Page 57 of Meet Cute Reboot
I exit the bathroom feeling like I just stepped out of a shower. The hand blower didn’t do much to dry my shirt, it just muffled my laughter. Every time my mind replays Sonja’s boobs smooshed against Luke’s face, I break into another fit and nearly give myself a hernia.
Luke is waiting for me by the front doors.
“Hey,” I say, trying to swallow down a cackle. Poor guy. Sonja just busted through his personal space. Literally. I can’t hold it in.
“Okay, okay. Ha ha,” Luke says. He’s smiling. “The manager didn’t make me pay.”
I grab Luke’s arm. “That poor girl. She’s probably curled up in a back corner.”
“Oh, no. She’s still waiting tables. She told me to have a nice night as I was walking out. Locked eyes with me and everything.”
“No, she didn’t!”
Luke looks down at my hand, and I realize I’m still holding on to him.
“Let’s get the heck out of here,” he says.
I nod and we exit into the parking lot. Just as we’re about to head to our separate vehicles, he pauses. “Want to walk to the end of the pier?”
My thoughts replay the moment I grabbed his arm. And then further back to the moment he asked if I wanted to join him for dinner. I could have rejected his offer. I could have gone home to cuddle with Pudge.
“Sure,” I say.
He lightly touches my back as we redirect our steps toward the pier.
“Wait a minute.” I stop just before the asphalt meets the boardwalk.
“What?” Luke looks worried.
“We have it on video.”
His furrowed brow deepens. He looks at the stars. “No.”
I dig through my purse and pull out my phone. He quickly snatches it out of my hand and holds it high overhead.
“Gimme that back.” I brace one hand against his chest and jump, swiping at air. “Gimme it!”
“We have to delete it.”
“I want to watch it first.”
Luke grabs the hand I placed on his chest. He tucks his chin to meet my eyes. The sky is dark, but the restaurant’s lights are close enough to illuminate his face. We stand for a moment, quietly looking at each other, my pulse quickening by the second.
“Here,” he says finally. He unfolds my hand and tucks my phone into it.
I turn away from him like I can just turn away from the emotions, put them behind me. Forget the look in his eyes, and the heady silence.
“Well,” he says. “Let’s see the damage.”
I pull up Instagram. “Oh...no...” I say when I see the hits on our video. “I think you’re going viral.”
“I don’t want to be a virus.” He grabs at my phone again, but I turn away.
“I have to see this.”
I play the video and fast forward to the part where Luke innocently breaks into a crab leg. We watch together as Sonja tumbles toward him, our refills spilling, her chest mashing against Luke’s face.
“I can’t believe I grabbed her boobs,” Luke says.