even blew off that girl who felt up his bicep before we left the theater.”
Gray’s eyes widen. “What girl?”
I shrug. “I don’t know her. She was flirting with him, but he just walked away with me.” Unless . . . “He wouldn’t, would he?”
“Wouldn’t he what? Meg, you’re not making sense.” She grabs my arms and forces me to look at her.
“Ash is a nice guy. If he was interested in that girl, he wouldn’t leave me in the middle of our date.” I’m such an idiot for not seeing this sooner. “He probably brought me home and then called her.” Why else would he take me home so early?
“Then I’ll kill him.” She lets go of my arms and stands up, like she’s too outraged to sit still. She starts pacing and then whirls around on me. “He can’t do this to you. He’s been blatantly flirting with you for weeks now. How dare he ask you out and then move on to someone else without so much as kissing you first to see if there’s anything between you?”
“Gray, please stop.” I don’t need a recap of my epic failure of a date. “It doesn’t really matter anyway. It was one date, if you can even call it that.” Is it a date if you don’t get a goodnight kiss?
“What’s he doing today? Did he say?”
I lean back and bring the pillow with me, using it to cover my face. “Why?”
Even though my response is muffled, Gray understands me. “Because we are going to show up where he is and figure this out.”
She means she’ll figure it out. Gray can watch a couple and know how long they’ve been dating within minutes. She knew Ash was flirting with me before I did. But then again, maybe she was wrong.
Gray rips the pillow off my face and tosses it onto the foot of the bed. “What’s he doing today, Meg? I know you know.”
“The football team is meeting at the park at one.” I remember the moment last night when it seemed like Ash was going to ask me to hang out today. Maybe he’ll hang out with that girl instead.
“Fine. Then we’re going to the park.” Gray crosses her arms in front of her like it’s all settled.
I sit up. “And what excuse do we have for going to the park? There are no tennis courts there. Just a field, a playground, and a picnic area. Ash would know I went to see him.” The last thing I want to do is look desperate.
She squints as she comes up with a plan. “Okay, we’ll put on really cute running clothes and say we’re training.”
Running. The last time I ran was with Ash at Horseshoe Lake.
“Meg!” Gray shouts, snapping me out of my memories. “Would you work with me here?”
“Gray, this is stupid. It’s Saturday. We should go to the courts and hit, and then after that you should go out with Andre. Has he called you yet?”
One side of her mouth curves up, but she quickly clamps her lips shut.
“He did, didn’t he?” I pull my legs in so I’m sitting cross-legged. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She walks to the edge of the bed and bumps my knee with hers. “Because you were upset. I didn’t want to throw the fact that I had a date in your face, not after . . . ”
I take her hand and pull her onto the bed. “You’re my best friend. You can tell me anything. So what if my date was a failure? I’m still really happy for you, Gray. I hate that you feel you can’t be happy because I’m sad.”
“If you’re sad, I’m sad too.” She squeezes my hand.
“That works both ways, you know. Tell me about your date. I want all the details so I can live vicariously through you.” I force a smile to mask my true feelings.
“I’m way too dirty for you, so I’ll give you the G-rated version.” She winks and launches into her story.