Popcorn Love (26 page)

“Is it strange how much that excites me?” Elena
asked. “In truth, I barely know her, but I find myself thinking
about her all the time.”

Vivian shook her head as she propped her elbow on her
knee and settled her chin into her open palm. She smiled at Elena,
her insides positively squirming with her excitement. This was the
most hopeful, and the most thrilled, that she had seen Elena in
quite a while, though she obviously reined it in better than most
would. Elena Vega was nothing if not composed.

“It’s not strange,” she replied. “It’s good. You will
get to know her the more time you spend with her. It’s
good
,
you hear me? I know you like to overanalyze everything, but just
this once, try not to, and just let it be good, okay?”

Elena gnawed softly at the corner of her bottom lip.
When she nodded, Vivian practically jumped for joy. “Okay, so we
have to plan a date.”

“Date?” Elena whispered, eyes widening. “I hadn’t
even thought of that. Oh God, Vivian, what the hell am I supposed
to do with Allison on a date?”

Vivian watched Elena’s eyes flit steadily back and
forth, panic brewing in their depths. “Okay, okay,” she said,
snapping her fingers at Elena, “let’s just take a breath, okay?
It’s all fine. It’s just a date.”

“Yes,” Elena snapped, her knee bouncing rapidly under
her desk, “a date with someone who has very little in common with
me! How are we even interested in one another? Vivian, I haven’t
the slightest clue how to plan a date with her. I don’t even know
if she would want to go on a date with me.”

“Now you’re just being modest, Elena,” Vivian said.
“It doesn’t suit you. Let’s go back to the I’m-sexy-and-I-know-it
Elena. She’s fun, and she knows for a fact that anyone would be
lucky to date her, and Allison Sawyer is no different.”

“Right,” Elena croaked, clearing her throat.

“Okay, work on your delivery next time. That was the
poorest vote of self-confidence I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe
this has you so rattled. Nothing rattles you.”

“Right.” Elena tried it a little more firmly this
time.

“That’s better.” Vivian smiled at her and opened the
notepad application on her smartphone. She poised her fingers over
the keyboard once she opened a new note. “Now, let’s plan this
date.”

* * *

“Shit!” Allison hissed, swiping a hand down the front
of her face. “
Shit!
”

Macy snorted with laughter. “You said that
already.”

“This warrants repetition. In fact, I’ll say it
again. Shit! Shit! Shit!” Allison ran her fingers through her ratty
blonde hair that was in desperate need of a wash.

“Stone the flamin’ crows, Alli!” Macy groaned,
wrapping her pillow around her face and sighing into it. “It’s just
a damn date! Take a breath and calm down. You’re driving me
crazy.”

“It’s not just a date,” Allison argued. “It would be
like the
first
date, and that’s the most important or
something. I don’t know, really, but it has to be good, right? I
don’t even know what to do with Elena. I mean, I don’t have much
money, and I wouldn’t want her to pay for everything. You have to
help me, okay?”

“Fine. I’ll help.”

“Okay,” Allison said. “Do you think she’d want to go
somewhere fancy?”

“I’m guessing she does fancy on the regular,” Macy
said. “Take her out
your
way.”

Allison’s expression crumpled and Macy pushed herself
up and out of her bed and over to Allison’s. Plopping down, she
placed a hand on Allison’s knee. “Hey, no worries, okay? We’ll plan
the perfect date.”

“We will?”

“Definitely. Now, she’s all about that little rascal
of hers, right?”

Elena smoothed her hands down the front of her shirt
as she stepped from her closet. “Okay, munchkin, what do we think?”
she asked as she motioned to her outfit.

Lucas looked up from his place in the center of
Elena’s bed, a giant coloring pad in his lap and a green crayon
pinched between his fingers. He smiled at his mother and nodded
firmly. “Pretty, Momma!”

When Lucas was a little over two years old, Elena
came down with a terrible stomach virus and spent two full days in
baggy sweatpants that no one knew she owned and a ratty Harvard
T-shirt. He told her she was pretty more than once in those two
days; Elena was convinced his opinion was biased by the fact that
she gave him life and regular meals.

