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  A warm glow filled me all the way down to my toes. Gary remembered “our” song! “I’d like that very much,” I said, smiling up at him.

  He stepped toward me and was about to take my arm, when Colette burst into the room. “Gary! There you are! I was wondering if I should send out a search party.” Then she turned her 2,000-kilowatt smile on me. “Oh, Molly, don’t you look sweet! I do hope we’ll have time for a cozy little chat later.”

  “Gary and I were just about to dance,” I said, feeling the evening’s only bright spot suddenly grow dim.

  “I hate to disappoint you, but I’m claiming all of Gary’s slow dances,” Colette said, taking his hand and pulling him out of the room. “Hostess’s privilege, you know. I’m sure you understand.” Glancing over her shoulder, she gave me a broad wink as she led Gary away.

  Alone once again in the library, I felt hot tears sting my eyes, and wiped them away angrily. What had I expected, anyway? I was crazy to have come to this party, and even crazier to have imagined I could ever compete with Colette Carroll. As for that “cozy little chat” she’d mentioned, I’d rather die. But there I was, and unless I could figure out some way to escape, there I’d have to stay until Mark arrived to take me home. Controlling my emotions with great effort, I followed Colette and Gary down the hall and out onto the terrace.

  “Hey, where’d you disappear to, Molly?” Steve asked, coming over me. “Want to dance?”

  On the other side of the pool, Gary and Colette were holding each other close as they moved in time to the music, their reflections dancing among the candles on the surface of the water. I dragged my eyes back to Steve, who was waiting more or less patiently for an answer.

  “Thanks, Steve,” I said, “but all of a sudden I’m not feeling very well. Would you mind giving me a ride home instead?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Thanks for the ride,” I said as Steve’s car sped through the darkness, taking us farther and farther away from the scene of my misery. “I’m sorry I made you leave the party early, though.”

  “No problem,” he assured me. “Believe me, I was glad to get out of there, and not just because I figure that Eddie and I are going to lose our bet. I wasn’t getting any thrill from watching Queen Colette playing games with her latest toy-boy.”

  “Don’t call him that!” I cried hotly.

  “Why not?” Steve said with a shrug. “That’s exactly what he is. Poor old Gary! He’ll be history the minute somebody better comes along.”

  That was exactly what I thought myself, but I couldn’t be flippant about it the way Steve was. If there were even the tiniest chance that Colette really loved Gary, I would have tried my best to be happy for him. But she was bound to hurt him, and there was nothing whatsoever to be happy about.

  “In fact, that’s our only hope of winning the bet,” Steve continued. “If some supercool dude shows up soon, maybe she’ll ditch Gary before prom night.”

  “I think that is a disgusting attitude!” I snapped.

  “Okay, okay,” Steve said, laughing as he stopped the car in front of my house. “I forgot that you’ve been helping Mark—I guess you have a pretty big stake in this yourself. By the way, there’s someone else who needs your help. Eddie’s thinking of asking your friend Jan to the prom, and he wants to know if you’d put in a good word for him.”

  That was the last straw. “Why am I suddenly responsible for finding everybody a date for the prom?” I demanded. “Why doesn’t somebody find me a date? Not that I want one, anyway,” I added quickly, “because I’m sick and tired of the whole stupid thing!”

  With that, I climbed out of the car and ran into the house.

  Nobody was home. Mom and Dad were playing bridge with some friends, and Mark had gone to the movies with Eddie. I was glad, because the last thing I needed was to answer a lot of questions about why I’d left the party so early.

  As I turned on the light in my room, I glimpsed my reflection in the mirror over my dresser. The very sight of my expensive pink dress made me feel sick inside. I had thought Mark’s bet was crazy, but I had gambled more recklessly than he ever had, and I had lost.

  I took off the dress and threw it over a chair. Sooner or later I would have to hang it up, but at that moment I didn’t even want to look at it. I ripped the flowers out of my hair, replaced them with a plain rubber band, and put on an old pair of sweatpants and one of Mark’s cast-off T-shirts.

  It was still too early to go to bed, not that I could have even slept, and there’s nothing like food to heal a broken heart, or at least anesthetize it, so I went down to the kitchen.

  I found some brownies that Mom had baked, poured myself a glass of milk, then took them to the den and curled up on the sofa to watch a corny old thriller on TV. Unfortunately, even The Squid That Ate Manhattan couldn’t keep my mind off Gary. Every time the giant squid’s snakelike tentacles twined around a skyscraper, I thought of Colette wrapping her long, slender arms around Gary’s neck.

  About halfway through the movie, the grandfather clock in the foyer struck eleven. The party would probably be over now, and all the guests would be gone, leaving Gary alone with Colette…

  At that moment the doorbell rang, interrupting my bleak thoughts.

  “Coming!” I yelled as the bell rang a second time.

  Mom and Dad would have their keys, but my brother often forgot his. I braced myself for the inevitable questions, beginning with why I hadn’t waited for him to pick me up, and unlocked the door. But when I flung it open, it wasn’t Mark who stood there.

  “Gary!” I gasped, painfully aware of how messy I looked. “What are you doing here?”

