With Love, from Cold World(70)

“I’ll have punch, too,” she said, and he added another cup to the order.

“I’m sorry,” the bartender said, giving him a polite smile, “but I’m only allowed to give one drink per person with valid ID.”

“Just two punches, then,” Asa said, sliding his driver’s license across the counter with a five-dollar bill as a tip. “Thanks.”

Kiki put her ID on the counter, too, and the bartender glanced at both before pouring the drinks.

“Can’t believe we’re getting carded!” Kiki said, sipping hers as they walked away. “What a time to be alive.”

“I’m sure they have to for liability reasons.” It was such a thing that Lauren would’ve said, had she been standing there, that Asa glanced back over in her direction. She was still standing with Dolores and Daniel, one arm at her side, the other crossed over her body to grasp her elbow. They still were deep in whatever debate they were having, and she looked uncomfortable but made no motion to leave.

“Okay,” Kiki said, “as your housemate and friend and a person with sight I demand to know. What is going on?”

Asa didn’t pretend to misunderstand the question. “Lauren won that date with Daniel,” he said. “It looks like they’re on it.”

“Then why are you getting her a drink,” Kiki said. “And why did I catch you with your hands all over—”

Asa shot her a glare, and she mimed a sarcastic zipping of her lips, which he could’ve pointed out she’d already pretended to do earlier and thrown out the key. Obviously he should’ve shaken her down for any spares.

“We’re friends,” he said. “I think.”

“I didn’t even know you liked each other. I thought you found each other annoying.”

Asa supposed that must’ve been true at some point, although it was so hard to remember. It had only been a few weeks, and already he had a hard time not thinking of Lauren the way he did now—someone who’d start a snowball fight at work, who used random number generator lists to get through her day, who’d listened to his most painful memories with so much compassion that he felt like he could tell her anything.

But of course he couldn’t. Because at this point, his biggest secret was probably just how much he did like her. The problem was that he couldn’t quite figure out how she felt. She was attracted to him—that part couldn’t just be in his head. But then there’d been her whole rant about not being capable of casual sex. Was that all she thought it was?

Asa took an automatic sip of the punch in his hand, making a face when he realized that yes, it was as strong as he remembered. It also wasn’t his. “Fuck,” he said. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Kiki rolled her eyes. “I assume you and Lauren have swapped spit before, so it’s not like—” She broke off as Lauren came up to join them. “Hey! We were just talking about you. About your drink. Asa accidentally had some.”

“Oh,” Lauren said, her fingers brushing his as she accepted the plastic cup from him. “That’s okay.”

She took a tentative sip, then immediately started coughing. “Wow. It’s so . . . sweet.”

“It’s deadly,” Kiki said, tapping her cup against Lauren’s in a quick cheers. “Someone take my phone away, because after one of these I can’t be held responsible for anything I text Marj.”

Kiki started explaining to Lauren what she’d already told Asa, about how Marj had bailed on the holiday party at the last minute. Lauren made sympathetic noises in the right places, and it wasn’t long before they were huddled together and giggling over something on Kiki’s phone. Asa left to grab the beer he’d wanted, and by the time he got back, Lauren had somehow gotten monopolized by Daniel again, who was leading her away from Kiki and back over to Dolores.

After that, it was hard to keep track of where Lauren was at the party, because she seemed to move every five minutes. She was sitting on the bleachers next to Elliot, intent in conversation. She was laughing, trying to land a jingle bell in a cup for a chance to win a gift card. She was getting another drink. The band started playing “Last Christmas,” and she was dancing with Kiki.

There was something so endearing about the way Lauren danced. She seemed self-conscious at first, unsure of what to do with her arms. All her moves were in her shoulders, which she shimmied to the beat, doing a cute little head bang when the drums kicked in louder. He found himself smiling, raising his beer to John when his housemate looked up from his guitar solo. It was obvious he was playing the Jimmy Eat World version, but that was okay. Asa could be magnanimous.

By the time Dolores gathered everyone around the bleachers for the gift exchange, Asa was all keyed up. When she handed him his Santa hat, he almost didn’t know what to do with it.

“You’re still handing out, yes?” she asked.

Of course. As he’d done every year. Almost everyone ended up announcing themself when their gift was opened, but in the true spirit of the “secret” part, Asa distributed all the presents to their marked recipients to preserve anonymity. He grabbed one at random, reading Saulo’s name before tossing it to him.

“Hey,” Saulo said, catching the wrapped present. “This could’ve been that crystal snowman I had my eye on in the gift shop.”