“Seriously? You like her?” This surprised her, but she wasn’t sure why. Pete was in his mid-twenties and liked to have a lot of fun. It made sense that he’d be attracted to Toni, who was the same kind of personality. “Are you thinking about asking her out?”
“Thinking about it. She’s fun and she’s hot. I just wonder if any of what she does during class is for real or just for entertainment purposes.”
She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Do you want me to feel her out?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “No. I can get my own date without you working it for me. We’re not in third grade.”
“Hmm… We’ll see.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the first of the women in the class so Julie never got to follow through on it.
After class was over, she grabbed Toni. “Hey, you’re picking this up really well. You were tossing Pete all over the place.”
Toni’s eyes sparkled. “Thanks. Is it wrong to be this happy about beating up on a guy?”
Julie laughed. “As long as you don’t do it unprovoked, I think it’s okay to be pleased with yourself and your progress.”
“Cool. I think all that physical activity earned me a reward. I don’t suppose you’d want to go grab a mocha with me, would you?”
Julie really should help the guys restore the order to the room, but when she looked over to where they were working, they’d already gotten everything done. Pete watched her talking with Toni. When he caught her eye, he raised a questioning eyebrow. Yeah, playing matchmaker was going to be fun. She turned back to Toni. “Well, it looks like the guys handled all the work without me so I’d love to. Were you thinking The Mocha Mermaid?”
“Where else would we go for mochas?”
“My thoughts exactly. Just let me go tell the guys goodnight.” The girls walked over to the three men who looked none the worse for wear after being tossed around all evening. She turned toward Lyle and Stephen. “Thanks for the help again tonight. We couldn’t do this without you.”
Stephen piped up, “I would say you’re welcome, but,” he arched his back as if in pain, “these girls are getting too tough.” He flashed an appraising look at Toni. “I’m not sure how much more my body can take.”
“Aww, don’t act like you’d actually quit. This is the closest you get to female attention all week,” Lyle taunted.
“Yeah, I get the feeling that you’re one of those guys who just views this kind of thing as foreplay.” Toni winked at Stephen and Pete’s jaw clenched.
Ooh, this wasn’t going as planned, time to bring it to an end. “We’re going to head out. Pete, I’ll call you about the plans for our next class.”
“Sounds good. You two have a good night.”
Toni had already turned toward the door so she missed Pete, vehemently shaking his head as he was telling Julie not to say anything to Toni. Julie mouthed to him, It’s okay.
His shoulders slumped. Obviously the guy didn’t trust her to keep his crush hidden from Toni. He probably had good instincts like that.
* * *
As the women sat down at one of the small round tables of the quaint, but bustling, coffee shop with their mochas, Julie’s noticed the gorgeous charm bracelet Toni was placing on her wrist.
“That’s beautiful.” Julie reached across the table and lifted Toni’s wrist to get a better look at it. It was completely full of dangling silver charms.
“Thanks. I’ve had it almost my entire life and I wear it all the time. Every charm on it means something, but it’s too much to wear during class.” She gave a small laugh. “Although I think it could work pretty well as a weapon if I needed it.”
It occurred to Julie that she didn’t really know anything about the fun-loving girl. “So did you grow up in Lubbock or are you a transplant?”
Toni rolled her unusual turquoise eyes and laughed. “Definitely a transplant. I moved here when I came to Texas Tech for college and then just never left. I grew up in a tiny, Podunk little town in Oklahoma. I had to get out of there before I became barefoot and pregnant like every other woman in town of birthing age.”
That was all said with such vehemence and outrage that Julie couldn’t help but laugh. She really did love this girl’s sass. “So I’m guessing there’s no Mr. Toni or kids at home?”