Kevin’s dad rolled his eyes at the guys’ antics. He knew he didn’t have to warn us, but he did anyway.
“Kevin,” his mother called after us as we piled into the limo. “Call us if anything comes up. We’ll be back in the morning.”
We took about five hundred more pictures in the limo, and during dinner, which was amazing. The only thing not so amazing was how Sean had been distracted by his phone. I tried to get his attention throughout dinner, but I kept losing it. At one point, I’d put my hand on his knee and slowly moved it up before he jerked and halted my progress with his hand. Moving it to the top of the table.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“It’s the tux, isn’t it?” He pulled at his jacket and gave me a wink. “Irresistible.”
“It’s all you, baby.”
He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. Always soft.
Part of me wanted to reach up, pull him down and kiss the living hell out of him, but I refrained, remembering the one time I’d tried to encourage him. He’d kissed me goodnight and I jokingly kind of told him to pull my hair and take what he wanted. Instead, he’d pulled back, looked at me like I’d lost my mind, and then laughed it off. It hurt, and it had left its mark.
When we reached the convention center where prom was taking place, we snagged a table and put our purses down. Immediately the girls all headed out to the dance floor. Too often, I’d turn to find Sean staring at his phone or looking around the room. When we were hot and tired, we went back to the table to munch on some of the party snacks and drinks.
We repeated the same process for another hour. Some of the girls even got the guys up to dance with them. Jane looked like she was performing a private dance for Kevin in the middle of the floor. My insides cringed watching how forward she was, but the other girls cheered her on. She’d always seemed so quiet and shy, but she was pulling out all the stops for Kevin’s attention.
I even got Sean to get up and dance one dance with me. He was a horrible dancer, but he made up for it with exuberance, jumping up and down and giving it his all. Maybe I was being hard on him and he wasn’t really that distracted. But the next song, he returned to the table.
I danced with Gwen and Chloe, and then, needing another break, I went back to join my date. He pulled me down on his lap. “Having fun?” he asked.
“It’s always fun to get all dolled up and dance with friends.” I moved his hand to my hip. “And to have a handsome man at my side,” I whispered in his ear. Maybe I was getting desperate for his attention. When a slow song came on, I leaned down and pecked his lips before asking, “Dance with me?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but his phone went off again and he turned to check the screen. “Maybe next song, babe. Let me go get drinks,” he said without even looking up. He patted my hip and then moved me to the next seat before taking off.
A burn began in the back of my eyes at the brush off. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I leaned back in the chair and watched the other couples dance. One song bled into two . . . then three and four. Still, Sean hadn’t returned. A few times Kevin would catch my eye and gesture for me to come dance with him, but I waved his offer away. When he attempted to shimmy in my direction to lure me over, I laughed. But it hurt, squeezing past the pain of having my date leave me there alone.
I rose and went to the bathroom, killing time while I waited for my missing date. From the lobby outside the ballroom, I could see Sean still hadn’t returned to our table, so I decided to call him. I leaned against the wall and waited for him to answer. I listened to the ringing in my ear, straightening up when I heard the ringing also coming from behind the door to the stairwell next to me. When the ringing stopped, I called again thinking the first time was just a coincidence. Again, the ringing echoed behind the door.
I pushed the door open slowly, despite the feeling in my gut that nothing good was going to be on the other side.
My heart sank. Actually, it didn’t sink. It plummeted and crashed at my feet, taking my lungs with it, which would explain why I couldn’t breathe.
“Yeah . . . Just like that,” Sean growled, encouraging the person kneeling in front of him, head bobbing over Sean’s unzipped pants. The door clicked shut behind me, and Sean’s eyes shot open to see me standing there, frozen in place.