He sighs heavily, and I know there’s a yes buried inside that obnoxiously loud breath. “Fabulous!” I say without waiting for him to vocalize it out loud. “Now, let’s go shake on it with some tater tots.”

-JACK-

I can’t believe I’m doing this. I can’t believe I’m going on a date. With a cheerleader. And a teammate. And his boyfriend.

I can’t believe how much I’m looking forward to it.

My leg jiggles in my cutoffs as I wait in the car for Amber to emerge from her apartment, my fingers fiddling with everything they can reach. She told me not to bother coming to the door, to just text her when I was outside, but it still feels wrong, like I gotta prove chivalry isn’t dead.

Then the door opens, and suddenly I’m glad to be where I am because she steps out looking so cute, I know my knees would’ve weakened if I’d been standing in wait.

It doesn’t hurt that she practically dances to the car I begged my mom to borrow so I could do this properly, every bit as excited for tonight as I am. She’s curled her hair and she’s wearing one of those one-piece things that’s shorts on the bottom and shows off her incredible legs, and her lip gloss makes me ache to know how it tastes.

Fuck, our date has been three seconds long and I’m already a goner.

I at least have the presence of mind to lean over and push open her door, and when she slides in with a sultry “Hi, there,” it’s all I can do not to leap over the center console. Sage and Morgan would be laughing so fucking hard if they could see me now, smitten by a walking Barbie doll. We talked again last night, though we replaced real conversation with bingeing Love, Victor, completely avoiding talk of Amber. I haven’t even told them about this date, just in case it turns out to be as big a disaster as everything else has since moving to Atherton, though I did—with Miguel’s blessing—clarify the other stuff.

“Hi, yourself,” I say, because clever words have escaped me. “So, where are we going?”

“Somewhere you can show off all that athletic prowess.” She holds up her phone, then puts it in the little bracket thing that sticks out of the air-conditioner vent. “Don’t worry. I put the address in here. Just follow the directions.”