Love Proof (Laws of Attraction)

Thirteen

When Sarah emerged from Joe’s bathroom with her hair done, makeup on, and wearing the most expensive outfit she’d ever owned—a navy blue pencil skirt and snug-fitting jacket, with a crisp white cotton blouse underneath—Joe took a step back and made a fist at his heart.

“Shut up,” she said, but the gesture pleased her.

“Red, you’re a total knockout.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Okay, Henley,” Joe said, “but you’re not actually going out like that, are you? Give the rest of us a chance.”

She smoothed her skirt over her thighs. “You think I look okay?”

Joe looked her up and down once more, and let his eyes linger at her chest.

“Nice fit,” he said.

She crossed her arms.

“Don’t ever be embarrassed of having a great body, Henley,” Joe said. “You’re doing a public service walking around like that.”

“Can we go?” she asked dryly.

He stepped closer and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Great. Am I going to have a problem with you, too?” she asked. She tried to sound irritated, knowing the flush on her skin might give her away.

“Can’t help it,” Joe said. “You’re that beautiful.”

Sarah glanced at her watch, just to have something to do. He wasn’t making her nervous, exactly, just . . . distracted.

Joe lifted his own suit jacket from where it hung over a chair, and met her at the door. He opened it for her, then followed her out into the hall.

“You’re gonna kill,” he told her. “And not just because all the male judges will be salivating. I’ve listened to your argument, Sarah, and it’s great.”

The compliment pleased her even more than any of the ones about her looks. “Yours, too, Joe. You’re one of the best I’ve seen.”

“In a lot of respects,” he said, and when she raised an eyebrow at him, showing him how unimpressed she was by what was obviously a line, he added, “But we can talk about that after one of us wins.”

***

Mickey was obviously not happy.

Joe wished Sarah and Mickey good luck, then left to find Ellen.

“What are you doing with him?” Mickey muttered, pulling Sarah off to the side.

“Sleeping,” she said. “Literally sleeping. You should be happy I did, too—I feel fine again, thanks for asking.”

Mickey swung his arms back and forth in front of his chest and hopped in place a few times like he was about to go in there for a weight lifting competition instead of an oral argument.

“Are you ready for this?” Sarah asked, giving his arm a squeeze.

Mickey nodded and blew out a breath. “Sure. Ready. Absolutely.”

Their opponents, two men from Georgia State University, stood several feet away, talking in low voices. Every now and then they looked up at Sarah and Mickey, then went back to muttering between them.

Finally the door to the classroom opened, and the two teams ahead of them emerged. One of the women looked like she had been caught in a rainstorm, her hair was so matted to her head with perspiration. Sarah could see dark patches under the woman’s arms where she’d sweated through her suit. One of the men on the other team didn’t look much better. It made Sarah wonder how she and Catherine must have looked to people last year when the two of them came stumbling out, Sarah supporting Catherine around the waist in case she collapsed again.

Mickey stared after the people who had just left. He had a pale look to his face.

“You’ll be fine,” Sarah told him. “You’re ready, Mickey. Come on. Let’s go do this.”

For all his self-confidence over the past two months—not just self-confidence, Sarah thought, but cockiness—the guy looked like he was starting to lose it. His eyes seemed jittery. And she could see beads of sweat above his lip.

“Mickey.” Sarah took him by both arms and tried to steady him with her gaze. “I’m going first, right? So you can watch me.”

She stopped talking while the team from Georgia State passed by and headed into the room.

“Then we’ll go have a beer afterward and it’ll all be fine,” she said. “Just do it exactly the way we’ve practiced, all right?”

Mickey nodded. More sweat had pooled above his lip. He wiped it away with his sleeve.

Sarah wondered how Joe would have been in these few minutes before the argument. Somehow she doubted she’d have to give him a pep talk right now.

“We have to go,” Sarah said. “Come on.” She pulled Mickey into the room.

***

“How was yours? I thought we did really well,” Ellen said, not waiting for an answer. She and Joe found Sarah and Mickey still talking outside in the cold, Mickey pacing back and forth to work off all his excess stress.

Mickey kept taking his jacket off, then putting it back on every time the wind got to be too much. He had sweated through his jacket just like that woman, Sarah noticed, although Mickey’s stains reached halfway to his waist. At times during the argument, his sweat was so epic, it actually ran down the sides of his face like blood pouring from a head wound.

“Either of you have a cigarette?” Mickey asked Joe and Ellen.

“You smoke?” Sarah asked.

“Used to,” Mickey said. “Going to again.”

“How’d you do?” Sarah asked Joe quietly.

