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I was sure he was going for a flirty vibe, but it just made me feel even more like I was going to throw up.

Not to mention how much I hated the feel of his hand on my back.

When Sebastian did that, it felt sweet. When Thomas did it, I felt like he was waiting for the chance to drop his hand lower and cop a feel—which was not happening.

We fell silent again as we finished walking into the restaurant and waited for the hostess, and without his (terrible) music to distract me, it was ten times worse.

Did most dates have this much silence? I felt like everyone in the restaurant was staring at us, aware that we were on our first date and it was as uncomfortable as it could be.

The hostess appeared, looking a little frazzled. “Sorry, hun,” she said. I wasn’t sure exactly which one of us she was referring to. “Packed night. Do you two have a reservation?”

“Yeah, for two,” Thomas said. “Under the name Thomas.”

She ran her eyes over the reservation list but then nodded. “Okay, perfect. You two can follow me.”

I was pleasantly surprised that he had thought ahead to book and reserve a table because it never would have even occurred to me that we should have. He let me walk ahead of him, following behind as the hostess led us to a booth in the back corner of the restaurant, which was mostly empty.

It was one of those fancy restaurants where the lighting was so dim that you could barely read what was on the menu, so I had to squint at the paper as I tried to read it.

I was already getting a headache from the long day and my lack of sleep last night after going out with Sebastian for so long, and this was only making it ten times worse.

I never should have said yes to going out the same night as a swim meet.

I was always exhausted after them and that mixed with how long this week had felt made this feel more like a chore than something fun or exciting.

I wasn’t sure why it hadn’t occurred to me to suggest going out tomorrow night instead.

I guess I was just so focused on the thought of Sebastian going out with Tiffany that I hadn’t thought through the logistics of this.

And of course, at the time, it never occurred to me that Sebastian might break up with Tiffany before we even got this date.

Not that it should have made any difference, I reminded myself.

Thomas started going on about how we should just split an appetizer and an entree to save money, and I mumbled in agreement, not really listening all that much. I wasn’t hungry anyway.

“Welcome to the North Glen Eatery. Can I start you off with some drinks?”

I froze as I heard the bored feminine voice.

I would recognize it anywhere—but I never expected to hear it here .

I didn’t lift my head as I tried to peer out of the corner of my eye at our waitress.

The booth was raised but not enough that I was in-line with her face, so all I saw was the black shirt all the waitresses were wearing.

But it was enough to see the name tag: Tiffany .

“We’ll take two Cokes,” Thomas said, even though I hadn’t told him what I wanted to drink.

I liked Sprite more than Coke but I didn’t want to correct him now and bring attention to myself.

There was still a chance that Tiffany hadn’t recognized me yet—with us being in the dark corner and me wearing clothes I wouldn’t normally be caught dead in, there was no reason for her to immediately think it was me.

I could be any girl Thomas was on a date with.

“Coming right up,” Tiffany said. Her voice was flat and emotionless, and I wondered if that was always how she was at work or if it was still the lingering feelings from her fight with Sebastian last night.

I only raised my head once I was sure she was gone, just in time to see Thomas pull his gaze back to me, acting like he hadn’t been staring after her as she walked away.

A guy who checked out other girls on a date—what a gentleman.

I tried to get the conversation onto some neutral territory by saying, “So your game the other day was really good. I mean, I don’t know much about soccer, but it seemed like you were playing really well.”

“Yeah, it was all right. I mean, I think that Novak hogs the ball a little bit too much and everybody just fawns over him, but you know.” He shrugged. “What can you do?”

I guess we’d exhausted all the good things to say about the game in the hall yesterday, but I definitely didn’t expect that.

“I thought he played well,” I said. Sure, I hadn’t been following the game closely, but it was obvious to anyone that Sebastian was a great player. He deserved to be fawned over.

He snorted. “Yeah, that’s what everybody says.

That he plays so well. He’s going to go to the pros eventually.

He’s probably going to get some scholarship to college.

