Cherry Red Summer (Emely and Elyas Book 1) by Carina Bartsch Page A

OK?”
    “Sure thing,” I said, hugging her good-bye. “You kids have fun!” I told her as our hug ended.
    “I hope you feel better soon,” she said.
    “I’ll be better after a good night’s sleep,” I said as I left the bathroom and found my way to Domenic.
    He was at the bar, and I asked him if his offer to drive me home still stood.
    “Of course.” He even seemed glad I had asked. I waited for him at the coat check while he said good-bye to a few people.
    While I was waiting, someone tapped me on the shoulder, but when I turned around, no one was there. Oh God, please don’t let me have fallen for the oldest trick in the book.
    A glance to my right revealed the grin of Elyas Schwarz.
    “Were you seriously planning on taking off without saying bye to me?”
    I groaned. “Honestly, yes. And I was already optimistic I was about to pull it off.”
    He smiled and looked at me with his typical hard-to-decipher expression before sticking his hands into his pockets and shrugging. “So Sunny Boy is driving you home, huh?”
    I folded my arms. “Do you have a problem with that?”
    “Why should I?” He shrugged. “I just felt obligated to warn you in advance.”
    “Warn me in advance?” I repeated. What sort of shit was he about to pull on me now?
    “You may be too naïve to notice it,” he continued, “but that guy just wants to get you into bed.”
    I stared at him until I burst out laughing. Elyas was warning me about someone who just wanted to get me into bed? How freaking funny was that!
    He apparently noticed the irony in what he said because he groaned and folded his arms. I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt, and I patted his upper arm to congratulate him on his very successful joke.
    “Elyas,” I said, wiping tears from my eyes. “Sometimes you’re too much!” I’d hardly gotten the words out before another fit of laughter came over me. I just couldn’t stop laughing, and the longer I laughed, the more rankled Elyas seemed to get.
    “What’s so funny?” asked Domenic when he reappeared.
    “Elyas!” I said between bursts of laughter. “Need a clown for your next party? Hire Elyas!” Even the hammering in my head couldn’t dampen my amusement.
    Domenic clearly had no idea what I was talking about, whereas Elyas had had enough. He spun around and disappeared back into the crowd. I couldn’t resist and called after him, laughter in my voice, “Thanks again for the tip!” But he didn’t respond.
    “What’s going on?” Domenic asked, looking from Elyas back to me. I inhaled a few times and tried to calm down.
    “Oh, nothing,” I said. There was a certain appeal in telling Domenic the whole thing, but I decided not to. The last thing I wanted to do was rekindle the whole peacock show between them.
    “It was just an inside joke,” I explained.
    That seemed to arouse his curiosity, but he apparently felt inhibited from digging into it further.
    “All right. Well, if that’s settled, shall we get going?” he asked. I nodded and walked out with him. The whole thing with Elyas had cheered me up, but as far as my headache went, all the laughing hadn’t helped. In fact, the pain had gotten dramatically worse. Everything in life had its price, though, and this had definitely been worth it.
    All the same, I didn’t say much during the half-hour drive home, and Domenic seemed to understand.
    When he dropped me off, he handed me a slip of paper with his cell phone number on it. The blue ink formed a spidery scrawl, but I could still just make out the numerals. “If you feel like it, give me a call sometime. We could meet for coffee or whatever you like.” He smiled and I stuck the paper into my jeans pocket.
    “My schedule is crammed with finals, but I’ll try.”
    “That’s more than I’d hoped for,” he said, winking at me. “I’m looking forward to it.”
    “See you later,” I said. “And thanks for the lift.”
    “No problem,” he said, still smiling as I opened the