At the moment of truth, Lindsay didn’t have to force her smile; it had always come naturally in a situation where the news could be either wonderful or terrible. “All right, guys,” she said, stepping into the center of the room. “Which one of you is ‘All mine’?”
She was never sure if it was amusement or just plain relief she felt when James sang out “Youuuuu’re all mi-ine!” Regardless, she threw herself at him and squealed with joy while the room applauded.
“Who was supposed to get him?” Lindsay hissed at Nancy.
“No one asked for him,” Nancy whispered. “Their loss, huh?”
Faith rubbed James’ hand playfully in hers as the last three read out their hearts. Kathy got Lenny, poor Lizzy got the last of the trio Faith had avoided, and Heather got Scott (and didn’t appear disappointed with him).
Dan was the odd man out, but Faith suspected a lot of her sisters felt sorrier for themselves than for him. “Sorry, Dan,” Lindsay announced. “Every year has one man go unmatched. It’s our way of reminding you guys it’s ladies’ choice when it comes to sex. But you’re not going home emptyhanded.” She reached under the couch and pulled out the booby prize she had set there that afternoon, the latest issue of Playboy. “You can take it home, or you’re welcome to use our downstairs bathroom while you wait for your friends,” she chirped. “There’s hand lotion and everything.”
Faith wanted to bitch-slap her sister. But Dan proved to be a class act, and he accepted the magazine with a smile. “The guys all know their way home,” he said. “Thanks, Lindsay, and congratulations, everyone. Good night!”
“All righty then,” Lindsay announced as Dan saw himself to the door. “Everybody upstairs and let’s do what?”
“Fuck Valentine’s Day!” all the women yelled out with a lust several of them were not really feeling now that they knew who their partners were.
Lindsay still had to keep up appearances until she got Barry alone in her room. And so Faith and the few other sisters who still weren’t sure the game was fixed remained none the wiser as they all filed up the stairs. Faith’s room was near the front end of the hall, so she and James were among the first couples to leave the procession.
As soon as she had closed and locked the door, Faith let out a nervous laugh. “Listen, James, I’m fine with whatever you do or don’t want to do, but I’m sure glad I got you!”
“The feeling is mutual,” he said, taking her hands in his and drawing her into the room as if to dance.
That reminded Faith, “That was so cute, that song you made up!” She sang it again herself, “Youuuu’re all mi-ine!”
“I didn’t make it up,” James said. “It’s a real song, by Fred Parris and the Five Satins.”
“Never heard of them,” Faith said. “Sounds like something from my grandmother’s time.”
“That’s about right,” James said. “Actually Fred Parris just died, about a month ago. But he left a bunch of great songs for hopeless romantics like yours truly. Here, have you got a computer in here? I can play it for you on Youtube.”
Faith went to her desk and opened her laptop, and opened Youtube on the browser. “Five Satins?” she asked. “All Mine?”
“Right.”
She clicked on the first video in the list. As the first scat vocals piped up, James said, “That’s it. Care to dance?”
“And how!” Faith turned and put her arms around his neck, and they swayed. When the first verse came and went with no music, she asked, “Is this a capella?”
“Yes,” James said. “They recorded it at a VFW hall, and the musicians never showed up. Supposedly they left the hall door open and you can hear a truck downshifting outside, but I’ve never been able to spot it.”
“It’s beautiful!” Faith lay her head on his shoulder and basked in the glow of the moment.
“I think so too.” He held her tightly through the rest of the song. When it was over, he pulled back and said, “Listen, if you want to just dance or even just talk…”
“Well, the same goes for you,” Faith said. “But I did say I’m glad I got paired with you, didn’t I?”
“As am I.” He leaned in gently, and her lips met his.
“Well, you got mine, didn’t you?” Barry didn’t look disappointed at all as he helped himself to a seat at Lindsay’s desk chair.
“Right,” Lindsay said. “So you knew the right one to pick, but none of your friends did. Didn’t you show them the cheat sheet?”
“Oh, they knew the right ones to pick,” Barry said. “We just chose not to pick them.”
“We?” Lindsay demanded.
“Oh, well, I had to pick yours. But the others, yeah, we talked about it and decided we really didn’t want to play along.”
“Why?! Poor Joan got that jerk Jeff — I mean, gross!”
“You think he’s gross, but you wanted someone to get him, didn’t you? You couldn’t be sure he’d be the odd one out if it really were random!”
“Yeah, I wanted Faith to get him. Poor kid thought she had a chance with you, can you imagine? It was for her own good!”
“What about Jeff’s good?”
“Who the fuck cares about him?”
“Well, he does, for one,” Barry pointed out. “But what did he or Faith ever do to you?”
“What do you care about that?” Lindsay snapped. “I mean, nothing, neither of them did anything to me. But we’re the seniors! We went through getting matched with the losers before, now it was our turn to have our pick of the litter! Faith’ll get her turn in three years! And as for Jeff, a drip like that’s probably happy to get near anything in a bra!”
“Of course, one guy a year doesn’t even get that, doesn’t he? I mean, Dan knew the rules and he has no problem getting dates, but it wasn’t supposed to be him tonight, was it?”
“Yeah, well, guys need to learn we’re in control when it comes to getting pussy,” Lindsay said. “We’ve got something they want, they need to learn they can’t always get it. And it’s your fault it was Dan and not one of the losers like it should’ve been!”
Barry laughed. “You really are something else, Lindsay.”
“Well, what to you care? If it bothers you, you always could’ve said no when I asked you to the party. Or you could’ve told me to find someone else to find the other guys!”
“Sure, Lindsay. Sure I could have.”
“Sorry they don’t match,” she said of her red bra and blue panties.
“Don’t be silly!” He hugged her again and rubbed her back, and had her bra unclasped before she even realized what he was up to. She held him tightly for a bit more and shared a long kiss with him before backing off to let him pull the bra away. Without another word he leaned over and kissed her nipples one by one, drawing a delicious gasp from her each time. She grabbed onto his shoulder for balance and sighed heavily as his hands and lips worked her breasts into a wonderful lather of pleasure.