Page 56 of Shut Up and Drive

Chapter 21

THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT

Thane: Senior Year

“I’m not going to do it, Mom! It’s weird!” I heard Bash saying to his mom as I walked through their front door without knocking.

“Come on, Sebastian, she just needs to learn, and Dad is gone until Sunday,” Mrs. Spencer chimed in.

I rounded the corner into the kitchen. “What’s weird?” I asked, and took a seat on the barstool next to Bash.

“Sera got asked to the prom last-minute, and my mom thinks she needs some dancing lessons,” Bash replied. “But I refuse to slow-dance with my sister.”

A stone dropped in the bottom of my stomach.Someone else is taking Fina to prom. My Fina. The girl I’d loved for years was going to her first prom with…

“Wh-who asked her?” I stuttered, my face flushing with heat.

“Some guy in her Spanish class named Paul Gibbons,” Bash replied.

Paul Gibbons. I hated him instantly and I didn’t even know him.

“And you won’t teach her how to slow-dance… why?”

“I don’t know, man, it’s just weird.”

Mrs. Spencer’s eyes lit up. “Wait! You could do it, Thane! You’ve known her your whole life, but she’s a few steps away from being your sister.”

I rubbed the back of my neck and tried to hide my eagerness. “I mean, I can if she wants me to,” I said, but not nearly as nonchalantly as I was hoping for.

“Perfect!” Mrs. Spencer said, clapping her hands together. “Serafina! Get down here!”

Panic rose in my chest. “What, you mean, now?”

“Of course I mean now. It’s Thursday night. We dress shop after school tomorrow and prom is on Saturday.”

Sera walked into the room and my pulse quickened. She stood there in sweats and a tank top, with a messy bun in her hair, but she could’ve been wearing Louis Vuitton and it wouldn’t have made a difference. She. Was. Stunning. It took every fiber of my being to keep my jaw from slacking open. I swallowed hard and tried to salvage any moisture I could in my mouth.

“Serafina, Thane is going to teach you how to slow dance, since Sebastian is being stubborn.”

Sera looked from her mother to me, and I could’ve sworn I saw a hint of a blush appear on her cheeks. But as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, and her indifferent poker face was back in place.

She shrugged. “Okay, whatever.”

“Come on, Sebastian, you’re on dish duty,” Mrs. Spencer said, nudging Bash to the sink. “You two have the patio all toyourselves,” she said, opening the back door. But it was the sly glint in her eye when she flicked on the switch to the bistro lights that gave me pause.

The ethereal glow on the backyard created a moment more romantic than the early 2000s rom-coms that Fina loved to watch. This was feeling more and more like a potential turning point for us, and it terrified me. I faced two choices: act awkward and stiff and get it over with before she saw through my façade, or lean into it and show her what dating a gentleman felt like. With one deep inhale, I decided on the latter, and forced away the butterflies swarming in my stomach.

I stepped outside and turned around to Sera. My whole body shook as I took her hand and guided her under the lights. I opened my phone and selected the perfect song from My Best Friend’s Wedding. As the intro to Tony Bennett’s “The Way You Look Tonight” played through the speaker, I stepped closer to her than I ever had before.

I cleared my throat to make sure my voice didn’t squeak. “If you don’t know the guy, don’t let him hold you too close. This is the perfect position if you’re just friends.”

I put my hand on her waist and held our arms low with a bent elbow, keeping plenty of space between us. We swayed, taking tiny baby steps in a circle around the patio. “If you like the guy,” I stammered, “you can bring your hands in like this,” I said, tucking our clasped hands against my chest and moving a trembling hand around to her lower back. “He may even spin you to see how beautiful you look from every angle.” I pushed her back slightly—already missing having her so close—and spun her slowly, before pulling her back to me.

“What about if I dance with him like this?” she asked, as she moved my other hand to the small of her back, then clasped hers together behind my neck. Our bodies were millimeters apart—so close I could feel warmth emanating off her. My pulse kicked into high gear, and if it weren’t for muscle memory, my feet would’ve forgotten what they were doing.

“Uh, this one is for love,” I whispered, debating whether I should move her hands back to a safer position. Instead, I waited to see what she would do.

“Hmm,” she said with a smirk, then left them there.