Asa waited for her response, feeling more and more like a fool when it didn’t come. Even Kiki seemed to take pity on him, throwing out her own “Do you want us to get you anything?”
Lauren dragged her gaze away from Daniel long enough to give Kiki a distracted smile. “No, thanks.” Then she glanced at Asa, as if suddenly remembering something. “Actually, punch sounds good.”
Under different circumstances, Asa might’ve warned Lauren about just how strong the punch was. He couldn’t remember if he’d seen her drinking any in the previous years, but since he’d never seen her even close to tipsy, he doubted it. But she was already turning back to the conversation between Daniel and his mother, despite the fact that they were making no effort to even try to include Lauren. Asa would’ve expected that kind of rudeness from Daniel, but he was surprised at Dolores. It wasn’t like her, especially at a holiday party where she normally went overboard trying to ensure that the employees enjoyed themselves.
He and Kiki headed to the makeshift bar that had been set up in the corner that inevitably attracted a bunch of discarded jackets, piled up while people were skating and forgotten more often than you might think. Their lost and found looked like a Burlington Coat Factory had exploded. But for tonight, the caterers had set up a counter with a limited selection of beverages, and Asa ordered a beer and a cup of punch before turning to Kiki.
“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.”