The Twelve Dates of Christmas (12 page)

Who needs nostalgia theories when good ol' hypothermia works even faster?
I thought as I allowed Cam to pull me back onto the ice and across the lake in the direction of the inlet park.

Soon I was huddled in the passenger seat of Nick's car, dressed in Nick's faded old sweatpants, my bare feet propped up on the dashboard to get them closer to the heat vent. Cam's jacket was still around me; it smelled faintly of his aftershave.

Meanwhile Cam himself was in the driver's seat. He fiddled with the heat blowers, pointing all of them in my direction.

“Feeling okay?” he asked. “Can you wriggle your toes? Do you think you have frostbite?”

“I'm okay.” I wriggled my toes to show him. “I was only in the water for a few seconds.”

“Good.” He glanced out the car window.

“So,” I blurted out, guessing that he was
thinking about heading back out there to where Jaylene was surely waiting for him, “this reminds me of our very first date.”

“Huh?” He blinked at me. “What do you mean?”

I laughed. “Um, not the frostbite and stuff,” I said. “I mean the skating. Remember? Our first date, the two of us out there on the lake . . .”

He shook his head, his brow furrowing slightly. “Skating wasn't our first date, Lexi,” he said, suddenly sounding kind of sad. “It was our second. Our first date was the Christmas movie at the North Pole.”

Oops. Now that he mentioned it . . .

“Oh, right,” I said. “Sorry. Um, must be frostbite of the brain.”

His smile looked wistful. “You know, I'm starting to think maybe you were right all along. I wasn't sure this—this breakup was the best thing. But it could be that we're better off as friends, you know? Even if I didn't want to accept it at first . . .”

No! My brain stalled out, and I could almost feel Nick and Allie perched on my shoulders, like the little angel and devil figures you see in sitcoms and comic strips sometimes. Only they were both on the same
shoulder, poking me in the head and yelling, “Tell him the truth! Tell him the truth!”

And at that moment, I wondered if maybe they were right. I'd made a big mistake playing games with our relationship in the first place. Was it time for the games to stop?

“Listen, Cam . . . ,” I began.

Just then there was a knock on the driver's side window. A moment later the door opened and Jaylene stuck her cheerful face into the warm car.

“Ya'll okay in here?” she asked brightly. “Lexi, Ah hope you didn't freeze your little toesies off, fallin' in that freezin' cold water like that!”

I forced a smile. “No, my toesies are all still attached.”

Cam was already climbing out of the car. “I think you'll be okay, Lex,” he told me as Jaylene latched onto his arm like a five-foot blond leech. “You might want to stay in the heat for a while, though. Maybe drink some hot cocoa to help warm up.”

“Thanks, doc,” I said, that fake smile still plastered on my face.

But as soon as they were out of sight, I closed my eyes and blew out a frustrated sigh. So close and yet so far . . .

“The More Than Friends Theory,” Allie said.

“What?” Nick and I both looked up from our burgers.

The three of us were sitting in one of the deep, private window booths at the Elf Street Diner, eating dinner and talking over that afternoon's disastrous skating party. A reggae version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” was rolling softly out of the speaker over our table, doing a pretty good job of drowning out the conversations of the other customers and the rattles and clinks of the cooks and waitresses at work.

“It's just what it sounds like.” Allie reached for a french fry from the communal plate in the center of our table. “We all
agree that what's needed here is to remind Cam of what he's missing by being just friends, right?”

“Sure, I guess,” I replied. Nick shrugged.

“Okay,” Allie went on. “Then the More Than Friends Theory states that you have to
show
him what he's missing by being ‘just friends.' You know, by being sexy. Seducing him. That kind of thing.”

Nick laughed. “Yeah, right,” he said sarcastically, looking me up and down. “That's going to happen.”

“Shut up.” I had to admit I wasn't exactly looking the part of seductress at the moment, dressed as I was in a pair of plaid flannel pants and one of my dad's shabby old University of Wisconsin sweatshirts. But that wasn't really the point. “He's kind of right, though, Allie. That doesn't exactly sound like me. Or like Cam, for that matter.”

Allie dipped her fry in ketchup. “That's what you said about him liking Jaylene. Anyway, desperate times call for desperate measures. How many dates are they up to now, anyway?”

“Five,” I said before I could stop myself. “Um, but who's counting? Anyway, I'm
still not convinced on this Dozen Dates thing in the first place, or—What?” I interrupted myself as Allie's eyes widened.

“Five? But that means the next date is number six.”

“And people say
I'm
good at math,” I teased.

She shook her head. “No, listen, Lexi. I've been working some more on the Dozen Dates Theory. According to the Halfway Point Addendum, your task gets harder from date six on. Um, you know, exponentially.”

“Expressing your theories in mathematical terms now, are you?” I commented with a laugh, reaching for the salt. “I guess it's always important to know your audience. Did you learn that from Oprah?”

Nick chortled, but Allie didn't even crack a smile. “I'm serious, Lexi. You need to do something.”

I stopped laughing. “Do you think I don't know that? It's killing me to think that I might have messed things up with Cam for good. You know that.”

“I know.” Her expression softened. “But see, that's exactly why you need to be willing to try whatever it takes to get him
back. And we all know that guys think mostly with their hormones.” Ignoring Nick's snort, she went on, “So our best bet is to let him see you in some supersexy outfit that will remind him of just how attracted he is to you.”

“What, do you want me to wear some lacy little number from Victoria's Secret to school on Monday? Then again, why be subtle? Maybe I should just show up on his doorstep stark naked.”

