I pretended I wasn’t surprised by his assumption. “How do you know I wasn’t the one who messed it up?”
“I just do,” he said with so much confidence my gaze returned to his face. He smirked. “So? What happened?”
“In Jake Jagielski’s defense, he hadn’t known someone had spiked the punch.”
“Oh no.”
I sighed, because oh no indeed. “Prom night. Jake had been trying to kiss me the whole night, and I’d been dying for him to finally do it.” I chuckled at the memory of us dancing with almost three feet of space between our bodies. “He’d been so nervous, though. He’d forgotten my corsage, his tie was all crooked, and his palms were sweaty on my shoulders.”
“I feel that. Poor little guy.”
“You get sweaty hands, too?”
Lucas made sure he was meeting my gaze when he said, “I would if I was trying to work up the courage to kiss a girl like you.”
I stared at him, my head spinning with the possibility. The thought of Lucas’s lips on mine. Of his mouth moving against mine. Would he really be nervous? Was his admission… true?
This is experimental flirting, I reminded myself.
I cleared my throat. “So, anyway. We were dancing, spinning in slow circles, song after song after song. ‘Speed of Sound’ comes to an end, Jake leans forward very slowly, and I start thinking, Oh my God, he’s going to do it. Here comes my first kiss. I close my eyes and wait for that brush of his lips against mine and then, boom, they are there. Pressing tightly against my mouth. Just a peck. But I was so shocked that I opened my eyes just in time to see…” I trailed off, shivering at the recollection of what happened next. “Jake rearing back and hurling all over my dress.”
Lucas’s eyes grew wide, just as his mouth formed a big O. He whispered, “No.”
“Oh yes.”
He plucked the Coldplay album from my hands and put it back into the crate. “Okay, let’s stay away from Coldplay. I don’t want you thinking about that.”
He pulled a new vinyl out and held it in the air. “What about the Smiths?”
“Too sad. Reminds me of （500） Days of Summer.”
He frowned. “Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing? That’s a rom-com, isn’t it?”
I gasped, a little outraged. “The first line of the movie is literally a warning that it’s not a love story.”
Lucas chuckled and picked another one. “Elton John?”
I sighed and patted my chest. “Uh, I couldn’t.”
“Another sad soundtrack?”
My brows rose. “Can you think of Elton John without thinking of ‘Your Song’？ Of Moulin Rouge?”
Lucas frowned. “Wasn’t that a—”
I turned my head very slowly. Pinned him with a look. “The most beautiful yet heartbreaking movie ever made? Yes, it was.”
He dropped the Elton John record back on its box with a snicker and something in Spanish I didn’t catch.
I decided to ignore that as we continued browsing, something occurring to me. “I’ve told you about my first kiss. I think it’s only fair you tell me about yours.”
One corner of his lips tugged up. “My first kiss wasn’t memorable in any way. Good or bad.”
“What about any other firsts? I feel like I’m owed an embarrassing moment from you.”
He tilted his head. “I might have one. But it’s not nearly as good as yours.”
“I still want to hear about it.”
Lucas thought about it for so long that I thought he wasn’t going to tell me. But then, he said, “It’s the story of the night I didn’t lose my virginity.”
My hand came to a halt just as I was lifting a record off a crate.
My jaw might have dropped to the floor.
I stuttered over my words. Words that were not even leaving my mouth.
Did that mean…？ No.
Impossible.
It couldn’t be. There was no way.
Lucas threw his head back and let out a laugh. “Oh, you should see your face right now. I’m tempted to take a picture, actually.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him pulling out his phone, and that snapped me out of it. I patted at his arm. “What face? I have no face whatsoever.”
“Oh, you do.” He shook his head, pushing the phone back in his pocket. “It’s the face you made while you wondered whether I’m still a virgin.”
I looked around, checking for other customers close by, concerned on Lucas’s behalf. But Lucas didn’t seem to care.