“No, I’m not,” “No, she’s not,” Shane and I say at the same time.

I glare at him. “I didn’t want to kiss anyone for a long time. And now...now it’s too late. I’m too ashamed and too nervous and...”

Shane hip bumps me. “You’re hardly too late. It’s not like you’re ninety-seven. And you’re stressing yourself out. That’s why you’re nervous. You need to just chill and get it over with.”

I swat at the air with the hand that’s not got my notebook clutched to my chest. “That’s easy for you to say. You have willing girls taking a number to be with you.” He nods like he agrees with my argument that women are literally willing to queue up for him. “Nobody wants to kiss me. No guys even want to talk to me.”

“We’ll kiss you.”

“Ha-ha.”

His eyes glow with a twinkle of mischief. That’s how I know I’m really in trouble. “We could kiss you. C’mon, Velma. Get your notebook out and take notes.”

Fletch opens the cupboard to get plates out. “Leave her alone, man.”

Yes, please. Leave me alone, man.

“You’re a science major, yeah? It’s just research.” Shane steps back to look at me seriously. “We’d never hurt you or make you do something you don’t want to do. You know that, right?”

If a hole could open up and swallow me whole right now, that’d be great. Please. I might have fared better with Sami.

But then I really look at Shane’s face. He is a lot of things, but disingenuous is not one.

“I trust you would never hurt me, Shane. But I’m just...not there yet. I’m too shy.”

Fletch is quiet as Shane pops up onto the counter. It must be nice to be so graceful. To know your body will just do whatever you want it to when you want it to do it. To trust that things don’t have to be serious all the time. Just let life come at you while you pop your butt onto a counter easily or go running or lift something heavy with no effort.

“All I’m saying is that you’re putting too much pressure on yourself about this. It’s a kiss. Or two kisses, as the case may be. You’ll feel a lot better when you cross it off your bucket list. And you won’t worry so much about kissing a guy you might really like if you feel like you know what you’re doing. All the books in the world aren’t going to give you experience.”

He’s right. Oh, my God. “I watch movies too. In slow motion.”