He shrugged. “Not bad. You?”

Sarah nodded. They both seemed to understand they wouldn’t be able to talk about it honestly until they were free of their partners.

“So,” Joe said, “how about lunch?”

“And a beer?” Mickey said to Sarah.

“Right. I promised.”

“Good news,” Ellen said in a cheerful, almost giddy voice. Sarah wondered if it was because she did well during the argument, or because she was just so relieved it was over. “Since breakfast was free,” Ellen told them, “we still have all that money, plus the rest of our meal allowance for today. So we can eat anywhere we want.”

“How much?” Joe asked.

“We can even have a few beers,” Ellen said, not looking at Joe.

“How much is the allowance, Ellen?” he repeated.

It was the first any of them had heard of any allowance.

“A hundred a day,” Ellen said. “It’s what the Moot Court board voted all the teams would get this year.”

“A hundred per team?” Joe asked.

“Per . . . person,” Ellen said, clearly uncomfortable being pressed.

“And where is all this money?” Joe asked.

“I have it,” Ellen said, sounding less cheerful by the moment.

Joe held out his hand. “I’ll take mine now. Sarah, you want yours?”

She had watched the whole exchange without realizing it might mean anything to her. “Oh. Sure. That would be good.”

Ellen made a face as she pulled open her purse. She obviously didn’t like giving up control. She took her time removing the envelope and counting out four fifties.

“But you’re coming to lunch with us, right?” she asked.

“Sure, we’ll come for a beer,” Joe said. “What do you say, Sarah?”

Sarah noticed the “we.” Somehow in the last few minutes she’d gone from being Mickey’s companion to being Joe’s. She wasn’t sure when the shift had happened, but she knew it had.

And she didn’t mind.

“A beer sounds good,” Sarah said. “Come on, Mickey. We’ll even find you some cigarettes if you need them.”

Then it seemed natural to follow Joe to his car, rather than to go with Ellen and Mickey.

“How about that steak place near the hotel?” Ellen called after them.

“Sure,” Sarah said. She and Joe continued walking.

“Mind if we make a stop first?” Joe asked her.

“No.” She didn’t mind anything at the moment. It felt good to be back around someone who wasn’t freaking out, wasn’t rehashing everything that he’d said in front of the judges, practically begging Sarah to tell him again how great he had done and that no, he didn’t screw up.

“How’d it really go?” Joe asked her.

“So-so. Yours?”

“It had its moments.”

Sarah looked at him and smiled. “Were you any good, Burke?”

He shrugged. “Good enough. You, Red?”

“I think so.”

He reached down for her cold hand and pulled her in closer. “Wish I could have seen you.”

***

Joe parked in front of the Walmart.

“Okay . . . ” Sarah said.

“This will only take a minute,” Joe told her. He waited until she came around her side of the car, then slipped his hand in hers again.

“You think this is okay?” she asked him, holding up their joined fingers.

“I think so,” he confirmed, “don’t you?”

She shrugged, trying to appear indifferent. But the truth was, her heart was pounding. And she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She also wasn’t sure what had happened in the last ten or fifteen minutes to take them from where they’d been with each other that morning, to where they were right now.

Once they were inside, Joe tugged her toward the left, into the clothing section. He wandered a few aisles before finding what he wanted.

“Take your pick,” he said, “although I think this one looks nice.”

He let go of her hand and reached for a soft pink fleece hat hanging from the display rack. He pulled it gently over her head.

“Maybe you don’t like pink,” he said.

Sarah looked in the nearby mirror. “Pink is fine, but it’s kind of cliché for redheads.”

“Try blue,” Joe said, handing her a replacement.

He kept his arm around her waist as they both looked at the hat in the mirror. Sarah found it hard to concentrate.

“Blue’s fine,” she managed to say.

“Here, try these on.” He handed her the matching one-size-fits-all gloves. “Get the whole set for five-ninety-nine.”

The gloves looked more like a child’s size than an adult’s, but as Sarah pushed her fingers into them, they expanded to fit perfectly. She wriggled her fingers to model them.

Joe stood in front of her and gently tugged on the hat, pulling it lower around her ears. And with him that close, that kind, after a whole string of kindnesses all morning long, Sarah couldn’t resist twisting her gloved fingers in the lapel of his suit jacket and pulling his mouth down to hers.

