The Twelve Dates of Christmas (10 page)

I glanced up to say good-bye. My eyes widened in alarm as I saw his eyes sort of squeeze half-shut and his lips go all poofy and start moving toward me like a heat-seeking missile. Yeah, so much for picking up my hints. He was going in for the goodnight kiss.

I quickly turned my head, deflecting
him just in time. The kiss landed on my cheek instead of its intended target.

“Well, good night, then,” I said as cheerfully as I could manage, stepping back and reaching for the door.

He opened his eyes and licked his lips, looking startled. “Oh,” he said. “Um . . .”

But I didn't wait around to hear any more. Quickly stepping inside, I shut the door behind me without looking back.

The next day my mom asked me to run out to the mall to pick up some stuff she needed for her next food committee meeting. While I was there, I stopped in at the department store to see if Allie had time to talk. To my surprise, she wasn't there. Normally she worked every weekend day between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. The place was packed, and her coworkers were so frantic in their quest to wrap snowflake-print paper and curly red ribbons around everything in sight that I didn't even bother trying to ask them why Allie wasn't working. Instead, I just stopped off at her house on my way home.

“Hi, Lexi,” Allie's mother greeted me when she opened the door. Mrs. Lin looked
exactly like Allie would probably look in thirty years, right down to the tiny ponytail. “Nice to see you. Have you heard anything about that Simpson Scholarship yet? Allie tells me you'll probably win it this year.”

“No, no word yet. You know how it is—Mrs. Simpson always likes to keep everyone in suspense for a while.” I chuckled along with Mrs. Lin. “Um, is Allie home?”

“Oh, sure.” She waved me inside. “She and Nick are in the den.”

I blinked, a bit surprised to learn that my cousin was there. Allie and Nick hung out all the time, of course, but usually only when I was around. It was kind of like I was the oxygen atom in our water molecule of friendship.

“They're working on the decorations for the kiddie room at the Ball,” Allie's mother added, ushering me toward the cozy den at the back of the house.

That explained it, then. Sure enough, when I entered the den it looked as if one of Santa's elves had exploded in there. Red and green paper scraps covered every available surface, from the burgundy carpet to the leather couch to Allie's shiny black
hair. I wondered how Nick—or more likely, Nick's mom—had suckered her into helping with this one. Every year, while everyone over the age of twelve danced the night away in the main room, the younger kids gathered in the upstairs section of the fireman's hall under the supervision of a fleet of paid out-of-town babysitters for an evening of Christmas cookies, sing-alongs, naps, stories, tantrums, and games. They also had their own decorations up there, mostly consisting of paper garlands, Christmassy cutouts, and other nontoxic-if-eaten-or-licked items. Preparing that stuff for a bunch of sugar-hyped sprogs wasn't anyone's favorite task on the decorations committee.

Allie and Nick were bent over a sheet of construction paper together. They both looked up in surprise when I walked in and said hello.

“Lexi!” Allie exclaimed, jumping to her feet and brushing her hair out of her face. “What are you doing here? I mean, I was going to call you and see if you wanted to come help us with this stuff, but I figured you had that date last night and probably wanted to sleep in, plus I know you've got
that last application essay to finish and then that paper for history class, so . . .”

She was babbling, probably out of sheer boredom. Or maybe the Elmer's glue had gone to her head. Either way, I brushed aside her torrent of explanations.

“I'm glad you guys are both here,” I said. “I need to talk to you about something. It's important.”

“Uh-oh,” Nick joked. “The last time you said something like that, you'd decided to break up with Cam. Let me guess—this time you're breaking up with the two of us, right?”

“Very funny.” Even though my mind was pretty much filled to capacity with my own problems, I couldn't help realizing that he sounded almost back to normal lately. At least Rachel hadn't broken him forever. “But I'm serious. I think I've made a colossal mistake.”

Allie cocked her head. “Wait. Did you end up going out to dinner last night with Andrew?”

“Uh-huh.” I'd scooted back into the department store the afternoon before to let her know about that invitation. “Let's just say it didn't go well. In more ways than one . . .”

Flopping down onto the leather sofa, I quickly filled them in on the whole evening. Nick let out a low whistle when I told them about seeing Cam and Jaylene at the restaurant, and Allie gasped with horror when I (briefly) described their kiss.

“So anyway,” I finished, “I realize now that I was wrong. Cam is the guy for me. I never should have decided to end things with him.” I took a deep breath. “So go ahead. Say it. You told me so, right?”

“Well, now that you mention it . . . ,” Nick began.

Allie shut him up with a punch to the upper arm. “Don't,” she said. “You know Lexi. She doesn't admit she's wrong very often, mostly because she
isn't
wrong very often. We don't want to make her feel any worse about being so, so,
so
wrong this time.” She smiled at me. “But anyway, why are you here telling us about this? You should be at Cam's house right now getting back together with him!”

“What? It's not that simple.”

“Sure it is,” Nick urged, leaning back against the edge of an overstuffed armchair. “Cam's a reasonable guy. So you throw yourself at his feet, tell him you were an idiot, then kiss and make up.”

Allie nodded vigorously. “Just be honest with him, and see if he'll consider trying again. I'm sure he will.”

I sat up so fast that the sofa squeaked. “Are you insane? I can't tell him the truth about all the idiotic stuff I did to make this happen.” I grimaced, feeling my cheeks go hot as I thought about all the deceptive tricks I'd pulled over the past couple of months. How could I have been such a fool? “He'd never understand,” I added sadly. “He's so honest and straightforward—he'd probably never forgive or respect me ever again if he found out how I finagled the end of our relationship. Then I wouldn't even have him as a friend anymore, let alone anything more. And I
really
couldn't stand that.”

