His smile lit up his entire face when I said yes. I’d thought that damn smirk he always shot the camera was his real smile. But no, it was nothing like that. It was megawatt, full of joy, and completely irresistible. If he’d led with that, I might have said yes to the damn party. Fuck.
“Let me take care of that.” He slipped me his phone which I was jealous to see was the new iPhone. They’d been sold out in stores for months, and everyone was still raving about them after the first design had released last year. Of course, he’d have one. I entered my number into the shiny thing, still unable to believe this was happening to me. “I’ll pick you up at seven?”
“Sure,” I said, not able to hide my own smile. “See you then.”
My mind was still whirling when I pulled up in front of my dorm twenty minutes later. I didn’t even check my phone as I climbed the hill to the all-girls dorm, Brumby. If I had, I wouldn’t have been as shocked to find Josie sitting on the futon, watching a baking show.
“Josie! Oh my God!”
She jumped up from the futon and threw her arms around me. We swayed side to side with excitement. Josie—though she went by Josephine now—was one of my two best friends. She had grown up in Atlanta with her dad and spent summers in Savannah with her mom in her ridiculous mansion on the coast. We’d met at the age of six and looked forward to every summer together. Now, I was here in Athens, and she was full-time in Savannah at Savannah College of Art and Design, studying film.
“How did you get past security?” I gasped, releasing her.
She laughed, flipping her long black ponytail. “I smiled.”
Of course she had. “I completely forgot that you were coming into town this weekend.”
“You forgot?” Josie asked. “Who are you, and what have you done with Lila Greer?”
If I couldn’t call her Josephine, she certainly wasn’t going to start calling me Delilah.
“I just had a weird day.”
“Define weird.” She narrowed her hazel eyes, which were almost gold today. “Because you must have had something catastrophic happen to make you forget that I was coming up.”
I winced slightly. “I … kind of have a date tonight.”
Josie shrieked, dramatically jumping up and down and twirling in place. The little drama queen. “That’s such amazing news. Tell me everything.”
She dragged me to the futon and muted the show.
“Well, there’s this guy in my kinesiology class who asked me to a party, but it’s a football party.”
“Ah,” Josie said, understanding without me having to say anything.
“So, I said no. And I thought that was that, but he offered to ditch the party and take me out.”
“Oh my God. You said yes?”
“I mean … I probably shouldn’t have. He’s … Cole Davis.”
Josie’s mouth dropped. “Holy shit! He’s the one we were all swooning over when I came up for a game in the fall?”
I nodded.
“Remind me why you said no the first time.”
I shrugged, averting my gaze. “He … reminds me of him.”
Josie blew out a harsh breath. “Is this your first date since Ash?”
My body twitched involuntarily at the name. “I mean, no. I made out with a few guys at a frat party and went on a date or two. But …”
“But?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe I’m being crazy.”
“Crazy is good for you, Lila. Forget Ash. You’re going to go out with Cole Davis tonight and have the most amazing time.”
“What about you?”
Josie rolled her eyes. “It’s me. I’ll manage.”
Understatement of the century.
“But we’re still going to the spring game tomorrow.”
“Oh, absolutely. I fully intend to drink a few bottles of André at the tailgate and walk into Sanford Stadium, trashed.”
I snort-laughed, immediately falling back into the ease of being with Josie. We were just missing Marley, and then we’d be complete.
“You have to help me find something to wear.”
Josie jumped to her feet. “My expertise is required. Come. I’ll be your fairy godmother for the night.”
By the time seven rolled around, Josie had done her work and I was ready to go. Cole had texted, saying that he was going to come up. Because obviously he could just walk up into the all-girls dorm.
At the knock, Josie rushed to answer first.
“Josie!” I hissed.
She swung it open. “Heyyy!”
I put my head in my hands.
“Uh, hey,” Cole said from the door. “I’m here for Delilah.”
“Lila, your date is here,” Josie called.
I took a deep breath and stepped forward. “Yeah, I gathered that. Thanks, Josie.” My gaze caught Cole’s bright blue eyes, and my stomach flipped. He had on jeans and a white button-up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. “Hey.”
“Hey, you look nice.”
I bit my lip, and Josie nudged me, as if to say, See.
I’d wanted to go with jeans and a T-shirt, but Josie had insisted that I needed to—quote—“show off your dancer body.” So, we’d compromised on a light-blue wrap dress that matched my own blue eyes and made my brilliantly highlighted blonde hair shine even lighter.
“Thanks.”
“I’m Josie.” She stuck her hand out.
He laughed. “Cole. Are you Delilah’s roommate?”
“No, I go to SCAD. Just here for the weekend.”
“Am I interrupting your weekend? Should we reschedule?”
“No!” Josie said, all but pushing me out the door. “Y’all have a good time.”
She shut the door on the pair of us. I was left shaking my head.
“She seems … friendly,” Cole said.
“She’s a film major,” I said by way of explanation.
We left my dorm and found his white Jeep parked at the front of the lot.
“God, how did you even get this spot?” It was almost impossible to park this close to the dorm.
“Someone was pulling out right as I drove up.”
“Lucky.”
“It’s my superpower,” he told me as he opened the passenger door.
“That is a random superpower.”
“I don’t make the rules,” he said as I hopped in. Then he jogged around to the driver’s side and got in. “It’s just how it happens.”
“Well, the real test will be downtown.”
He grinned. “I got this.”
And he did. We only circled the block once before a prime spot opened up right in front of us on the most coveted corner of Clayton and College. I was so jealous of his parking luck.
“Fine, you win. You have a parking superpower.” I slung my bag onto my shoulder and hopped out of his Jeep before he could jog back around to help me out.
“What’s yours?”
“My superpower?”
“Yeah. Something random, like finding a good parking spot or being able to win things off the radio before nine in the morning.”