“You're right, showing up at his house is probably too obvious.” She chose to ignore the rest of my suggestion, which was just as well. In her current state, she might actually think I was serious. “No, you might have to work it right in front of Jaylene on this one. In fact, maybe that's better anyway. Let him see exactly what he's given up to be with her.” She nodded, looking pleased with herself. “Okay, so that means we have to find out when and where their next date is.”

Nick grabbed another fry. “I already know,” he said. “Cam was talking about it at the lake today. They're going bowling tomorrow night.”

“Hmm, bowling. That doesn't sound
very sexy.” Allie tapped one finger on her chin. I could almost see the little gears in her brain turning. “But never mind—I'm sure we can still come up with an outfit that will turn his head. Is Cam more of a leg man or a boob man?” When I shrugged, she turned to my cousin. “Nick?”

He looked a bit startled. “How should I know?”

“Isn't that what you guys talk about? You know, in the locker room and stuff?”

He rolled his eyes. “If we do, I'm not about to start discussing it with the two of you.” Setting down his half-finished burger, he wiped his hands on a napkin and stood up. “In fact, all this talk of boob men and sexy outfits for my cousin makes me think it's a good time for a nice long game of pinball. See you.”

He scooted off toward the line of arcade games along the side wall. “See that, Allie?” I reached across the table, peeled the pickle off Nick's burger, and popped it into my mouth. “You made him lose his appetite. That's not easy. Congratulations.”

“Now that he's gone, let's get down to business.” Allie shoved her plate away and leaned forward. “What are you going to
wear to the bowling alley tomorrow night? How about your purple cami? I'm working on a theory about how guys really notice the color purple.”

“Um, I don't think so. In case it's slipped your mind, it's December. If I show up in something like that, Cam won't think I'm sexy; he'll think I've gone insane.” I wiped my pickley fingers on my napkin. “No, I'm thinking maybe I'll wear my green V-neck sweater. Nick always compliments me on that one. Says it brings out the gold in my eyes.”

She looked disappointed. “Okay, I guess that'll have to do. So let's talk strategy. Maybe you can, like, lure him off by himself somewhere and then pretend you have a cramp in your leg, and ask him to rub it for you.”

“Are you kidding?” I laughed. “I'm not going to do that.”

“But the Dozen Dates Theory . . . ,” she began urgently.

I shook my head. “I know, I know. There isn't much time. I get that. But even so, I think I just need to keep things simple. Cam isn't the type of guy to fall for anything too obvious. And plotting and scheming
is what got me into this mess to begin with.”

“That's true,” Allie agreed, reaching for her iced tea. “Okay. But you're not just going to, like, stand there, right? Let's talk about the little things you can do to catch his attention.”

“Like what?”

“Don't look so suspicious,” she said. “I just mean stuff like smiling at him. Touching him on the arm whenever you get the chance. That sort of thing.”

I felt as if I should be taking notes. It hadn't required nearly this much effort to win Cam over in the first place, and I felt kind of foolish having to work so hard at getting him back now. Still, I figured I had to do whatever it took to undo what I'd done.

Walking into the bowling alley all by myself felt weird. For one thing, I'm not much of a bowler. I'd probably only ever been there four or five times total in my life. Plus it's really the kind of place people normally go as part of a big group. To top it off, Allie had twisted my arm until I'd agreed to put on a little extra makeup
before I went. I guess that was to make up for the fact that I'd continued to insist on wearing jeans and a sweater rather than the leather bustier and hot pants she probably thought would be much more ideal.

As soon as I got inside, I heard an earsplitting screech of laughter. Glancing that way, I saw Jaylene dancing around giddily in her adorable lemon yellow minidress, giggling loudly as the gutterball she'd just thrown ambled its way down the lane. Cam was watching her from the scorekeeper's seat, with his long legs splayed out to one side and his arm draped casually over the seat back. But he spotted me a second later and sat up straight.

“Lexi?” he called out, sounding surprised. No wonder. As I mentioned, I'm not exactly the bowling queen of Claus Lake.

Jaylene looked over too. “It
is
Lexi!” she cried, waving at me. “C'mon over here, Lexi!”

I obeyed, ducking around the molded orange plastic chairs to enter their seating area. “What a surprise,” I said. “So you guys are doing a little bowling tonight, huh?”

“Yeah.” Cam stood up, looking kind of awkward. “Um, what are you doing here?”

I had my cover story ready, of course. “Oh, I was supposed to meet Nick here on my way home from shopping. He was in the mood for bowling—you know how he gets ideas in his head sometimes.”

Cam chuckled. “Uh-huh.” He glanced at Jaylene. “If Nick decides he wants to do something, it's easier just to go along with it. Otherwise he'll hound you until you give in.”

“Right.” I smiled weakly, trying not to calculate exactly how many lies I'd told Cam by now. “But anyway, he just called my cell to say he has a flat tire and can't make it after all. So I ducked inside for a few minutes to warm up before I head home.”

“Oh, y'all don't have to go home,” Jaylene said brightly. “Why don't you join us? It'll be fun!”

On the one hand I was relieved, since getting invited to hang with them was the point of the whole plan. On the other hand, couldn't Jaylene at least seem a
teensy
bit threatened at having Cam's ex crash their date?

“Well . . .” I pretended to think it over for a second. “Sure, I guess that would be fun. Thanks.”

“Hey, check it out—Sexy Lexi's here!”

I spun around. “Bruce?” I blurted out in surprise. He was walking toward us from the direction of the snack bar, the usual cocky grin on his face and a plastic tray of nachos and sodas in his hands.

“That's right,” Jaylene told him. “Lexi's going to join us.”

“Cool.” Bruce dumped the food on the scoring table and brushed off his hands on his pants. “Now I won't be a third wheel anymore. Or at least I'll have a cute fourth wheel keeping me company.” He stepped closer and slung one arm around my shoulders, giving me a squeeze.