Something Borrowed (5 page)

“Will Mr. Right Now do?” I asked. “Because I think I see him over there. And there. Oh, and also right over there.”

Seriously, it was like being at the boy mall. Everywhere I looked, I saw attractive men near my age. Studious-looking hotties wandered past on their way to or from the library. Three or four cute hippie-throwback types were playing Hacky Sack in the grass a short distance away. Even the janitor walking by pushing a rolling garbage bin was good-looking. It was probably a good thing I wasn't doing this during the school year, because I was pretty sure my brain would have exploded.

“Okay, it looks like I'll have plenty of options here.” I leaned back on my elbows. “So let's decide exactly what I'm looking for, okay?”

“Whatever.” Teresa didn't bother to open her eyes.

I looked around thoughtfully. “If Lance shows up, I don't want him to think I'm trying to replace him . . .”

“Even though you are,” Teresa put in. “. . . so I'm thinking no blonds.” I shot her a look, which was completely wasted since her eyes were still shut. “And no, I'm not.”

“Whatever,” she said again.

“I might want to stay away from redheads, too, even though I think they're adorable.”

That one actually made Teresa open her eyes. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Pink,” I reminded her succinctly.

She rolled her eyes, then let them drift closed again. “Too bad my friend Brody went home to Colorado for the summer,” she said lazily. “He would probably—”

“Whoa!” I interrupted. “Check
him
out.”

Teresa obediently opened her eyes and sat up. “Which one?” she asked. “The chubby professor type? He's a little old for you, don't you think? Or are you talking about the Asian guy over by the statue?”

“Neither.” I pointed. “I'm talking about
that
guy. With the hair.”

“You mean Mr. X Games over there on the skateboard?” Teresa wrinkled her nose. “Um . . .”

She didn't seem impressed, which wasn't surprising. Teresa went more for the clean-cut type herself. Exhibit A: Jason. They didn't come much cleaner than that.

I watched the guy swoop closer, dodging pedestrians on his skateboard. He was impossibly tall and skinny, with a wild cloud of crazy red hair surrounding an angular, good-looking face.

“I thought you said no redheads,” Teresa said.

“That was just a guideline.” I didn't take my eyes off the guy as he executed a funky little pivot on the skateboard to allow an older woman to pass by. “I think I'll go say hi.”

“Have fun. I'll be here.”

I hopped up and hurried across the grass, jumping a little patch of flowers at the edge of the walk. Nobody ever accused me of being shy, and I wasn't about to get bashful now. The guy had stopped and kneeled down to tie his sneaker, which made it easy to catch up to him.

“Hi,” I said. “I saw that move you made back there. You know, the little spin thing? Cool.”

He glanced up at me, then stood up quickly without finishing with his sneaker laces. He was wearing baggy shorts and a Surf Naked T-shirt. “Thanks,” he said, brushing a wad of hair out of his eyes. “You skate?”

“No. But I like guys who do.” I tilted my head and smiled. “My name's Ava, by the way.”

“I'm Zach. But my friends call me Zoom.” He stuck out his hand, and I shook it. He had a nice handshake—steady but not too squeezy. “You go here, Ava? I don't remember seeing you around.”

I shook my head. “My friend goes here.” I gave a vague wave in Teresa's general direction. “I'm just visiting from the burbs.”

“Cool.” Zoom stepped on one end of his skateboard to flip the other end up into his hand. “So what do you girls have planned during your visit? Anything fun?”

A light breeze blew my hair into my face. I brushed it back and smiled up at him. “Maybe,” I said. “We'll probably grab some lunch in a little while. Want to join us?”

“I wish I could.” He kicked at a loose
brick on the walk, suddenly looking sorrowful. “I'm actually on my way to class. Summer school. Gotta make up credits from when I was in the hospital over the winter—snowboarding accident.”

“Oh.” I couldn't help being disappointed. Was this his way of blowing me off? Maybe I was reading him wrong, but he didn't look like the type to care that much whether he made it to class or not.

