Call the Shots (Swim the Fly #3)(60)

“Yeah.” Matt narrows his eyes at Coop. “I’m getting all moist thinking about where I’m going to shove that pretzel once I get my hands on it.”

“Anyway,” Coop says, “Sean-o told us he was meeting you at the mall and we thought we’d tag along. I mean, if that’s chill.”

“Actually”— Evelyn squints up her left eye in a most unattractive way —“if you wouldn’t mind, this is sort of a date. I acted like a real jerksicle yesterday, and I want to make it up to Sean.”

“Well, you know what they say.” Coop waggles his eyebrows. “Nothing screams ‘I’m sorry’ quite like a dressing-room blow —”

“Whoa-kaaaay!” I grab the door and yank it open. “We better get inside before, you know, it starts to, uh, snow.”

“Or something,” Matt adds under his breath.


The four of us enter the stale warmth of the mall. The nearby food court swaddles us in its Subway-sandwich-meets-sweet-and-sour-pork smell.

“Seriously,” Evelyn says as we take a left toward Sears, “I was really hoping it could just be Sean and me.”

Coop smacks this idea out of the air. “Don’t sweat it. You won’t even notice us. We’ll be like ghosts. Besides, Matt’ll probably want to ditch you guys once we find the Body Shop. He’s run out of his Jolly Orange Body Butter, and he can’t live a day without it.”

“You think you’re dissing me,” Matt says, “but the fact that you even know what they sell at the Body Shop just shows what a girl you are.”

“Au contraire, mon frère,” Coop says. “The only reason I know the stuff exists is because you won’t shut your yap about it. How it smoothes out your pimply butt skin. How it makes you smell like an Oran-gyna. It’s pathetic, dude.”

“Hey, didn’t you want a pretzel, Matt?” Evelyn points to the Wetzel’s Pretzels at the far end of the food court. “Maybe you guys could go get one and we could meet up with you later.”

I stare at Matt, silently begging him not to bail on me.

“I do want one,” he says, “but I think I’ll get it on the way out. The longer I wait, the more sinful the cinnamon tastes.”

Aw, man, I’ve never loved him more than right now.

Evelyn sighs. She weaves her arm into mine and leans into me as we walk. “Can’t you ask them to leave us alone?” she whispers.

“They’re my friends,” I whisper back. “I don’t want to hurt their feelings.”

I take a furtive glance at the clock above the mall directory. I’ve got one minute to somehow ditch Evelyn and get over to DeLuca’s to meet up with Leyna.

How the hell am I going to pull that one off?





“ANYTHING YOU WANT.” Evelyn’s right hand sweeps out toward the mall like Willy Wonka presenting his scrumdiddlyumptious chocolate room. “My treat. Money’s no object.”

“Seriously, Evelyn,” I say, “this isn’t necessary.”

“You promised you’d let me do this for you.”

“But there’s nothing I want.”

“You haven’t even looked. Come on, let’s go in here.” Evelyn peels off and goes into Banana Republic.

I turn and glare at Coop. “What now, Einstein?”

“Dude, take a pill.” He glances at Evelyn, who’s pawing the sweaters on a display table in the store. “We just need to rejig a little. Let me think a minute.”

“I don’t have a minute.” My jaw is clenched so tight I feel like my teeth might shatter. “I’m supposed to be at DeLuca’s right now. How am I supposed to get away?”

“Okay, okay.” Coop scrubs his hand over his face. “Matt. You need to keep Evelyn here for, like, twenty minutes while we go to the coffee shop.”

Matt’s eyes nearly flop from their sockets. “What? How? What am I supposed to say?”

“Tell her Sean wants the gift to be a surprise.” Coop grabs my arm and starts pulling me away. “And that you’ll help her pick out the perfect thing.”

“But . . . What . . . I don’t . . .” Matt stammers, his head on a swivel, looking from us to the store and then back to us again. “Don’t do this to me!”

“It’ll be fine,” Coop calls over his shoulder, shoving me toward the nearest exit. “We have complete faith in you. Meet you back here in twenty!”

“I hate you!” Matt calls, defeated.

Coop flashes him a smile just as he yanks me out the door.

“Where are we going?” I say. “DeLuca’s is in the mall.”

“We’re taking the outside route,” Coop explains. “Just in case Evelyn decides she wants to come after us. She’ll look in nearby stores, not outside.”

“Good idea.”

Coop grins, a twinkle in his eye. “It’s the only kind I have.”

We start jogging down the sidewalk. The outside air is crisp and frosty. Tiny puffs of steam escape our lips as we dodge the winter-coat-clad shoppers with their bags and carts.

The perimeter of the mall is hunormous. We run for what seems like forever, passing the Gap, Toys“R” Us, the movie theater, and T. J. O’Halligans before we make the turn around the corner of Wal-Mart. My legs and lungs are burning, and I’ve actually started perspiring.