But the rest of us? Eh, who cares?” He tapped his fingers against the table, his face clouding over.

“It just annoys me so much, you know? That one guy can be so popular and only leave the scraps for the rest of us.”

Was that what he considered me? The scraps that Sebastian left behind? I guess he figured that because Sebastian didn’t want me, he could get me instead. But I didn’t want to get into a fight over it in the middle of a restaurant so I bit the words back.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” I said, trying to keep my voice light and airy.

“I mean, there’s plenty of scholarships to go around, right?

” Thomas gave me a harsh look that told me that I was supposed to be agreeing with him blindly.

So I swallowed thickly and said, “Anyway, where do you think our drinks are? I’m getting thirsty. ”

“You know what really grinds my gears?” Thomas asked as if I hadn’t said anything. “It’s that all the girls just love him. It’s always Novak this, Novak that. Nobody ever cares about the rest of us.”

I bit my lip, desperate for any sort of distraction to get us off this very dangerous topic.

I would even take Tiffany reappearing with the drinks, because at least Thomas couldn’t complain about Sebastian without her tearing his head off.

Unless the breakup had changed her feelings—because then having her here could be even worse.

It would turn into them both dunking on him.

Part of me just wanted to snap at Thomas and tell him there was a reason all the girls fawned over Sebastian.

Not only was he kind and charming and actually knew how to talk to girls, but he was a fantastic kisser and Thomas was probably just lacking in all departments.

But if I thought the anger right now was bad, I didn’t even want to imagine how he would react to that, so I kept my mouth shut.

“I mean, he gets everybody,” Thomas continued on. “ Everybody . And what am I left with? Nothing.”

“You have me,” I muttered.

“What?”

I took a deep breath, knowing that I was probably going to regret saying this, and said, “You have me. We’re on a date right now. Do you really think that’s an appropriate time to complain about how you never get any girls?”

Thomas stared at me in bewilderment. “Well, obviously I didn’t mean you.”

I tilted my head. “Didn’t you, though?”

I didn’t think there was another way for me to interpret what he was saying about getting scraps and being left with nothing. If I didn’t fall into that category, then what was I to him?

He scoffed and looked away. “What does it matter anyway? It’s not like we can be together.”

I gaped at him, not sure what to make of the words, but was saved from responding by Tiffany reappearing with the drinks. She put down Thomas’s first, smiling flirtatiously at him, and suddenly any guilt I felt in the part I played in her breakup with Sebastian disappeared.

“Well, thank you gorgeous,” Thomas said.

He picked up the glass and tipped it toward her like he was toasting her.

I couldn’t hold back my snort. Here he was, complaining that he was stuck with Sebastian’s leftovers then turning around to flirt with his ex-girlfriend.

The sound made both of them look at me and Tiffany’s face immediately morphed into disgust as she saw me.

“Oh. Nellie.”

“It’s Nora,” I corrected, putting more venom into my voice than I ever let myself do when she was still with Sebastian.

She put her free hand on her hip, leaning all her weight into one side, and stared at me pityingly. “So you’re the girl of the week, huh?”

I scowled. “Excuse me?”

“Thomas,” she said, tilting her head toward him, “has a standing Friday night reservation. Brings a new girl here every week after the football game. And today it’s you.”

My blood ran cold at the words. Even though I had very little interest in Thomas and I knew we wouldn’t be going out again, the idea of just being one on his roster made me feel sick.

I looked at Thomas, but he didn’t even try to deny it.

And then I looked at his hand, resting against her thigh, and I began to feel sick for a whole other reason.

“How long have you two been hooking up?” I asked in a false bright voice.

My heart pounded as I said the words. This was a bad idea.

It wasn’t going to save this date and I was sure to make an enemy out of Thomas by saying it, but just for once, I wanted the chance to show Tiffany I wasn’t going to roll over and take whatever she said.

This wasn’t just about me—it was about how she treated Ainsley and Sebastian too.

Was it so wrong of me to want her to stop feeling like she was the queen of the world?

