Epilogue

Lisa

“Is triple dating even a thing?” Matt asked as we walked into The Slicery with Charlie and Clarissa.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said, “because apparently it’s what we’re doing.” I waved to Nina as we walked across the restaurant to meet her and West.

“I didn’t realize Nina was so pushy,” Clarissa said. “Not that I don’t want to hang out with you guys, but geez.”

“She’s just enthusiastic.” Actually, this had been my idea because I was worried the whole dating Trey thing might have messed up Charlie and Clarissa’s relationship. I didn’t want to be responsible for that, so I shared my plan with Nina and she agreed to pretend it was her idea to make it all a little less awkward. Plus she was known to argue her point until people caved which is exactly what she’d done with Clarissa. The ends justified the means.

When we reached the table, Nina and West were pointing at the menu and debating what we should order. “It would make more sense for us to order two extra-large pizzas,” West said.

Nina sighed. “That would work, but you like mushrooms and Lisa won’t touch them. She’ll insist on meatball pizza which you don’t like and I have no idea what Clarissa and Charlie will want.” She and West both looked at Clarissa.

“What’s your pizza preference?” Nina asked.

“Why does it feel like I’m taking a test?” Clarissa asked as she sat down.

“Don’t worry,” I said as I settled into my chair. “There’s no wrong answer except pineapple.”

“Okay.” Clarissa pushed the menu away. “This will probably throw off your whole equation, but I like plain cheese pizza.”

“Just cheese?” I wasn’t adventurous in my eating, but that seemed a little boring.

“We usually split a half cheese and half bacon pepperoni pizza,” Charlie said.

“Three pizzas it is,” Nina said.

“Or four,” Matt said. “Because bacon pepperoni is pretty awesome.”

“So that’s one sausage mushroom, one meatball, one bacon pepperoni and one cheese?” Nina said.

“How can we need four pizzas for three couples?” West asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “It’s what we’re doing to keep everyone happy. Plus there will be leftovers to take home. Cold meatball pizza is one of my favorite breakfasts.”

Matt grimaced. “That’s just wrong.”

“You can stick with your Cap’n Crunch,” I said. “Cold pizza makes me happy.”

“Speaking of things that make you happy…” Matt leaned in and pressed his lips against mine. My heart tripped a beat as I kissed him back. It still didn’t seem real sometimes that Matt and I were together…officially a couple. It had been a few weeks now and so far things were working for us. There had been a few bumps in the road…I was still a little jealous of Jane because she was a cute bouncy blonde while I was a normal nerdy brunette, but Matt didn’t seem to notice her as much as I did. Either he was acting like he didn’t notice her because he was into me, or he really was that into me.

And I needed to trust him because he’d kept his word so far. He’d planted all the flowers and came over to mow the lawn every weekend. He’d even painted a set of Harry Potter book bricks for me.

“Time for me to confess something,” Matt said.

“Okay.” I had no idea what he was going to say, but I trusted it wouldn’t be too awful.

“I signed up for some business classes at Canton.”

“You did? That’s great.” I was going to Canton Community College because I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life and there was no reason to spend money my mom didn’t have before I figured that out. Thanks to the sperm donor I had cash for a more prestigious school. Once I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up, I might dip into his donation. Until then, I’d spend time with Matt and enjoy figuring my life out. I’d gone from the friend zone to a fake relationship and then ended up in a real relationship, which kind of gave a whole new meaning to the phrase fake it until you make it.

Did you love this Entangled Teen Crush? Check out more of our titles here!

Don’t miss more books by Chris Cannon! Sign up for our newsletter here!