Elle
“Look at him walk away…”
“So calm and collected.”
“Nice butt.”
“The way his T-shirt stretches over those arms. Yum!”
“Not even looking back at her.”
“I could just—”
“OKAY ladies,” she said forcefully as the pack opened up like the maw of some gigantic creature, swallowing her whole into its midst as she skated to them. “I don’t think the ice is due to be reflooded for another hour at least. Let’s stick to that schedule, shall we?”
The hoots of laughter that greeted her jab only served to bring a smile to her face. “He is cute though, isn’t he?”
Near-shrieks of agreement from the group made it clear the others felt the same. “So, who is he?” “He’s a shifter right?” “What’s his name?” “Details girl, let’s go!” “Did you get his number?” “Did you give him yours?”
“Calm down. Calm down!” she practically shouted, waving all the questions silent. “Y’all are worse than teenagers right now, seriously.”
Several catcalls and jeers were the only response she got.
“His name, which I’ll tell if you shut yer damn clap-traps,” she said, pointing at Angela and Rachel, two of the worst offenders, “is Braden. And if you hadn’t already guessed, he’s a shifter.”
“He works at the embassy with Hector and Noah!” Rachel shouted. “And he’s single!”
Elle dropped her head heavily as the questions and clamoring started up all over again.
“Thank you for that,” she said to her best friends. “I really appreciate that.”
She tuned out the others for a moment as Angela responded. “Oh come on now. You would have done the same damn thing in our shoes.”
“I know,” she admitted with a smile.
Then she turned to the others. “Okay, stop acting like those crazies you see on the talk shows, people. We’re adults here.” She paused thoughtfully, then looked at her best friends. “Well, most of us are,” she amended.
The women didn’t let up, but she just started not responding, laughing at the way they all just kept reinforcing one another. Eventually the hubbub died down, but she knew that wasn’t the end of it.
“You’re so lucky!”
She turned to face Laura. “I am?”
“Yes. He’s gorgeous. I’ve seen him around… a few of us have. But he’s never shown any interest in anyone before. What did you do differently?” The question could have been interpreted as pointed and filled with jealousy, but Elle knew her friend better than that.
“Did you try wiping out on ice and heading for a collision that could have resulted in a minor concussion?” she asked helpfully. “It seemed to work for me.”
The groans from her audience were audible. It was great. Elle grinned at them. “Have you had your fill yet? Can we resume our skating?”
They hadn’t really stopped; the pack of them had sort of been slowly meandering around the rink as they harassed her for information, but she wanted the freedom to separate from them again, to just glide across the rink and enjoy the action of skating.
“That depends,” Angela said, a sly look on her face.
Elle had a sudden sinking sensation. “On what?”
Angela’s lips curved up in a wicked smile. “Are you going to see him again?”
Fuck you, she mouthed at her friend as the group clamored excitedly for an answer. Angela just smiled and winked at her.
“I don’t know, she said, raising her voice to be heard. “But I think so. And so you’ll all just shut up and let me be, he asked if we could continue our conversation at a later date, because he could tell that you all were getting impatient with us. So, if you had had the good graces to behave like mature adults instead of the gossip-queens you are, then maybe I could have had more juicy things to share.”
She was greeted with a chorus of laughter and boos from the assembled group, which is exactly what she’d expected. Elle grinned. “I gave him my number. That’s all I can tell you, because that’s all I know.”
“So you’re going on a date?”
“She’s going on a date!”
“Oh my goodness. She’ll have to dress up!”
“And do her makeup!”
“And her hair!”
“I’ll help with her nails!”
In a moment they were all offering their services to help her when she got ready for her date. At some point that seemed to morph into her going somewhere that evening.
“You’ll have to shower!”
“This is all your fault,” she grumbled to Angela, the smile on her face betraying the fact that she wasn’t actually angry.
“Oh shut up. We’re all having a hoot, just like you. So enjoy it,” Angela said, elbowing her in the side.
“Yes ma’am,” she replied with fake sullenness. Then, to the crowd at large, “Nobody is helping me shower. I can handle that one on my own. Got it?”
While her friends all laughed she took the time to look over her shoulder. Like she’d expected, Braden was long gone, having disappeared into the wooded forest on the far side of the park that they had exited from. Her eyes roved between the leafless trees for several long seconds, but she couldn’t pick up any movement.
She wanted to pull out her phone, to see if he’d texted her yet, but knew the instant that she did the women around her would descend like a mad horde, demanding to know what she’d written and then forcing her to use the group-crafted responses that they came up with. She knew. She’d been on the other end of it before. Usually when they were finding interesting ways to get guys to leave them alone, but also for some of the girls who’d been interested in men, they helped make up the texts that showed them as “interested, but not too interested.”
Finally the hubbub around her died down and she could get back to skating. Despite all the teasing and jokes at her expense, one thing never changed.
The smile on her face had never faded.