She offered him what she knew was a strained smile.
She was more nervous than she was willing to admit aloud, but she
couldn’t miss the way it showed in her body: her expressions were
tight, and her movements lacked their usual finesse as she flitted
around her bedroom and bathroom, readying herself for the date she
had been both looking forward to and dreading.

The past three days had been utter torture. The
stress over what to wear on a first date—to the
zoo
of all
places—to which her toddler would be accompanying her was hell
enough. Her brain had taken it a step further, though, and kept her
spiraling through a constant mental cycle of questions, both
hopeful and worrisome. What if the date went splendidly? Would they
have a second date? A third? Would this actually develop into a
relationship? Was Elena ready for a relationship? Was
Allison
? What if their social statuses got in the way of
their relationship? What if they kissed at the end of the date?
Would it lead to anything? Wait, no, Lucas would be there.

What if the date went poorly? What if they ran out of
things to converse about? What if things were awkward? What if
Lucas monopolized the conversation as he was prone to do? What if
they had to eat zoo food? Elena didn’t know if she could eat a hot
dog elegantly. What if someone fell into the gorilla pit? Okay,
admittedly, that last one was a bit of a stretch, but Elena’s mind
was a complete mess after three days of what-ifs. They had gotten
more ridiculous by the hour.

After checking her reflection once more in the mirror
above her vanity, she put on a few pieces of jewelry, two
white-gold bangles her mother had given her, and a simple
circle-pendant necklace. She then touched up her lips and crossed
over to her bed.

Full lips twitched with a smile as she looked down at
Lucas, his little face hidden by the overhanging brim of the light
green and gray newsboy hat he had chosen to pair with his white
polo, light green shorts, and white sneakers. The natural curl of
his hair caused it to flip up just behind his ears and under the
hat in a few places. It had tamed a bit in almost four years, but
when he was first born, Elena had had quite the time with his
headful of dark kinky curls, much like her own when fresh out of
the shower. His hair now, though, was more like his father’s. It
had lightened in color and was finer, less coarse than Elena’s,
though her own was soft enough.

“Are you ready?” she asked. He tossed aside his
coloring pad and jumped to his feet on Elena’s bed.

“Yeah!” He leapt onto Elena.

Elena chuckled as she caught him, letting out a soft
grunt. He wrapped his thighs around her sides as she settled an arm
under his bottom, and his right hand instantly found its way to the
small hairs at the base of her head, hidden beneath her thick
locks. “Are we gonna see monkeys?”

“We just might, my love.” They headed out of her
bedroom and down the hall. “What else would you like to see?”

“Um.” Lucas tilted his head in thought, but then his
eyes widened. “Dinosaurs!”

Elena laughed heartily at that. “I’m afraid there
won’t be any dinosaurs, Lucas.” She grabbed her purse and car keys.
“They are extinct, remember?”

“No bones?” Lucas pouted.

“No bones,” she confirmed. “We have to go to the
museums to see the bones, remember? Zoos are for living
animals.”

“Oooh,” Lucas said, wiggling around on Elena’s hip
before she bent to settle him into his car seat. “Algators?”

“I’m not sure, Lucas.” She buckled him in. “Would you
like to see the reptiles?”

“Yeah! Does Alson like algators?”

“She may, love.”

“Where is she?”

“We have to go pick her up,” she said as she loaded
Lucas’s stroller into the trunk. There was no way he would stay on
his feet the entire time, and she preferred him protected from the
sun anyway. She also wouldn’t have to worry about him wandering
off, or letting go of her hand, or being picked up by a stranger
and whisked away.

“For our date?” Elena could hear him bouncing in his
car seat. Since the moment his mother had picked him up on
Wednesday evening and informed him of the weekend date, it was all
he could talk about. Not a day went by that he didn’t ask her if it
was time to go to the zoo with Allison.

Elena closed the trunk and moved around to close
Lucas’s door as well. She leaned in before doing so and kissed his
temple. “Yes, Lucas, for
our
date.”

* * *

Allison glanced down at her phone, her palms sweaty
as she gripped the device tightly between her hands. She didn’t
know why she was so nervous. They were just going to the zoo after
all. Still, though, the moment she received the “we’re here” text
message from Elena, Allison’s heart began to thunder so loudly in
her chest that she was surprised people weren’t dancing around the
dorm to the erratic beat.

