The Boyfriend App (30 page)
We stared at each other. Blake’s eyes were questioning, but I wasn’t sure what she was asking.
My phone buzzed. I pulled it from my pocket and saw an email from Blake’s dad.
“I need to go,” I said. It was too much standing out there together in our old spot. I wasn’t ready to have a conversation with her. It felt too foreign.
Her dark eyes watched me back away.
I shoved through the door into the cafeteria. The clinking of silverware and the chatter of voices swallowed me as I opened my email.
To:
[email protected]
From: [email protected]
Audrey,
Tune into WNDU-TV at 6 p.m.
Robert
Lindsay and her mom rang our buzzer at 5:56. The door was stuck again and my mother said, “If Roger doesn’t come fix this thing, I swear . . .” as she cranked it open.
“Namaste,” Lindsay said, her body wrapped in a turquoise sari.
Mindy and Nigit were already waiting on the couch. “My princess!” Nigit said, jumping up. He tried to kiss her, but Lindsay’s mom smacked his arm and said, “We leave room for the holy spirit in this family.” Then, to me, she said, “Six o’clock is a terrible time to ask your friends and family to get on the road with traffic.”
“Just sit, please, Aunt Linda,” I said, gesturing toward the couch.
Lindsay dunked her hand into a bowl of popcorn. “What are we doing, anyway?” She popped a few kernels in her mouth. “And why are you being so secretive?”
It was 5:59. Where was Aidan?
My mother set the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. I turned on the television with shaking fingers. An actress bemoaned her cold sore and said, “Get hot again with Vitrex,” waving a tube of lip balm.
Any minute now
. The graphics for WNDU shot across the screen. An Asian woman in a khaki-colored trench coat stood in front of the fountain at the Morris Performing Arts Center.
“Everyone sit!” I said.
They sat.
“Good evening, South Bend,” the news anchor said. “I’m Julia Parker, and this is the WNDU evening news.”
“This is the lady who does the traffic report,” my aunt Linda said, nodding like they were friends. “She’s very accurate.”
A knock sounded.
My mother jumped up. “I hope it’s Roger.”
I don’t.
“Mom, sit!” I yelled.
“Audrey, what in the Lord’s name has gotten into you?” my mother said, but she sat back down and stared at the television.
I raced to the door. Aidan stood in his dark green jacket, holding a bouquet of cream-colored roses.
“For you,” he said softly, passing them into my arms.
I bit my bottom lip. Something about today already made me want to cry and what I wanted to happen hadn’t even happened yet. “Thank you,” I whispered, and led him to the couch. He sat on the end. I squished between him and my mom. I smelled the roses in my lap.
“Today we’re live for an important press conference from Robert Dawkins of R. Dawkins Tech,” the newscaster said.
Aidan’s hand lighted on mine.
“Jesus H. Christ,” my aunt Linda said, adjusting her Band-Aid-colored stockings. “Why are we listening to anything this crook has to say?”
I glanced at my mother. Her lips made a tight line.
“Just wait,” I said, breathless. My mom turned to me, her eyes questioning. The seven of us watched Robert Dawkins stride to a podium next to the fountain. Reporters surrounded him with their microphones aimed in his direction. A competing news station’s van was positioned next to the podium.
Robert’s dark hair was parted on the side and slick with gel. He looked pissed, like he didn’t want to be there. He leaned forward and spoke into the microphone.
“I’m here today to issue a public apology, and to report new findings in the death of Francis McCarthy.”
My mother’s face went white. Lindsay and her mom both covered their mouths with their hands.
“I’d like to take this moment to apologize to Marian McCarthy, Audrey McCarthy, and the late Francis McCarthy, for the statements I made following McCarthy’s untimely death. Furthermore, I’d like to report that a witness has come forward with concrete testimony proving that Francis McCarthy’s death was caused by an error in my company’s equipment, not an error made by McCarthy. A full settlement will be awarded to Marian McCarthy and family.”
My breath caught. My legs went weak even though I was sitting. A settlement? He was giving us money? And saying it wasn’t my dad’s mistake?
Lindsay gasped. Mindy jumped to her feet and stared between my mom and me.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” my aunt Linda said, and then made the sign of the cross.
“What did you do, Audrey?” Aidan asked in a low voice.
My mother covered her face with her hands, and started sobbing.
“Mom,” I said, tears falling over my cheeks. She tucked her head into my shoulder and cried harder.
“You did this?” she asked into my sweatshirt. “For your father and us?” She pulled back and looked at me. “I’m so proud of you, sweetie, but how did you . . .” Her voice trailed off. She lifted the gold-framed photograph of my father from the coffee table.
“Francis,”
she said, holding him between us. His light eyes held ours, and something I didn’t realize I’d lost came tumbling back.
Later, Aidan’s broad frame held aside branches as we emerged onto the clearing in the secret spot behind my apartment. My breathing quickened when his hand touched the small of my back, and guided me toward the water. I looked up at him. His face was still, open. Some part of me knew I was going to need him to help me figure out everything that had happened—I didn’t want to keep stuff from him anymore. But that could come later.
Now was just for us.
Wind gusted through the birch trees, across the water, over the rocks stacked at the water’s edge. The sliver of air between us felt thick with electricity. It was our first time together—by ourselves—in this new way, and we both knew it.
Aidan’s hands reached for mine. The energy of his touch fired through me—I felt heat everywhere as he pulled me against him. His grip on my body was strong, and I wanted him to take me even closer. His gaze traveled from my collarbone to my eyes.
“I’ve wanted to hold you like this for so long,” he said.
I took in his full scarlet lips. “What stopped you?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. I couldn’t help myself. I needed to know.
He gestured to the trees around us. “I
did
try to kiss you when we were back here before,” he said with an uneasy laugh. “But you turned away.” His broad shoulders lifted, then relaxed. He looked unsure, like maybe I’d pull away again. If he only knew.
“And you make me nervous,” he said, his blue eyes shining. “Every time I imagined this, or being your boyfriend . . . no matter how much I wanted it, I worried I’d freak you out if you didn’t. And then I wouldn’t be able to be near you.” He was so close I was sure he could feel the heat rising from my skin. “The best is being near you, Audrey.”
I put my hands against his chest and felt his heart racing. “I’m not going anywhere,” I said softly. The words felt so good. I’d spent so long wanting to escape, and suddenly, I wanted to be exactly where I was.
Leaves rustled beneath our feet as we moved closer. For one wild second I sensed what had been between us, and how it would change into something bigger.
His hands cupped my chin and he tenderly kissed me. Warmth spread through me and my body came alive as his lips parted. My mouth curved into a smile against his. Adrenaline, oxytocin, dopamine . . .
Whatever it was, it was
good
.
About the Publisher
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Table of Contents
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
chapter six
chapter seven
chapter eight
chapter nine
chapter ten
chapter eleven
chapter twelve
chapter thirteen
chapter fourteen
chapter fifteen
chapter sixteen
chapter seventeen
chapter eighteen
chapter nineteen
chapter twenty
chapter twenty-one
chapter twenty-two
chapter twenty-three
chapter twenty-four
chapter twenty-five
chapter twenty-six
chapter twenty-seven
chapter twenty-eight
chapter twenty-nine
chapter thirty
chapter thirty-one
chapter thirty-two
chapter thirty-three