“But you can't give up, Lexi!” Allie cried. “You have to get him back.”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “It's not like you to give up, Lex. That's why Dad always calls you the family go-getter.”

“Don't worry, I'm not giving up,” I told them. “I'm just saying I need to figure out the best way to handle this.”

Allie looked dubious. “Well, you'd better hurry up and figure it out soon,” she
said. “Dozen Dates Theory, remember?”

Nick let out a snort. Clearly he'd heard about Allie's latest theory as well.

Allie shot him an irritated glance. “Anyway, I still think you can do it. Right now you've still got time on your side. See, I've been working out more of the theory lately, and there's something I'm calling the Nostalgia Footnote. That means that, as the recent ex, you still have the advantage of all the memories you two have together. But the closer you get to that dozen dates mark, the less weight that kind of thing—”

“Hold it,” I interrupted, tapping my fingers on the arm of the sofa. “I think you might be on to something there with the nostalgia thing, Allie.”

“Really?” She looked surprised and kind of delighted. And no wonder. That was probably the most enthusiastic response I'd ever given to one of her theories. “Well, I mean, sure I am. So if you just confess everything to Cam right now, his memories of your past together should totally overcome any weirdness about, you know, your methods.”

“No, that's not what I mean.” I leaned
forward and gazed thoughtfully at my cousin. “Hey Nick, I just realized your birthday's coming up in, like, a week.”

“Let me guess. This is your way of warning me to expect an IOU instead of a real present again this year?”

Poor Nick was always getting shafted on the whole birthday-present thing. I guess that happens when your big day is too close to
the
big day. And like I said, in Claus Lake the entire autumn season is probably too close. Oh, and just in case it's not obvious, that's how Nick got his name. After all, being born in December in Claus Lake, what other name could he have?

“Don't worry,” I told him. “Your birthday gift is already wrapped and waiting in a secret location in my house. But I was just thinking, shouldn't we all do something special to celebrate?”

He cocked one eyebrow suspiciously. “Why do I have the feeling this idea
isn't
coming from a genuine burst of cousinly love?”

“Of course it is.” I grinned. “Then again, I've always been a multitasker, right? See, I was just thinking, how about if you invite the whole gang out ice-skating on the lake next weekend?”

“Hmm.” Nick picked a sparkly bit of paper off his sleeve and flicked it across the room. “Could be fun, I guess. Plus that way nobody will be able to forget my birthday for once. But what's in it for you? You realize I'll have to invite Jaylene, too, right?”

I shrugged. “That's okay. She's from Georgia—she probably can't even skate. With any luck she'll spend most of her time drinking hot chocolate on shore and Cam and I can reminisce about the first time we went skating together.”

“Ooh, I remember that.” Allie smiled. “It sounded totally romantic.”

“It was. So maybe being out there on the lake together will remind Cam of that night—you know, get that nostalgia thing working for me. If you guys are right and he wants me back too, that could be all it takes to kick-start a reconciliation—no messy confessions required.” I shrugged. “If I play my cards right, Cam and I could be a couple again in plenty of time for the Ball. We can wear the funny front-and-back-halves-of-a-reindeer costume he picked out, and everything will be back to normal.”

“Okay, what the hell. Let's do it,” Nick said. “I'll start calling people tonight.”

“Call Cam first, okay?” I urged. “There's not much point if he can't make it.”

Nick snorted. “Right. No point at all.”

Allie giggled. “Don't worry, Nick, she's crazed with jealousy—she doesn't know what she's saying.” She turned to me. “But Lexi, even if this works, you're right back where you started. You know, that fabulous mismatched future you were so worried about before . . .”

That had been nagging at the back of my mind too. But I was trying to keep it back there for now.

“I know,” I said. “But I'll just have to worry about that once I'm back with Cam.”

“Brrr,” Bruce complained. “Nick, dude, why'd you have to have your birthday at the coldest time of the year?”

“Don't be an idiot.” I looked up from lacing my left skate, quickly tucking my bare fingers into my armpits in a vain attempt to thaw them enough to lace up the other skate. “If his birthday was in July, we wouldn't exactly be celebrating with an ice-skating party, would we?”

Still, he kind of had a point. It was cold.
Really
cold. Not that it's ever exactly balmy in Wisconsin in December, but it's usually not Siberia, either. But just my luck—a front had rolled in the night before and it was downright frigid, with a bitter wind
gusting in and howling around the edges of the lake, shaking the latest snowfall off the tops of the pines. At the moment we were all still huddled around the benches and snow-covered pathways by the skating inlet, even though most of us had arrived at least ten or fifteen minutes earlier. Nobody seemed too eager to leave the relative shelter of the shoreline and hit the open ice.

But the weather wasn't the main reason I was feeling kind of tense. Cam hadn't even arrived yet, and I was already wondering if this had been a stupid idea. Nick hadn't been able to reach Cam on Sunday night. He'd tracked him down as soon as he could in school on Monday, but the best he'd been able to get from Cam was an “I'll let you know.” Cam hadn't given him an answer until Tuesday morning, which meant Nick hadn't been able to start asking other people until after that. By then a large chunk of the guest list already had plans for Saturday afternoon. Then a few more had canceled because of the weather. Wimps.

So that left a pretty small group. Me. Nick. Allie. Bruce. Two giggly girls from Nick's music class. And finally, Cam and Jaylene—if they ever showed up. Now,
normally Cam wasn't the type of guy to cancel at the last minute. If he committed to be somewhere, he was there, come hell, high water, or subzero windchill factor. But now that Jaylene was in the picture, I was starting to wonder if he was still as predictable as I'd always thought. After all, I never would have expected that impulsive, snowy kiss the other night, either. . . .