Summer didn't get a chance to talk to me alone for the rest of the evening, but I could tell she was bursting at the seams. She was always bubbly and peppy, but this was on a totally different level. It was like her entire being was vibrating, all the little molecules that made her up unable to be chill about this.
"Do, uh, any of you guys want a ride home?" David said, despite the fact that he was only looking at Summer, the ball of energy.
I shook my head. "We'll be fine," I grinned, looking up at Nora next to me. For once, the thought of living next to her didn't spook me. I was leaping ahead like I wanted to go to the Olympics for gymnastics, but maybe one day her being my neighbor would mean I lived next door to my girlfriend, and that would be pretty sweet.
"Yeah, we're good," Nora said, slinging an arm over my shoulders and sending another short-circuiting pulse of electricity out to mess with my brain.
Summer knocked her head against David's shoulder gently. "I can't believe it," she mumbled, holding back a laugh. "Take me home," she said, nodding up at the boy.
"You got it, Sum," David spun his car keys around on their keyring showily. "Your chariot awaits," he said, putting on an over-the-top accent that was neither here nor there.
"It really has been quite the day," Summer replied, using a slightly more accurate posh, olden-times accent. She looped her arm around David's and turned to leave with him, but not before shooting a look back at me and exaggeratedly mouthing CALL ME TONIGHT as if she couldn't just do it herself and phone me later.
I smiled when, further up the street, Summer's cackle echoed back to us, David chuckling lightly alongside her. I couldn't believe she actually seemed to like him. Maybe David hadn't just been in it for the free dinner at all. Who could blame him? Summer was a total babe.
"Summer is, like, a great actress. She could definitely get advert work," Nora said, musing, as we both turned to head off in the opposite direction to them. "I mean, I bought her performance. She seems to really dig David. And she was so surprised that we kissed," Nora laughed.
"So was I," I grinned, heart fluttering at the mere reminder.
"Well, I had to make it believable," Nora smiled, clearly not noticing how her words jarred me out of my bliss. "David would've been super weirded out if he knew our date wasn't real. I was kinda thinking it'd be fun to see him up his game, really try to win Summer over, you know?"
"Oh," I said, flatly. "Right. I-- yeah. That was all for David?" Forget Summer being a good actress â Nora should have been getting a gown ready for award season.
"Um," Nora paused, as if she was trying to think who else it could've been for. "Yeah? I mean, he had to think this was real."
My heart began to disintegrate.
"It was super fun, though," Nora laughed. "You're, like, not a bad kisser."
My eyebrows shot up. This was-- so confusing. Complete emotional whiplash. So, we'd just been pretending and she was very convincing and I felt horrible and I wanted to disappear forever but also I wasn't a bad kisser and... okay. I could be optimistic about this. Maybe we should do this again sometime? Except, really.
I nervously thought about that the whole walk home, while Nora chatted away about the food, David and Summer, and then how busy her day had been. I mmhmmed and listened politely, but inside it was like I was a flickering candle fighting to stay lit.
Maybe we should do this again sometime?
Maybe we should do this again sometime?
Maybe we should do this again sometime?
I knew I should've said it. I had the right words. They reeked of Summer's confidence. Nora would have loved it. A second date â a real date â could have been on the cards.
I had to say it.
We got to her house first, and we both paused naturally, ready to say goodbye.
"Thanks for a fun night. I hope it all works out for Summer," she smiled, fondly. "We really owe her just the hugest debt for fixing our coffee machine."
I smiled back at her and even threw in a little laugh, but it was hollow. I was too busy being consumed by the urge to ask her out for real and kiss her for real and ask her to be my girlfriend for real and-- okay, I was spiralling.
"Maybe we--"
"Let's do this again!" Nora chirped happily, before pulling me into a tight hug.
I was thrown, and patted her back after a broken moment of trying to process what was happening.
Nothing was happening.
She headed up the steps to her front door and fumbled for her keys in her purse.
"Get home safe!" Nora called back at me with a laugh, glancing at my house, as she stepped inside.