Meet Cute(55)

“No thongs, and nothing lacy or satin. I promise, only cotton.”

“Thank you.” He presses a soft kiss to my knuckle and his gaze lifts, along with the corner of his mouth. “Feel free to pick up something for yourself, too.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ll text when we’re done.”

I find Emme in the pajama section. “Thanks a lot for coming with us today. It would’ve been embarrassing to bring Dax in here.”

“I’m more than happy to have an excuse to go shopping.” I give her a side hug and we browse the pajamas.

“You know, Dax talks about you a lot.”

“Oh?” I’m not sure what to say to that.

Emme chews on her ragged thumbnail. “He really likes you.”

“Well, I like him, too. And I like you.” I knock my shoulder against hers. I have a feeling I know where she’s going with this, and I’d prefer to have a conversation with Dax, and maybe ask him exactly what he’s said about me. “Oh! These are fun!” I hold up a pair of black pajama pants covered in glow-in-the-dark stars.

“Those are cool.” She picks up the pair with a black skull and pink rose design. “But do you, like, like him like him, or just like him?”

I feign ignorance. “What do you mean?”

Emme shrugs. “I don’t know. Are you guys just, like, friends and stuff?”

“We’re friends like you and I are friends.”

“Right. Yeah. That’s what I thought.” She looks disappointed, which makes me question exactly how Dax and I need to manage this moving forward. It’s the reason I haven’t committed to anything either way. I can manage a broken heart, but I can’t deal with breaking Emme’s if Dax and I don’t work out.

Emme and I spend the next half hour picking out bras and underwear, a couple of new pairs of pajamas, and some athletic wear.

“These are fun!” Emme picks up a pair of hot-pink boy shorts covered in cherries. I don’t think she gets what they mean yet. “Are you going to buy anything? You should get something, too.”

I humor her and let her pick out a few pairs of underwear for me. My personal favorite are the black and gold leopard-print ones that say GO WILD! over the crotch.

Dax is sitting on a bench, playing on his phone, when we come out of the store. He glances up, taking in Emme’s bag and my own much smaller one. “Successful?”

I pass him the change—there isn’t much. “Very.”

His gaze goes to the bag hanging from my finger, his eyebrow raised in question. “What’d you get?”

“We picked out some fun underwear for Kailyn!” Emme says, rather loudly, while grinning.

“Did you, now?” Dax smirks while my face turns red.

“I don’t know about either of you, but I’m starving! We should definitely find a place to eat.” Based on Emme’s smile, I have a feeling she might’ve invited me on this shopping trip with ulterior motives.

We end up at a sushi place and spend another two hours shopping after that. Dax is a trooper, giving his opinion when he sees something he likes. And of course I end up trying on a bunch of things, too, because Emme seems to think it’s funny for us to wear the same outfits, seeing as I’m not much taller than she is. I imagine when she hits her growth spurt she’ll shoot up.

The best part of the entire shopping experience is our stop in the kitschy little store that sells memorabilia inspired by TV shows and movies. “Let’s see if they have It’s My Life stuff!” I thread my arm through Emme’s and drag her inside. I don’t even check to see if Dax follows.

I head straight for the posters. They have lots of old movie ones but nothing from Dax’s show, so I move on to the T-shirts, rummaging around in the last-chance rack, because sometimes they have great finds. “Oh my God!” I shriek when I find the one shirt I’ve been dying to own since forever, and it’s on sale. “Look at this!” I hold up the It’s My Life T-shirt and then hug it to my chest. It features Dax in a Tiger Beat–style pose, wearing his signature smirk with #1 Dustin Fan in bright yellow letters.

The teenager behind the cash register barely spares me a glance, and Emme looks at me like I’ve gone crazy. Dax is standing with his arms crossed over his chest, wearing pretty much the same expression as he is on the shirt. It’s a small, but I’ll squeeze my chest into it.

“This is a classic! Season two, episode seven. Best hair episode in the entire season, maybe the whole show! I’m so getting this! Oh! I wonder if they have anything else. Excuse me,” I call to the kid at the register. “Do you have any more It’s My Life stuff?”

He’s busy texting, so it takes several seconds before he finds the will to lift his eyes from the screen and shrug. “Uh, maybe in the clearance section?”

“I’m sure anything you find in here will be in the basement at my house,” Dax mutters.

“But this is way more fun than going through boxes in a basement!” I practically skip my way over to the clearance bin and rummage around while Emme tries on weird hats. I find a chipped mug with Dax on it that matches my new shirt, a bobblehead, and a keychain.

Impressed with my haul, I head for the checkout.

Dax gives me a look. “What’re you doing?”