It really had been a lot if Coop had noticed. “Yeah, I guess. I haven’t seen her much.” The kitchen still smelled like opera cake, and I swore I could smell some of Mathieu’s cologne—or maybe that was just on me. I couldn’t sniff my shirt without getting a weird look, so I skipped that. The cats strolled out of their various cubbies, all of them complaining. They’d stayed scarce while Mathieu had been there.
“Something smells great,” Coop commented as I opened the cans of food and gave the cats their dinner, albeit a little late. “You guys eat dinner here or something?”
“Yes, we did,” I told him. “Made dessert, too. Something for French class.”
“Yeah?” He glanced around, but the rest of the opera cake was in the fridge.
“Want to try it?” I relented.
“Is it good?” He squinted at me, and I rolled my eyes. After I tossed the empty can, I got the cake out and sectioned off a slice. Coop let out a little sigh. “Okay that is definitely the source of the wondrous smell.”
One small slice and a fork later and Coop groaned. “You guys made this?”
“I did,” I told him proudly. “It’s Mathieu’s favorite, so he offered to give me some pointers and we had a lot of fun.”
His rapturous expression gave way to a frown as he studied me.
“What?”
“Was tonight a date?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. I hope so?” I was dying to talk to someone about it.
“So it was amaybedate? Like adatedate or a study date?”
“Do you really want to know?”
With a long exhale, Coop nodded. “It’s what you wanted to do right? Talk about your dates?”
A grin spread across my face, and I bounced over and hugged him. Coop caught an arm around me and squeezed me back. “Yes, yes, I did and thank you.” I danced back and then clapped my hands. Giddy, I was giddy. “He’s a foreign exchange student, and he’s amazing. He’s funny and sweet and really nice. He brought dinner over with him tonight, and he helped me lay everything out and did the video for me while I put it together… It was… it was fun. Then while it was chilling, we watched videos and… it was just good.”
Coop nodded slowly. “You’re happy?”
“Yeah,” I told him, squirming a little. It was kind of embarrassing. I didn’t do this giddy girl thing. I’d never really gotten to do it. “I had a lot of fun.” And he kissed me was on the tip of my tongue, but I kept that part to myself.
“Okay,” Coop said.
“That’s it?” I raised my brows, but he shrugged.
“Okay. You had a date. You had to drive him home, and he didn’t take you out or anything, but it was a date and you’re happy. So…”
“So?”
He sighed. “Is that it? One and done or…?”
“I invited him to the party on Saturday,” I told him. “He said he wanted to take me out again and—the schedule is crazy, but there’s the party.”
“The party. That’s awesome.” He did not sound enthused.
“And on that note, go home Coop. I need to get ready for bed and I’m tired.” My mood was too good to let him spoil it.
Catching my arm, he tugged me back and seemed to search my face. “You like this guy, Frankie?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. He’s—yeah, I like him. I liked how it felt.”
A slow nod, but Coop wore this unreadable expression. “We still on after school tomorrow?”
“Yeah, you talked to the guys?”