He seemed to read my mind. “I'd
totally
ditch,” he said. “I mean, it's not that often I get invited to lunch by a couple of cute girls.” He shrugged. “But we've got a quiz today. If I miss another one, I might not pass, and then I'm in trouble.” He winked and grinned. “Especially since I already know I'm ditching Wednesday. Got a competition out in Bucks County.”

I grinned back. He looked even more adorable with that playful, conspiratorial look on his face. Like a mischievous little boy in a grown-up hunk's body. “A competition? You mean skateboarding?”

“Naw.” Zoom glanced down at his skateboard. “Freestyle BMX. It's one of my things.” His eyes brightened. “Hey, you could come watch if you want.”

“That sounds great!” I said quickly. Then I frowned. “Wait. But I can't. I have to work on Wednesday.”

“Dude, blow it off!” Zoom urged me. “Get someone else to work for you. I could use a cheering section.” He shot me a rakish smile. “Especially one cute enough to distract my competition.”

It was tempting. He was definitely flirting with me now, and I could tell he was hooked. Hanging out with him at his BMX thing could be just what I needed to seal the deal.

Still, I knew what I had to say. “I can't. Sorry. See, I'm already taking a bunch of time off next week because my sister's getting married. But hey!” I added brightly, pretending I'd just had a brainstorm. “I don't have a date to the wedding yet. Want to go?”

“A wedding?” He looked slightly dubious. “Um . . .”

A few minutes later Zoom was skateboarding off to class—only a little late for his quiz—and I was skipping back over to Teresa. She shaded her eyes and squinted at me as I flopped down on the grass beside her.

“Well?” she said.

“His name's Zoom,” I said happily. “He's really amazing. Definitely Mr. X Games, like you said.”

“Who says you can't judge a book by its cover?” she murmured.

“He's even entered in some big BMX dirt-bike competition this week.” I sighed, still wishing I could go watch him. “I guess he's really into that stuff. Kind of cool, don't you think? Anyway, he wants to maybe get together later in the week and hang out.”

She shrugged. “Sounds good. So did you mention the wedding, or are you going to spring that on him after the first date?”

“I mentioned it. He wasn't too sure at first—the whole Main Line fancy dress-up thing isn't really his scene.” I smiled proudly. “But then he said something about how life is all about trying new things, and he'd give anything a go once, as long as he could go there with me.”

Teresa looked slightly confused. “So what does that mean? Do you have a date to the wedding?”

“I have a date to the wedding.”

“I still can't believe you came out to see me.” I licked hot sauce off my finger. “Aren't you going to get in trouble for ditching class two days in a row?”

“Who cares?” Zoom grinned at me across the aqua-blue Formica table. “No quiz today. Or tomorrow, either.”

It was Tuesday, and we were having lunch at Burrito Moe's. Zoom had called that morning to see if I wanted to hang out. At the time I'd been embroiled in a scintillating discussion with Mom and Camille about ice sculptures, so it hadn't been a difficult decision. When he'd heard I didn't have a car, Zoom had immediately volunteered to take the train out to see me, “since,
like, you came to my turf yesterday and all.” We'd been hanging out for a couple of hours, spending the first part of that time wandering around talking and window shopping before ending up at the taco place.

Now there he was, sitting across from me eating a plate of enchiladas, his wild hair and groovy board shorts looking very much at home in the casual beachfront-cantina decor of Burrito Moe's. A girl I knew from my childhood piano lessons was there picking up food, and she'd shot Zoom a curious glance.
Cute,
she'd mouthed to me as she hurried out.

She was right. Zoom was totally cute, and so far we were really hitting it off. Maybe everything happened for a reason. After all, if Lance hadn't wigged out and dumped me two weeks before Camille's wedding, I might never have met Zoom. Now I had a date with an Ivy League guy with no axle grease under his nails, no family relation to Boring Bob, and every indication that he could turn into something ongoing. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! The thought of walking into the wedding with Zoom was almost making me look forward to it for a change.

As I tried to imagine what he would look like in formal attire, my gaze wandered to his long, lanky, hairy legs, which were sprawled out halfway across the aisle. I couldn't help noticing that they sported an impressive collection of scars.