“I wonder if Sebastian knows what you’ve been doing with his teammate. ”

Bringing up Sebastian was a bold move, both because I knew he and Tiffany had already broken up, and because there was every chance he did know about Thomas.

He certainly knew that Tiffany hadn’t been faithful.

But as I saw both of their faces form, I was certain that it was something they had managed to keep under wraps.

“It would be a shame,” I continued, “if he happened to find out about it, huh? I wonder how he would feel about beating up his own teammate.”

I let my gaze fall on Thomas, who gulped. His hand, which was now fully holding onto Tiffany’s thigh, was tightening, his fingers digging into her skin.

“I don’t care what Novak thinks of me,” Thomas spat out. I just raised my eyebrows. As a guy who spent half our date complaining about Sebastian, it was hard for him to make that argument sound real. “Gosh, I never should have agreed to go out with you.”

“Agreed?” I let out a sharp laugh, one that sounded much more confident than I was feeling right now. “It’s not exactly like I came begging. You asked me out if you recall.”

“Only because your stupid friend wanted me to! I never would have looked at you twice otherwise.”

Any other time, the words might have hurt.

But I’d seen the way he was staring at me today and I knew that Clementine never would have pushed him to ask me out.

She set up our meetings, sure, but she never would have divulged that I was into him or asked him to ask me out.

He was just mad that I wasn’t giving in.

“Why don’t I go and leave you two alone?” I suggested. “That’s probably what you do after every date, right? You pick the day you know Tiffany will be working so if the date doesn’t work out, at least you have your back-up plan ready.”

The anger in Tiffany’s face was enough for me to know that I was right and that she hated to be called anyone’s back-up plan.

But now that I knew how horribly she had treated Sebastian during their relationship—and then had the audacity to say that I was the burden on him—I didn’t care about hurting her feelings.

As I went to stand up, she threw her hand forward.

For a second, I thought she was going to slap me and I cringed away, but it wasn’t her hand that hit me.

It was the full glass of ice-cold coke that hit my chest and stomach, covering the full dress.

I let out a shocked cry, which was loud enough to turn heads on all sides.

“What is wrong with you?” I yelled. I shook my arms, trying to get any droplets of the drink off them as best I could, but it was no use. I was completely soaked and it wouldn’t be fixed until I could get home and change.

“Tiffany!” An angry voice yelled from across the restaurant. We all turned to look, and I saw an older man standing by the bar, looking ticked. When I looked at Tiffany again, she seemed genuinely nervous, and I realized the guy must be her boss.

I tried to push past her so I could go outside, but she grabbed my arm as I did, forcing me to turn back around to look. Her eyes were wide and panicked.

“You have to tell him it was an accident,” she said.

“What?” I yanked my arm out of her grip, her acrylic nails scratching me as I did. “No.”

“Please!” She hissed. She glanced at the man, who was indicating for her to come over, then at me. “I’ll totally be fired.”

I stared at her, trying to understand how on earth she could genuinely think I would do her a favor after she just threw her drink on me. After she embarrassed me time and time again, after she cheated on Sebastian with not only half the school but his own teammate .

“Why the heck would I ever want to help you?” I asked her flatly. I spun on my heel and walked out, leaving her behind.

Just as I reached the door, I heard Thomas yell after me, “What, you’re not even going to offer to pay for half?”

I slammed the door open so hard that it hit the outside wall with a bang. It was already cold outside, but especially so now that I was soaked, and I started shivering. Thomas hadn’t offered me his sweater after all.

I sank to the edge of the curb as I realized I had no ride home.

Going with Thomas was out of the question.

I didn’t want to have to tell Clementine or Ainsley what had happened tonight after how excited they had both been about it.

There was no chance I was calling either of my parents in this situation—I would be better off walking home than dealing with that.

Dean should have been my go-to, but with how absent he’d been lately, I didn’t have any faith that he would pick me up, even if he answered the phone.

Basically, all my usual numbers were out.

So I called the only person I knew who was always willing to come rescue me.