Free Perfect on Paper by Maria Murnane Page B

that’s six dozen roses. Hell, I have no idea how many dozen roses that is.”
    I gazed down at my half-empty glass. How many drinks had I had? How long had I been sitting there? It’s never a good sign when you lose track.
    I looked over at the huge, blurry crowd. What had I been thinking? Jake wasn’t interested in me. Why would he be? He was just being polite. My dad was right. Aaron was right. I was right. I was damaged goods, destined to sit on the back of the shelf until my expiration date.
    I stood up and steadied myself, which took way too much effort. I picked up my drink and decided to go find Davey and Kent. They had to be in the crowd somewhere. I swung around and smacked right into a young couple standing by my table, spilling what was left of my drink all over the floor.
    “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” I slurred.
    “No worries,” the fresh-faced guy said. “Are you okay?”
    I smoothed my hands on my jeans. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.” Fine? I was nearly seeing double.
    “You look familiar.” The young blonde standing next to him cocked her head to one side. “Do you live in San Francisco?”
    “Um, yeah,” I said.
    She held out her hand. “I’m Kristi Benton. This is my boyfriend, John Callahan. We work at Reebok’s advertising agency. What’s your name?”
    “Amanda Woodward. I work at D&D Advertising,” I said, shaking her hand.
    “Hi, Amanda, it’s nice to meet you.”
    I shook my head. “Actually, I was just kidding.”
    Blank stares.
    “You know, D&D Advertising, miniskirts, Melrose Place ?” I said.
    More blank stares.
    Okay, I’m way old. “Uh, I’m Waverly Bryson. I work at K.A. Marketing.”
    Kristi smiled. “That’s it. I knew I’d seen you before. My older sister’s roommate works there. Mandy Edwards.”
    “Oh, yes, Mandy works in my department.” Definitely slurring.
    “We met Mandy for lunch at her office a few weeks ago. She says she loves working there.”
    I nodded. “It’s a good company.” If Mandy only knew that no one else loved her working there.
    “Well, it’s good to meet you, Waverly. I’ll tell Mandy I saw you.”
    “Great,” I said. Crap. “It was nice talking to you.”
    I turned to escape and bumped smack into someone else. Good God. I needed to drink a gallon of water and put myself to bed.
    “Hey, there you are. I thought you left.”
    I looked up and saw Jake standing there.
    I casually reached for a barstool to keep my balance. “Um, nope, not yet. How’s it going?”
    “Are you okay?” he said.
    “Yeah, I’m fine. Why? Did something happen?”
    He shook his head. “You just disappeared. Where did you go?”
    “Did I? Oh, sorry. I had to use the restroom. And you, uh, well, you seemed busy.”
    “Busy? I seemed busy?” He smiled, and I could feel my heart beating faster.
    I played with my earring. “Well, I mean, with your friend and all, you know, it looked like you had things to talk about, and I didn’t want to intrude….”
    He said nothing for a moment, just looked at me.
    Then he spoke.
    “Waverly, do you want to dance?”
    Did I want to dance? Was he kidding? I wanted to spring to the stage and pay the band ten grand to play a slow song.
    “Uh, sure.”
    “After you.” We turned toward the dance floor. As we began to walk, he put his hand on the small of my back to guide me, and the heat I felt when he touched me could have burned a hole right through me. We maneuvered our way to the dance floor, where I spotted Kent and Davey dancing with two girls I didn’t recognize. They waved us over.
    “There you are! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Davey pulled me through the crowd and introduced me to his and Kent’s dancing partners, two sales reps from Nike. I could barely hear him above the sound of Madonna’s “Vogue” blasting from the stage.
    “This is Jake!” I belted over the music. “Jake, this is Davey and Kent!”
    “Hi, Jake!” Davey yelled.
    “It’s nice to meet you!” Kent