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“You’re late,” I snapped at Carlo as he approached. Not 10 seconds ago, I watched as Cathy, a schoolmate passed him by as he walked in our direction. She chatted him up for a good minute, and then touched his arm before saying goodbye, flashing him her most winning smile. He watched her walk away before approaching us, taking his sweet time.

He scowled, obviously peeved at my tone. He looked at his watch, looked at it closer, tapped it three times, held it up against his ear, and smiled sheepishly. “My watch stopped, sorry. I thought I was 5 minutes early…”

But he was 30 minutes late, and we had missed the new chick flick we had wanted to see. Jill and I were excited to see this movie, and Carlo and his friend Mike had reluctantly agreed to come watch with us if we treated them to dessert.

“Really sorry,” Carlo said, apologetic.

“We called your house, you were asleep.” I was trying to remember whether Carlo thought Cathy was cute. “Don’t you have clocks?” I said dryly.

Jill looked at me sharply “It’s no problem, you guys! We’re good, we’re okay. We’re watching the art film,” she declared as she steered all of us towards the ticket booth.

“Dude, you’re gonna be the end of me,” Mike complained to Carlo behind me. “Art film?! I wanted a no-brainer afternoon!”

I turned to him and alughed. Mike was actually rather cute, in a slacker-rebel-devil-may-care sort of way. “I know! I wanted to pick up hip lingo and ogle at pretty clothes,” I confessed.

Carlo looked at Mike and then at me and glowered. “What are you talking about? You live for artsy fartsies! You couldn’t forgive me for sleeping through Lost in Translation!”

I gave him a fake smile, “Well, that’s not the only time you got in trouble for napping, now is it?” I said, sarcastic.

Carlo gave me a deep, bored look before ignoring me. “Cathy was looking awfully cute, wasn’t she?” he asked Mike.

Mike shrugged. “So Katie, do you like Bill Murray?” he asked me, ignoring him. I was really beginning to like this Mike.

I sat down next to him in the theater only to have Carlo plop down beside me to my right. I leaned back in a huff and squished Carlo’s arm behind me as he was passing Mike some popcorn.

“Oww!” he cried out.  “If you wanted to get back at me for something, assault is not the way to go, you know?” he whispered in my ear.

“Well, witty, sarcastic, and dry dialogue might not work either `cause I’m not sure you won’t sleep through that,” I answered back.

For the rest of the movie, Mike was chatty, which I enjoyed. I laughed and agreed with all of his observations, conscious of the fact that Carlo was sulking beside me, stuffing his face with popcorn.

When the movie ended, it was drizzling out. We’d had dessert, and we were ready to head home. Mike’s brother’s car swung by, and we bid him goodbye. “Had a really fun time,” I called out after him. Carlo rolled his eyes.

Jill was going to take me home, and Carlo was staying behind to have dinner at the mall with his family. “I’ll go look for the driver, he might be sleeping in the car. We’ll swing by for you!” she advised, already out in the pavement, with the mall guard holding out an umbrella for her.

I looked at Carlo, the image of him checking out Cathy as she walked away, all but erased from my memory. “I’m going after her, I know where we’re parked,” I said, stepping out into the rain.

Behind me, I heard him groan in frustration. The next thing I knew, he was walking beside me, stripping off his jacket and holding it up over my head so I wouldn’t get wet.

“You’ll get sick,” he explained quietly.

“Get in here with me,” I said,

“It’s not big enough, you’ll get wet.”

“Please,” I pleaded. “We’ll fit.”

And we did. And we walked in silence, his arm around me, his hand over my head, and my heart in my throat.