“Okay, they’re here.”

“So go,” Macy laughed. “And Alli, don’t look so
terrified. No worries, remember?”

“Right.” Allison nodded and took a deep breath.
“Right.” She brushed her hands down the front of her white tank top
before pulling at the open edges of her blue-and-white pinstriped
button-up shirt. Running a hand through her hair, she glanced back
at Macy.

Macy sighed. “Will you stop? You look great.”

“But like
date
great?” Allison asked. “I mean,
I know we’re going to the zoo and I should be comfortable, but I
still want to look, you know, presentable or whatever.”

“The ripped jeans are really working for you,” Macy
said. “How you look isn’t going to matter, though, if you don’t
stop yabbering and just go already.”

“Okay, okay,” Allison groaned. She grabbed her phone
and sent a quick reply. “I’m going.”

“Good.”

Allison stuck her wallet in her back pocket and then
headed for the door. Just as Allison opened it, Macy called out to
her again. “Oh, and Alli?”

Allison turned back. “Yeah?”

“Try to relax. Use a little of that Sawyer swagger.”
She reached over and grabbed something off of her bedside table and
tossed it through the air. “And eat that.”

Allison caught the small item in midair and cracked
up when she saw that it was a peppermint. She pulled the wrapper
off and popped the mint in her mouth. “Thanks Mace. I’ll see you
later.”

“Hopefully
much
later.”

Allison slipped out of the dorm, closing the door
behind her.

* * *

“Sawyer swagger,” Allison muttered as she passed the
elevator and shot straight to the stairs. She took them two at a
time and did her best to take Macy’s advice and just relax. “It’s
all good,” she told herself as she finally made it to the ground
level. “She likes you. It’s good.”

Before exiting the building, she took a deep breath.
She cracked her neck to both sides and smoothed her hands over her
shirt once more, whispering “Sawyer swagger” to herself over and
over. She then shook out her nerves and pushed open the door,
stepping out into the bright sunlight of the late morning.

Allison only managed about ten seconds of her cocky
little strut before she glanced up and stumbled to a stop. Elena
was parked a short distance from the dorm and stood beneath the
glimmering sun, leaning against the passenger door of her car.
Allison’s breath caught so forcefully in her throat that she nearly
choked.

Her heart hammered away as her eyes tracked the
length of Elena’s body. The woman was practically painted into
dark-wash skinny jeans, a simple white V-neck T-shirt that she
somehow made look like a royal fucking gown, and black pumps with a
shorter heel than Allison was accustomed to seeing Elena wear.

It was obvious that Elena had gone for that classic
sexy look, while Allison had went more the route of effortlessly
hot, and it almost made her want to laugh. They were so different.
It was apparent in everything—their manners of dress, their manners
of speech, their body languages, and their individual demeanors.
They were in stark contrast, and, yet, they somehow always found a
way to fit easily together; at least, they always had before.
Allison was hopeful, and now maybe a tad confident, that it would
be much the same this day.

“Hi,” Allison said when she reached the car.

“Hello.” They stared at one another for another long
moment, until Allison finally just shuffled awkwardly forward. She
wrapped an arm around Elena, hugging her, and was pleased when she
felt Elena’s arms come around her a moment later to return the
embrace.

“You look great,” Allison said as they pulled apart
again. “I mean, really. Wow.” She glanced down Elena’s body again.
“I’m surprised you even own jeans, but now I’m thinking that you
should probably
only
ever wear jeans from now on.”

Elena smirked. “Thank you. You look wonderful as
well.”

“Eh, I’ve got basically nothing goin’ for me but
these abs, so I figured if nothing else, I couldn’t go wrong with a
tight tank.” Allison blushed at her own words, wishing she hadn’t
even said them. She cleared her throat and laughed awkwardly,
expecting Elena to join in. Elena, however, merely continued to
smirk at her.

Her eyes tracked back down to Allison’s abs, the
indentations between the muscles clearly visible through the thin
material of the white tank top. Her voice lowered an octave when
she said, “You figured right.”