Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection Read Online Free Page B

designs on it or anything, but it was sharpened just perfectly. And he took mine instead. He said thanks to both of us, though, before rolling Teddy’s pencil back. He laughed and talked to me through the whole project, and he told me a story about his little sister and some peas. I forget how that relates. And then, when the bell rang, he returned my pencil to me. He said, ‘Thanks for giving me the best one,’ and he left.”
    “So he noticed,” Gretchen said.
    Elizabeth felt the usual sliver of pride when she thought about that day. “Yeah. He noticed.”
    “Was he extra nice the next day?”
    “The next school day was a Monday and Mrs. Klausen changed the seating chart. She put me at the Number Three table and Rob at the Number One table. Until that day, she’d been my favorite teacher.”
    Gretchen laughed. “So that was when you fell in love with him, wasn’t it?”
    She nodded. “That was the first time.”
    “When was the second time?”
    “Senior year of high school. English class.”
    Gretchen pulled open the truffle box and waved it and its tantalizing aroma under Elizabeth’s nose. “Eat one,” she commanded. “And talk. What did he borrow this time? A thesaurus?”
    Elizabeth shook her head then selected a morsel of gorgeous hand-dipped chocolate. “Mmm,” she said as the rich cocoa butter and hazelnut flavors mingled delectably on her tongue. So heavenly. So unbelievably high in fat grams and calories. And so…oh, so what? “I love these.” She reached for another one.
    Her friend snatched away the box. “Not until you tell me about twelfth-grade English. What’d he do then?”
    She groaned. “Don’t be cruel, Gretchen.”
    Gretchen gave Elizabeth her best Elvis sneer.
    “Oh, okay,” Elizabeth said, laughing. “But only because you’re an amazing chocolatier.” Gretchen edged the box toward her a few centimeters, but it was still out of reach.
    She sighed. “It was in the middle of the year, just before Christmas. Mr. Shane had assigned us these essays to write on holiday traditions, and I wrote mine about a precursor of the winter solstice celebrations—the ancient Roman Saturnalia feast. It was so fun to research with all the incredible foods to describe and the revelry of the people. Anyway, Mr. Shane read three of our essays aloud, and mine was one of them.”
    “Because those were the best, right?”
    She shrugged, but the sliver of pride grew a little larger at that memory, too. “Anyway, I was nauseated through the whole thing. I mean, I’d been in pullout speech therapy since preschool, and I was terrified Mr. Shane was going to make me answer questions about my paper afterward. But he didn’t.” She paused. “Rob came up to me, though. After class.”
    Gretchen edged the truffle box forward again. Getting closer. “And?”
    “And he said, ‘Your paper was really cool. You’re a great writer.’ I was speechless, which wasn’t surprising, but still. And then his girlfriend at the time, Tara Welles, who’d never spoken to me once in high school until then, materialized like a phantom witch next to us. She said, ‘I guess you’d know a lot about food , Lizzy,’ and she wrinkled her snobby nose at me, which made it look sharper and more witch-like than usual, and she made a big show of looking me up and down. You know, like she was cataloging the twenty extra pounds I shouldn’t have been carrying on my hips and thighs. Then she pulled Rob away, and he pretty much avoided talking to me for the rest of the semester.”
    “Do you think he was scared of her?” Gretchen said, finally moving the truffles to within easy reach.
    Elizabeth popped one in her mouth and melted with it. “Mmm. I don’t know, but how could he miss the message she sent? ‘Frizzy Lizzy’ wasn’t the kind of girl a guy like him should ever take seriously.”
    “Frizzy Lizzy?” Gretchen said, incredulous.
    “Yep. That’s what they called me.” She fluffed out her naturally curly,