Tell Me You'll Miss Me | ✓

11. the best best friend

We'd arranged to get to the restaurant fifteen minutes early so we could talk before Nora got there – a level of sneakiness I wasn't totally comfortable with, but which Summer insisted on.

"It's go time, Jess. This is the moment your whole life has been leading up to."

Summer's theatrical flair was as present as ever.

"Bit dramatic," I said.

David, looking between us with a grin, laughed. "You two are... a lot. Why is she more excited than you about your date?" he asked me.

"Summer has a tendency to get--"

"This is what friends do!" Summer interrupted. "Sorry for being your number one cheerleader, Jess," she huffed, knocking into me gently. "Sorry for being the best best friend ever."

Her grin was, unfortunately, infectious, and I found myself smirking back at her. David still looked confused, but he cracked a smile too.

"When is the other girl-- Nora, right?" I nodded, and he continued. "Right, when is she supposed to arrive, again? Because right now, it's like I'm third-wheeling you two," he teased.

"We have a few minutes. I'd say we should go get our table, but..." Summer pointed a finger at my face, then drew it down to the heels she'd picked out for me. "There's no way Nora is gonna wanna miss this," she chuckled.

"Will you stop?" I said, the words stumbling out of my mouth while I cracked up. I'd almost cut her off because I knew what she was going to say, but the laughter and the awkwardness of it had me tongue-tied. My face was turning pink again, and I turned to David for some sanity. "Sorry about her. She's a monster. Am I totally red right now?"

David grinned and shook his head. "Nah, you look good."

I gave him a small, appreciative smile. "Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself, you know. What d'you think, Summer? Maybe this shouldn't be such a fake date after all?" I said, elbowing Summer in the ribs and nudging her towards him a little.

Summer cackled a laugh and got a little tongue-tied herself, for once.

"She's too much, you're so sweet to be here and do us this favor and Jess is just-- the worst, ruining everything, I'm so sorry--" she was saying, while David just laughed politely, seemingly happy just to be along for the ride. I tuned out halfway through her rambling though, because heading right for us was Nora.

She looked like a model. I mean, of course she did – she was a model, but it was obvious now. She looked skyscraper tall and with her hair all pinned back off her face, she looked less girl-next-door cute and more out-of-my-league hot.

I tried not to gawp, but it was pretty difficult. Not only did Nora look super beautiful, but she was technically my date for the evening. I was kind of awe-struck by my luck.

She waved a hand lazily in a casual hello, and my heart honest-to-God fluttered in my chest. "Hey guys," she smiled, "how's it going?"

I grinned dumbly, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Summer turn to look at me. Words, however, were totally failing me, and when she realized that, she spoke up instead.

"Good! I'm just super happy we were all free tonight," she said, snaking one of her arms around one of David's, winding him closer to her. "And that we all look amazing," she laughed, using her spare hand to draw a circle in midair, indicating all of us... and then just outright pointing at me.

I pretended not to notice, and I pretended not to blush. Only one of those things really worked.

"D'you wanna head in?" I asked, finally building up the courage to actually use my vocal cords.

Nora beamed. "I thought you'd never ask." She took the lead, heading in first with me trailing her and trying to ignore her heady perfume, and then Summer and David behind us.

Summer piped up to say she had a table booked, and before I knew it, the date was officially underway.