Their hunger for each other shocked her. As if they’d both stood coiled, ready, waiting for the other to make a move. Joe captured her by the hips and pulled her hard against him as Sarah locked her hands behind his neck. He was at least half a foot taller, but in her heels she narrowed the distance. He spread his hands along the sides of her ribcage, practically lifting her body into his. She pressed against the length of him, feeling the unmistakable hardness that pressed back, and she kissed him, devoured him, made out with him there in the Walmart accessories aisle, both of them in their suits, Sarah in her powder blue hat and gloves, Joe with his hands buried now in the ends of her hair, tugging her head back while he took her mouth, neither of them caring who in that town might see them or what they might think.

Finally they came up for air. The two of them stood staring at each other, panting. “We were supposed to meet those guys,” Sarah said, surprised she could even think anymore.

“We will,” Joe answered. “In a minute.”

But instead of taking her mouth with his again, he reached down and clasped her hand. “Come with me.”

Sarah tried not to panic when she saw where they were going.

“A little fast, wouldn’t you say, Burke?” she joked, trying to sound unconcerned.

“I told you, a gentleman can always say no,” Joe answered, pulling down a package of condoms. “But if you ask me, Sarah, I’m not going to say no.”

Was he really going to leave it up to her? she wondered. Although considering what she’d just started, he probably didn’t have too many doubts.

“Joe, I’m not sure . . . ”

He squeezed her hand as they walked toward the checkout. “I just don’t want to have to come back here in a hurry.”

He studied her face as he paid for their items. At the last minute, Sarah realized he’d just pulled out one of the fifties Ellen had given him. “No, here,” Sarah said, reaching for one of her own. “I’ll buy my own hat and gloves.” Then she blushed, thinking how obvious she had just made it that the condoms were on him.

“Next time,” Joe said, gently pushing away her money. “You can buy my lunch.” He finished paying and they left.

On the way back to the car, Joe said, “I’ll never try to rush you, Sarah. I’ve already waited all this time.”

“All what time?” she asked, thinking it had only been a few hours since that morning.

Joe smiled. “A long time.” He leaned down and kissed her again, and as Sarah deepened it, Joe braced the two of them against the side of the rental car. Someone driving by honked. Joe raised a hand and waved, and kept right on kissing her.

***

Mickey and Ellen were already two beers down apiece and nearly finished with their meals by the time Sarah and Joe arrived.

“We ordered a pitcher,” Ellen said, “but obviously we weren’t going to keep waiting. Where have you two been?”

“Can’t you guess?” Mickey said. He took a long drag on his cigarette.

Sarah held up her hands. “Gloves.” She patted the hat on her head. “I was tired of being so cold.”

“Oh, you don’t seem so cold right now,” Mickey said. “What do you think, Burke?”

“I think I’m going to get us some food. Sarah? What would you like?”

While Joe hunted down the waitress to order them both a few burgers, Sarah excused herself to go to the restroom.

Once she was safely inside, she let her face finally unleash the huge smile she had been holding back—even in front of Joe. What she felt was too adolescent to let him see. She duplicated the move she saw Mickey make that morning, hopping in place a few times. Then she gazed at her face in the mirror. Her makeup was smeared and her lips looked puffy. Her eyes were bright and alive. Such a different face than the one that had greeted her first thing in the morning, blotchy and ragged with sleeplessness.

But was she really going to sleep with him?

Sarah wasn’t a virgin, but she might as well have been for all the experience she had. One awkward night when she was in high school, then two more very uninspiring encounters with different guys when she was in college. Either they didn’t know what they were doing or she didn’t, and she was willing to believe it was both.

But she guessed from the string of girls she’d seen Joe with since she started paying attention to him that he had at least some clue how to do things better. And their long makeout session in Walmart had certainly backed that up. Even just kissing him, clothes on, was already more arousing than anything anyone had ever done to her before. If that was what they could accomplish in public, she could only imagine what they would be like in private.

Actually, Sarah thought, she couldn’t imagine it. But she didn’t want to. She’d rather be surprised by what Joe would show her if she really gave herself to him.

By the time she returned to the table, a plate of food awaited her.

“I’m not that hungry,” she whispered to Joe. Then she reached underneath the table and gave his hand a squeeze.

Joe signaled to the server and asked her to box up the food.

Mickey gulped back his beer and poured himself another.

“So…you two?” he said, taking another drag on his cigarette.

Sarah didn’t answer.

“We’ll see you tonight at the banquet,” Joe told Ellen and Mickey. He threw down what was left of his fifty after buying a hat and gloves and condoms.

Ellen scowled and shook her head. “Typical.”

“Typical what?” Sarah couldn’t resist asking.

“Horny students after Moot Court. Happens every year.”

“I’m surprised you don’t get more people signing up, then,” Joe said. “You ought to mention that at orientation.”