“Wow! The time has gone by so quickly. Congratulations.”
She looks giddy. “We’ve had crews working overtime to get things ready. If your brother is still in town you should bring him. And your roommate, too.”
“Will Perry be coming with you?” Debbie asks.
Zack’s eyes lift to mine and even from across the room his stare sends shivers down my spine.
Gabe flinches and then makes a cutting motion at his neck. “Mom, they broke up.”
Debbie covers her mouth. “Oh no, I’m so sorry!”
“Yeah, we did. With everything that’s been going on I didn’t get to tell you guys.”
There’s another round of commotion as I’m enveloped in hugs again, with everyone telling me how sorry they are. All the while, Zack watches with that maddening little smile on his face.
“It’s okay, really. It was for the best.”
Paula puts her arm around my shoulders. “It’s better you found out he was a dud now rather than later. Maybe Sasha can fix you up!”
Sasha winks. “I could do that. But I don’t think Josie will have any trouble finding her own dates.”
Heat rushes to my cheeks. Sasha is the only other person there aware of how I feel about Zack. Even though I know she won’t spill the secret, it’s still incredibly uncomfortable to have this conversation play out while Zack watches.
After Debbie and Paula leave, Sasha and Gabe go back upstairs. He’s still moving slowly but I’m happy to see he’s looking much better than the last time I saw him.
Once we’re alone, I turn to Zack. “That was a little awkward.”
“Just think, we’ll have a lifetime of awkwardness to look forward to.”
Or we could have a lifetime of something else. But I don’t say that out loud. If I want him to give this a chance, scaring him with thoughts of commitment isn’t the way to go.
“Are you backing out of our deal?”
Zack looks like he wants to but finally he shakes his head. “No. But I do have one condition. We can't tell Gabe.”
“Am I your dirty little secret?” I’m joking but there’s a little pang of hurt at the idea that he doesn’t want to be seen with me.
“It’s no one’s business. It’ll only make them uncomfortable and trust me, they’ll all have an opinion about it.”
I think about how weird it was to have Debbie and Paula asking about my dating life before. It would be doubly weird for them to know that I’m doing the nasty with Zack. Just the thought of that makes me want to go hide.
“That’s probably for the best then.”
“Come on, I’ll drive you home.”
He puts his hand on my lower back as we walk outside. My stomach is instantly a mass of butterflies. I can hardly believe what’s about to happen. Are we really going to do this? My mouth is suddenly dry and I’m hit with a million insecurities at once. Will he be expecting sexy lingerie? Did I remember to shave this morning? What if it hurts a lot and I can’t even do it?
All these thoughts swirl around my brain the entire drive home until I’m a ball of nerves when he finally parks in front of Izzie’s house.
“What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re on the way to an execution.”
Zack waits patiently as I figure out how to explain what I’m feeling without coming off as completely flighty. I’ve assured him over and over that this is really what I want and now that we’re about to get down to it, I’m terrified.
“I’m just nervous. But it’s no big deal. Everyone’s nervous their first time, right?”
Zack cracks up. “Jo, what do you think is about to happen?”
He cracks up harder when I glare at him. I mean, seriously what does he think?