The lady next to me pats my arm. “Don’t worry. I saw the way she was looking at you outside at the ceremony. That girl only has eyes for you.” She mumbles something like “Young love,” as she shifts on her seat.
Now I feel like an even bigger asshole. I’m the reason she’s up there with that fucker’s hand on her hip, facing a fear that’s got her all freaked out. I’m pretty sure she’s as into me as I am into her, but I keep playing the girlfriend card to keep my distance while finding ways to string her along. Like I said. Asshole. It’s one thing to have Lacey cringe with undisguised disgust when I showed her my legs, but to see that on Nina’s face? Christ Almighty, kill me now.
The women onstage chant a song, a hypnotic rhythm, and Nina looks panicked. She’s stiff, wide-eyed, and she jerks a few times as she struggles to remember the steps. It’s not a complicated dance, the same few moves repeated with the guys stomping and singing behind them, but I’m guessing her chorophobia has her drawing a blank. I give her a thumbs-up and whistle on my other fingers. She bites her lip, smiles, and loosens up.
By the end of the song, after only one almost-fall-on-her-face moment, she’s smiling so wide it’s contagious. Until Conan comes up behind her, whispers in her ear again, and leads her offstage. The show continues as I wait for her to sit beside me, but it’s hard to focus with the way I’m grinding my teeth.
* * *
“I still can’t believe you made me do that and didn’t even warn me.” Nina’s red hair looks black in the darkness, the backdrop of the fire sparking in her eyes. She tips her head back to sip her beer, still smirking.
At least she’s not pissed. I crack open my can and take a generous gulp while our group mingles around the sparsely wooded area beside the meetinghouse. The charred barbeque smell from the deep pit in the ground lingers from our tasty meal of roast chicken and potatoes. “If I’d told you about it, would you have come?”
She wraps both hands around her can and sways her shoulders. “No. No way. Not a chance.”
“And was it fun? Do you feel invincible? Like you could write a girl power song and star in your own video?”
“Yeah, Sam. That’s exactly how I feel. Actually…I feel a lyric coming on.” She snaps her fingers and leans over her beer like it’s a microphone. “R-E-V-E-N-G-E, find out what it means to me. R-E-V-E-N-G-E, don’t get cocky, wait and see.” She sings the whole thing to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.”
I practically snort a stream of beer through my nose. “I think you’ve missed your calling. But revenge? Does that mean you’re gonna try to conquer your fear of being mean on your own? What was that one called again?”
“That one I had to make up. I couldn’t find a term and decided on canuckaphobia.” When I squint at her, she shrugs. “You know Canuck, as in Canadian? Like we’re always so polite and stuff. Always neutral. We’re the Switzerland of North America.”
“Right. Canuck.” I nod a few times. We sip our beers and watch one of the Maori leaders with a small group explaining how they cook the food in the underground pits. Another guy adds some logs to the fire and it roars back to life. I nudge her with my elbow. “What’s next on the list, anyway?”
She looks over my shoulder and gives a little wave. I turn as Conan the Barbarian waves back. I move to block him from view. Fat chance with the size of him.
She faces me, a mischievous glint in her eye. “How about androphobia?”
“Definition, please.”
“Androphobia.” She drops her voice and looks around like a spy about to share a world-ending secret. “Fear of men.” Her eyes dart back to the giant.
And I almost crush my beer can. Is that why she looks at me the way she does, because she wants something she’s never had? With me? Or with that mutant of a man? “Please tell me you’re messing around. Conan the fucking Barbarian? You must not value my life.”
“Your life? What does this have to do with you? And his name, by the way, is Cliff.”
Cliff? Shit. Didn’t see that one coming. “Look, if you go over there and talk to…Cliff, and he does anything to make you uncomfortable, I’m gonna