“It magical,” Tiggy said succinctly.
“The point is,” Gary said loudly, “when you were dancing with Todd, it was cute and clumsy and juvenile. When you were dancing with Ryan, I thought the entire room was going to choke on the tension.”
I groaned. “That’s the last thing I need. Because if you could see it, then others could too, and that’s how rumors start, and I seriously don’t need everyone knowing how I want to do… stuff… to him.”
“Stuff,” Gary mocked. “Prude. And trust me when I say it’s not just on you. He’s right there with you.
You should have seen the glares he was giving Todd when you went through a second dance.”
“Lies,” I said with a scowl. “All lies. You know what? No. I don’t even want to talk about this anymore. I don’t even care. I’m over it. Past it. Moving on. I’m going to march back in there and tell Todd that he’s going to take me out on a date and it will be awkward and nice and that’ll be that.”
Gary and Tiggy stared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“How can you not see it?” Gary asked incredulously.
“See what?”
“Gaaah!” he shrieked.
Tiggy shushed him soothingly. “It okay. Pretty Gary. It okay.”
“You guys are so weird,” I muttered.
“I love you,” Gary said. “But sometimes I want to kick your spleen in.”
“The feeling is mutual,” I assured him. “I don’t even—”
“Sam?” a voice said from behind us.
Because of course.
All three of us turned.
Ryan stood there next to a stand of my mother’s violets, the light from a nearby lantern falling perfectly across his face.
“Well fuck me upside the head,” I said.
He said, “What?”
And I said, “Absolutely nothing,” because my mouth.
“I heard screaming.”
“And you came running? Of course you did.” I sounded like I was in pain.
He shrugged. “I thought somebody might need help.”
Apparently being noble and righteous is a turn-on for me, so I might have drooled a bit. “That was just Gary,” I managed to say. “He does that sometimes. With the screaming.”
“It’s true,” Gary said with a dramatic sigh. “I seem to suffer from a very serious condition called obliviousness by proximity. It causes screaming and the occasional uncontrollable need to stomp stupid wizards for being stupid.”
“And it’s completely fatal,” I said with a glare. “So maybe make with the dying.”
Gary ignored me. “You just happened to be in the garden?” he asked Ryan.
Ryan stared back. “Exactly.”