“What happened there?” I pointed to his legs. “Does one of your other hobbies involve wrestling grizzly bears or something?”

He lifted one leg and gazed down at it. “What, the scars?” he asked. “Naw, no bears involved. I got that one and that one skating.” He pointed from one to the next. “This one here's from when I wiped out mountain biking a couple of years back, and the big one's from my snowboarding accident last winter. Oh, and that crooked one there was when I got attacked by a shark while I was surfing down in Jamaica last summer.”

“A shark?” I wasn't sure whether to believe that one or not.

He grinned. “It was this big.” He held out his hands to indicate a length of about a foot and a half. “But dude, it was
really
angry!”

I giggled, then reached for my drink to
douse the fire of my Spicy Quesadilla Special. “I thought
my
scar was bad.” I held out my arm and pointed to the tiny white bump on the back of one wrist.

“Dude! Chick scars are totally hot.” He grabbed my arm and pulled it toward him for a better look. When he brushed the tiny scar with the tip of his fingers, I had to fight back a shiver. “How'd you do it? Skydiving? Waterskiing?”

“Nothing that exciting. My sister pushed me into the pool when we were younger, and I hit it on the edge.”

He glanced up at me with a knee-melting little half smile. “Well, I think it's sexy. A little damage makes people more interesting, right?”

“Right.” We locked eyes for a long, intense moment. I was the first one to look away. “It's getting late,” I said, glancing at my watch. “I should probably head to work soon.”

“Bummer.” Zoom shoved the last bite of food into his mouth, then slurped down the rest of his soda. “Sure you can't blow it off?”

“I'm sure. Sorry.”

“How about tomorrow?” he wheedled with a winning smile. “Just call in sick or
something. Then you can come watch my BMX thing. It's going to be awesome!”

I leaned over and poked him in the arm. “You're a bad influence,” I teased. “It's totally tempting—really. But I'll come watch next time, okay? Especially if it's after the wedding.” I stood and picked up my tray. “You know, I feel like all my plans are divided into two categories lately: BW and AW. Before Wedding and After Wedding.”

Zoom chuckled. “Let me get that.” He grabbed my tray from me and carried it over to the return spot along with his own. As we headed for the exit, he shot me a sidelong glance. “Listen, I can't wait until AW to see you again. What time do you get off work tomorrow night?”

“Six thirty,” I replied.

“Cool. I'll give you a call tomorrow and we can make a plan to do something later. What do you say?”

How could I resist? “Sounds great.”

“Awesome.” We were outside by now, walking through the little cement garden of outdoor seating between the restaurant and the sidewalk out front. It was hot and humid today and nobody was sitting out
there. Zoom and I both sort of drifted to a stop and looked at each other.

“I guess I should go.” Without taking my eyes off him, I waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the closest train station. “You can catch your ride back to the city right over there. I have to go the other way, so we should probably just say goodbye here.”

“Cool. Guess this is good-bye for now, then.” He leaned forward and rested one hand on my upper arm. “I'll talk to you tomorrow, Ava. . . .”

My heart was beating a little faster. I could tell he was going in for that key first kiss, and I was more than ready. His face came closer, closer . . .

“Hi, Ava! What's up?” a familiar voice interrupted loudly.

Zoom blinked in surprise and backed off. With a slight frown, I glanced over and saw Jason walking toward us dressed in Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt. As usual, he was wearing that smug little Mr. Slick grin of his.

I gritted my teeth. Talk about timing! “What are you doing here, Jason?”

“What do you think? Jonesing for some
tacos.” He rubbed his stomach and glanced at Zoom. “Hey, man. What's up?”

“Not much, dude.” Zoom nodded at him, then reached over and gave me a quick squeeze on the shoulder. “I'll catch you tomorrow, Ava.”

“Okay.” I watched helplessly as he loped off toward the train station. Then I rounded on Jason. “Nice interruption, genius.”

“Sorry.” He grinned, not looking sorry at all.

“Whatever.” I turned and stalked off, deciding it wasn't worth the effort it would take to yell at him.

He caught up with me as I reached the sidewalk. “Hey, where are you going?”