Party goers swarmed around me, laughing, drinking, dancing. I stood still, dead on my feet, wishing I could be home in bed. Tiny lights in the trees twinkled overhead. I wondered who had climbed up into those tall limbs to hang them. The walkway shone with the remains of the water used to wash it clean. My head pounded along with the music, and I felt alone and forlorn. I was determined to finish college that year, so I was taking twelve hours. Three of that included a correspondence course, but still. P...

Love at first sight, that’s what it was. The first time I saw him, he just stared at my lips. I was just as bad. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It was like he was metal and I was a magnet. I kept thinking he’d kiss me. After all, I was working a kissing booth. Kisses sold for ten dollars or more. Some high rollers were putting checks in the pot with as much as a thousand bucks. The charity had drawn in many of the good-hearted folks from the River Oaks area in Houston. A thousand doll...

I paced the living room at my sister’s house, back and forth, back and forth. She sat on the old plaid couch she’d taken from our mom’s house when she went off to college and never replaced. Watching me pace, she looked like someone at a tennis match.

“Sit down, Miles. You’re wearing a hole in my rug,” she said. “You don’t need to date someone named Mia. Mia, Mina, Miles, too much alike. It’ll get confusing.”

“Don’t kid ...

I drove Nonna to church Sunday morning. All she wanted to do was talk about Peter and what a nice boy he was. When I told her that nothing was going to happen in that department, she got quiet. As I pulled into the parking lot for All Saints, she finally spoke her mind.

“Is good,” she said. “He’s not Catholic.”

I knew she wasn’t as particular as my parents, and my mind went immediately to Miles. I needed to stop thinking about him. He wasn’t available...

Sunday’s are my days to get stuff done. I give myself a break from the books unless I have a test on Monday. No test coming up meant I had no excuse to keep me from making the call to Mia. I’d already run several errands, putting off the inevitable. I hate rejection. A turn down from a girl at a bar could send me into a depression for days, thinking about all the times my dad told me I was worthless and would never amount to more than a hill of beans. But this was Mia. I needed to have a back...

“How do I look?” I asked Espy as I spun around in front of my floor length mirror in the pink Dirty Dancing dress I’d found at a resale shop. It was pale pink and had lots of layers of petticoat material to make the skirt stand out. It would look great when we were dancing.

“You look fantastic. Nobody will put you in a corner, baby,” she said with a big smile.

She knew I liked it when she referred to old movies. That was one of the things we shared in common, a l...

I pushed my way up to the bar and caught the attention of the one guy working by himself. When I waved, he nodded his chin toward me and raised his eyebrows. Nonverbal communication was the only way to go, the music was loud and the place was hopping. I couldn’t believe my luck. Mia looked like a runway model in an old-timey dress that hugged her tiny waist and showed off her long dancer legs. I was sure every guy in the place was jealous.

I held up two fingers and imitated pulling the tap fo...

I’d been dreading Sunday since my phone call with Dad on Friday. Mass was uninspiring, but that wasn’t the priest’s fault. I couldn’t concentrate on the homily. My mind kept wandering back to Friday night on the dance floor. Miles was the first guy I’d ever dated that could really dance.

“Why are you smiling?” Mom leaned over and whispered in my ear when we stood for a hymn.

“Am I?”

“Yes. Does it have anything to do with Fri...

The time change messed my body rhythm up like it always does, but I still managed to be the first one on the job Monday morning. I stocked the fridge with Mountain Dew, because no one else would, and put a pot of coffee on for the bosses. Not that they’d ever say thank you, but they were much less grumpy if they found it already brewed when they walked in. My challenge for the day was a souped-up truck. The owner wanted flames down the side panels all the way to the tail gate. The truck was black, ...

Stan Mackey was counting out loud to the music. He had one hand digging into my waist and the other squeezing my right hand. It felt like he was wearing metal gauntlet gloves, he was that stiff. I’d checked his footwear when he arrived. No steel-toed work boots, but if I hadn’t seen his leather loafers, I would have sworn he was wearing work boots or maybe combat boots.

“Loosen up a bit,” I said with a forced smile. “Remember, you’re going to be holding Paula, th...

I passed my tests with flying colors despite the fact that I spent more time thinking about where I wanted to take Mia on our next date than where you find igneous rocks or anything about statistical analysis. I called her when I decided on salsa dancing.

“I’d love to go!” she said when I finally got up the courage to ask her.

“Do you have a favorite place?”

“Let’s go to Tropicana on Richmond. I went there with Espy when that creep was stalking ...

Nonna was waiting by her back door when I got home from work Thursday. The smile on her face told me something good was happening. As I stepped toward her, she shot her hand out and gave me an envelope. She was quivering with excitement.

“Open it! I can’t wait another minute,” she said. “I’ve been dying to see what it says since Bob left it this morning.”

Bob is our letter carrier. He started delivering mail when he was right out of high school. He’d ...

Salsa wasn’t bad, but I liked the dirty dancing better. Mia was amazing. I could watch her move all night. I had no idea where she’d put all the lasagna she’d eaten just an hour earlier. She wore a red dress that twirled around her legs as she danced in some of the highest, pointiest, and most spiked shoes I’d ever seen.

“You have gorgeous legs,” I said when we sat one out, so I could catch my breath. The girl wasn’t even winded. I kept waiting for somethi...