Solving for Ex

Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

powers of pleasing

Sadie Hawkins night ended as uneventfully as any high school dance night possibly could. I got bored, and kids started heading to after-parties, or whatever. Vincent must have understood by my body language or something that I didn’t want to go, and he didn’t ask. He walked me to the limo, let me in, laughed with me about how lame the Snowball and all the other games Sofia brought up throughout the course of the night to get people dancing were, and that was that.

The whole night, Vincent didn’t dance with anyone else. Didn’t talk to another girl, didn’t bring another girl punch, even. One hundred percent true to his promise.

“I think you made your point, you know,” I said, interrupting his calm stare out the window.

“What do you mean?”

“You can hang out with other people. I think the other girls have quit hating my guts for holding your hand.”

It was true. I got a couple glances dancing with Vincent, but overall, no one had seemed to care that we were together.

Were we together?

With four words, Vincent broke my thoughts. “I don’t want to.”

I laughed. “What do you mean, you don’t want to? Don’t tell me you’re some kind of introverted, antisocial freak.” Like me.

“No. No, I like partying just fine, hanging out with other kids. But I like hanging out with you way more. And if partying isn’t your thing…”

He leaned over to me, reached his fingers out, and let them brush against mine. The warmth of his touch sent a calm through me, a steadiness I hadn’t felt in a long time. My fingers reached back to tangle with his. Yes, something about this was nice. Solid. Adoring.

But it wasn’t real, because I barely knew Vincent, and all things considered—dinner, limo, and gorgeous smile—I had no idea how I felt about him. The only thing I knew was that I still had feelings for Brendan. Despite Sofia, despite the drinking. Even despite him ignoring me.

I extracted my fingers from his and leaned back against the seat, staring out the window, plastering a smile on my face so I didn’t look as shaken as I felt.

“Look, Ashley. I know.”

“Know what?”

“About Brendan.”

I looked down at my hands, my fingers folded together. Like they could be with Vincent’s if I’d just let him. And there was really no reason why not.

“What about him?”

Vincent smiled that gentle, patient smile that brought out his dimple ever so slightly. “I know you like him. A lot. I could tell by the way you danced together.”

Unfortunately, so could I.

“I can also tell that he likes my sister. Like, a lot. I’m a guy, okay? Even though it’s my sister, and that’s weird, I see these things.”

I wanted to say that she didn’t give him much of a chance not to like her, that she was always all over him. I tried to remember if I had even gotten a word in edgewise with Brendan at school since she’d first arrived at Mansfield Prep.

Then I remembered that Brendan was definitely his own person, who could have made time to hang out with me if he had really wanted to.

And as much as I suspected holding hands with Vincent wouldn’t bring me the kind of thrill I’d always gotten bumping shoulders with Brendan, I couldn’t think of any good reason not to give him more of a chance, either.