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“Don’t laugh,” I say with a snicker of my own. “It was awful. And freaking cold. Hence the frostbite.”

She rolls her eyes. “Unless they turned black and fell off, you don’t have frostbite. But you did kiss him, though?”

“Why does it sound like you already know the answer to that.”

She groans. “Tyler might have called Jeremy after he dropped you off, but I only got the basics. He didn’t say anything about you taking a swim. Guess we’re taking his name off the list?”

“Nicole!” A shot of adrenaline hits my heart. “We agreed to burn the list.”

“Chill.” She darts her eyes around the dining room. “I-I was being metaphorical. But I’m assuming you’re not going out with Tyler again.”

“He wants another chance, but I don’t see that happening.” I take another bite of pastry despite protests from my churning stomach.

“There’s always Caleb, right?”

“I guess.” I shrug, second-guessing my date with Caleb and wondering if I’m cursed to stay a virgin until I’m thirty—or at least until I get out of college.

“You can’t give up now,” Nicole says as if reading my mind.

“Why not?” I choke down the last bite, chasing it with a mouthful of hot coffee. “Everything was fine until we came up with the damn list.”

“Things were so not fine. Does the name Lucas ring a bell?” Nicole pushes away from the table and stands.

“Lucas is old news. We’ve been over for months. I don’t even think about him that way anymore.” If I truly ever did, the little voice inside my head reminds me.

“Oh, come on. You may not want him anymore, but I know how humiliated you were. Hell, everyone knows.”

“I’d rather not talk about Lucas.” Or think about him or see him. Ever.

“Fine.” With a heavy sigh, she crosses her arms. “So what about your mom? She’s not going away anytime soon. Face it. List or no list, you’ll eventually have to start dating again, so what about Caleb, Elijah, and Trey . . . or Aaron for that matter.”

I shudder as an image of Selina kneeling at Lucas’s feet pops up, and I quickly replace Lucas’s face with Aaron’s. Glaring at her, I jump up and toss my barely touched coffee into the closest trash can. My stomach is unsettled enough as is.

“I’m not going out with Aaron. End of discussion.”

“Okay.” She holds up her hands like a shield between us. “Don’t bite my head off. Let’s focus on Caleb. You already have plans with him, so go . . . have fun. Where’s he taking you, anyway?”

I glance at her out of the corner of my eye as we approach the exit. “To the pool.”

“Swimming? In February?”

“It’s indoors. And heated. Caleb said he has a key to get in after hours.”

She stops walking to face me. “You’re not on the swim team. Is that even allowed?”

“I guess? Caleb seems to think it’s fine.”

“He’d know better than me,” she mutters. “What’ll you wear? And don’t tell me some boring old one-piece.”

I open my mouth to respond, but before I can get the words out, I catch a glimpse of Lucas stalking toward us, steely-blue eyes locked on mine. He looks furious, bearing down on us like he’s ready for battle.

“Oh shit . . .” I hiss under my breath and run for the nearest ladies’ room.

“Kennedy, wait!” He reaches for me but isn’t fast enough to catch me before I duck inside.

“What do you want, Lucas?” Nicole’s voice carries to the stall I’m hiding in. “Oh, no, you forfeited your rights. Kennedy’s not your business anymore.”

He must use his ultrasoft luxury-car-ad voice, because I can’t hear his reply.