  I could have cut out my tongue for my incredible display of rudeness, but Gary didn’t seem to notice my bad manners.

  “Hi, Molly,” he said. “Can I come in?”

  Feeling numb, I stepped aside to let him enter. “Mark went to the movies with Eddie,” I babbled, “but he should be back any minute…”

  “I didn’t come to see Mark,” Gary said. “I came to see you. I looked all over for you at the party, but they said you’d gone. There’s something I have to tell you.” He looked as awkward and uncomfortable as I felt.

  “Is it about—about Colette and the prom?” I asked.

  Gary shoved his hands into his pants pockets and looked down at his new shoes. “Well, yeah, in a way.”

  “She didn’t turn you down, did she?” If Colette Carroll had led Gary on just so she could dump him, I would strangle her with my bare hands!

  “No, she didn’t turn me down,” he said. “I didn’t ask her. To tell you the truth, I’m not going to ask her.”

  I had a horrible suspicion that I had fallen asleep in front of The Squid That Ate Manhattan. But if this was a dream, I never wanted to wake up. “You’re not going to—”

  “Look, Molly,” Gary interrupted, “I know you’ve spent an awful lot of time on me, and I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful, but this just isn’t working out. After Colette started coming on to me, it took me less than three days to figure out that I didn’t really care anything about her.” He raised his head and looked deep into my eyes. “I know Mark is counting on me to win his bet, but it’s my prom, too, and I think I ought to have some say about who I take. Molly, I’m nobody’s dream date, and nobody knows that better than you. But—but I love you, and…”

  Somewhere I was sure I heard a choir of angels begin singing the Hallelujah Chorus. “I love you, too,” I said softly.

  “…And if you’ll just give me a chance. I’ll try not to make you wash dishes, or land you in jail, or—what did you just say?”

  I smiled radiantly at him. “I said, I love you, too.”

  Gary stared at me. “But I thought you wanted me to go to the prom with Colette!”

  “Only because I thought you wanted to go with her! I mean, the dancing lessons, the contacts, the big dinner…”

  “It might have started out that way, but before long all I rea
lly wanted to do was be with you, and maybe prove to you that I wasn’t completely hopeless.” He shook his head. “Boy, did that ever backfire!”

  “You don’t have to prove anything to me, Gary,” I murmured. “I think I’ve loved you ever since I heard you make that really pathetic remark to Colette about the weather!”

  “Is that so? Well, what do you know!” A smile slowly began to spread across Gary’s face. “I guess I ought to kiss you or something, huh?”

  “That would be nice,” I breathed, suddenly shy.

  Gary moved forward to take me in his arms, and stepped on my toe. “Sorry,” he muttered with a self-conscious grin. When he bent down to kiss me, our noses bumped a couple of times before his lips finally found mine. It wasn’t the sort of kiss that dreams are made of, but somehow it seemed just right, and it got even better with practice.

  In fact, we were still practicing fifteen minutes later, when the sound of the front door opening made us jump apart. Looking up, we saw Mark standing in the doorway, scowling.

  “I suppose you realize,” he said, finding his voice at last, “that you two just cost me twenty dollars!”

  Gary grinned. “Sorry about that, Mark,” he said, still holding me tightly around the waist. “But there are limits to a friendship, you know.”

  “Hmmm,” Mark said thoughtfully, his eyes kindling with hope. “Maybe it’s not too late. Do you think you guys could keep quiet about this until after the prom? It’s only a couple of weeks away, you know, and...”

  “Nope,” Gary said firmly. “Not a chance.”

  “Aw, come on, Gary!” Mark protested. “After all, if it weren’t for me, you two wouldn’t have gotten together at all! How about showing a little gratitude?”

  I looked up at Gary. “I don’t feel that grateful. Do you?”

  He shook his head. “Not in the least.”

  “Okay, how’s this? What if I give you a share of my winnings?” Mark coaxed. “Gary takes Colette to the prom, and we split the money seventy-thirty! I think it’s only fair that I get seventy percent, since I’m the one who—”

  “Go to your room, Mark,” I said.

  “Sixty-forty?”

  “Forget it!”

  Mark groaned. “All right, all right! Fifty-fifty, and that’s my final offer!”

  “Good! Now, will you please go away and leave us alone?”

  “Sorry, Mark,” Gary said, “but there’s only one girl I’m taking to the prom—if she’ll go with me, that is,” he added, smiling down at me.

  “Okay, then, be that way!” Mark grumbled as he stomped up the stairs. “See if I ever do any more favors for you!”

  “I feel kind of guilty in a way.” Gary said after Mark was gone and we were alone again. “We did have a deal, you know.”

  “Don’t worry about Mark,” I told him. “By Monday he’ll have come up with some new scheme for winning even more money. Now, about the prom…”

  “What about it?”

  “What did you mean, if I’ll go with you?”

  “Don’t you remember? That night at the Lamplighter, you told me you weren’t going because you had other plans.”

  “I lied,” I confessed. “I said that only because I couldn’t bear to see you there with Colette.”

  Smiling, Gary said, “Well, since that’s no longer an issue, do you think there’s any chance that I could make you change your mind?”

  I stood on tiptoe and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’d be willing to bet on it!”