Under the Same Stars(58)

My stomach swished. Yes, I was, but I also had a feeling Connor would show up after he dropped Lauren off after their Six Flags date.

And I admit, I didn’t want to be home.

“Ready, Mads?” Jacob asked.

“Yep.” I clapped my hands together as Da grabbed the dogs’ collars and tugged them away from Jacob. “Let’s go!”

***

I blinked when we walked into the movie theater’s lobby. “Tim?” I called to the guy wearing a light blue polo with a needlepointed lobster belt waiting at concessions. “Timothy Hobson-Kirby the Fourth?”

He turned toward us. His face, freckled from spending the summer on Nantucket, broke into a grin. “Hey, Mads! How’ve you been?”

Oh my god, I thought. The Princetonians are here?

“Who’s that?” Jacob asked when we walked toward the snack line.

“Timothy Hobson-Kirby the Fourth,” Marco’s friend introduced himself, offering Jacob his hand to shake. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Jacob,” he said as they shook. “Bluestein.”

“Tim is a friend of Marco ?lvarez’s from Princeton,” I explained.

“Ah, right, Marco ?lvarez…” Jacob said distantly, like Marco was someone that could be forgotten. “Good guy.”

“Yes, a good guy with a questionable palate,” Timothy Hobson-Kirby IV said. “He plans to mix Milk Duds with his popcorn.”

That sounds seriously delectable, my sweet tooth sang. Like chocolate caramel corn.

I glanced at the snacks that had accumulated on the counter. A medium popcorn, Milk Duds, Sour Patch Kids, and two water bottles. “Are all four of you here?”

Timothy Hobson-Kirby IV shook his head. “No, only Marco and me. We left Simon cosplaying F. Scott at Fable—he’s literally writing longhand at the bar—and Zach’s not due in until the day before we leave for Stone Harbor. He’s still in Florida with NASA.”

I nodded. Marco had mentioned that he’d invited a bunch of Princeton people to the shore next week to celebrate the end of summer. Meanwhile, I’d be up in the Finger Lakes celebrating the future Mrs. Austin Fisher-Michaels.

But it was cool. I’d bought my pair of personality panties.

“Are you guys seeing the new Christopher Nolan?” Jacob asked, and I didn’t realize how worried I was about it being the same movie until Timothy Hobson-Kirby IV confirmed it wasn’t.

“I should get back in there,” he said after finally paying for his food. “The trailers kicked off twenty minutes ago, so the actual film should start soon.” He smiled at me. “I’ll tell Marco you said hello.”

“Great, thanks.” I gritted my teeth. Granted, we lived near each other, but why was Marco always in the right place at the wrong time? Or the right place at the right time? These cameos of his were becoming more than a charming coincidence.

Forget about it, I told myself, listening as Jacob ordered us two separate popcorns. It felt automatic to just share a bucket like I did with Connor, but no problem. Not everyone liked sharing their food.

“I can get it,” I said after ordering some peanut M&M’s, and my heart warmed when Jacob shook his head.

“I asked you out,” he said. “Tonight’s on me.”

“Thank you.” I smiled but had barely glanced away before I heard Jacob swear under his breath.

“Actually, do you mind?” he asked me, motioning to the register. “I forgot my wallet.”

“Oh, sure.” I opened Apple Pay on my phone and tapped it against the PIN pad. “The wonders of technology,” I joked awkwardly.

Jacob blushed. “I’ll Venmo you.”

Less than a minute later, my phone made a cha-ching noise.

My stomach twisted. I was cool with paying, but being immediately reimbursed didn’t feel very romantic.

In the theater, we reclined our cushy chairs and talked about school being less than a month away until the lights dimmed and the trailers began. I dug into my popcorn and candy and mentally assigned each movie to a family member. Trailer one, the new Marvel? Austin. Trailer two, a family crime drama (with a luxury home as headquarters)? Dad. Trailer three, an underdog sports story? Da. Trailer four, a high-octane femme-fatale espionage flick with star-crossed lovers?

“Is everything okay?” Jacob asked as I unlocked my phone, screen glowing in the darkened theater.

“Yes, it’s fine,” I said, quickly tapping out a text with no hey-hi-hello whatsoever. Just: Check out the trailer for The Antihero. Looks good, right?

Maybe Ready-Set-Date wasn’t the only way I could try to bridge the gap with Katie. Maybe it could be the little things, too.

I smiled at Jacob after switching my phone to the little-known “theater mode,” and then casually positioned my arm on the armrest between us.

But either my date was clueless, or he wasn’t interested in holding hands. Because for the first third of the movie—or halfway, I was barely paying attention—he took zero notice. He didn’t even glance over at me!

This is painful. I ached inside as my entire right arm gradually lost all sense of feeling. It went from healthy blood flow to pins-and-needles pricks to cold and numb, completely and utterly lifeless. Can’t he take my hand before we need to amputate?