My ears heat. Know what, exactly? They couldn’t. I don’t even know!

Danica laces her fingers between Fitz’s because now that Henry promised he is one thousand percent okay, he swears, and dates one and two went well, Fitz and Danica are public and adorable. “You’re a great director, but you’re a terrible actress, Natalie.”

“It’s painful to watch,” Fitz says.

It’s even more painful to experience, so I pick up skates for Reid too and march over to the snack bar, because this needs to be a bonding night so the awkwardness needs to stop right now.

He has the audacity to not take the skates. “You know my size?”

“Everyone knows,” I say, ignoring the fact that yes I do know that Reid wears a size ten and no I have no idea at what point I obtained this information. “So we can just, like, I don’t know. Skate?”

Reid’s shoulders relax. “Everyone?”

Logan caps his bottle of Gatorade and rolls his eyes. “It’s pretty obvious.”

Makayla and Arjun nod, double confirmation.

Reid flushes but takes the skates and we sit side by side, lacing them. I pull the laces tight, working my way from the top of my foot to my ankle. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Reid watching me and attempting to mimic my motions.

I frown. “Have you not—?”

Reid shakes his head.

I double knot my right skate and move on to the left. “Never?”

Reid exhales a shaky laugh. “Nope.”

My eyebrows arch. “And you weren’t going to say anything?”

Reid stands. “The original plan was to hang out by the snack bar all night. Now I’m hoping that I’m secretly a skating prodigy.”

He’s wobbling in his skates and we’re not even on the ice yet.

“Sit down.”

Because the pressure is off, I retie Reid’s skates for him. There’s so much slack on the laces, he’d roll his ankle, no doubt—and that is the last thing Melted needs. My phone buzzes in my back pocket as I finish Reid’s skates. It’s Fitz, demanding that we find them on the ice, with way too many wink emojis.

“You could have told me you don’t skate before we made this a Melted activity,” I say on our slow and wobbly walk toward the ice, where some of the cast and the band are mingling. A small victory. I spot Fitz and Danica skating in circles, hand in hand. Henry is also on the ice, catching up with Makayla and chatting with Logan and Lacey.

Reid pulls down on the green beanie he’s wearing, so it covers his ears. “I appreciate the irony. And you seemed excited. I’ll be fine. It’ll be fun.”

“Natalie!” Fitz yells with a big wave as we reach the edge of the rink.