48 First Dates (Seeking Romance #1)

The Prince of Prom

8

Need another date.

Prom is on the horizon.

Enter Sebastian.

S everal months later, the three of us were sitting in the cafeteria talking about the elephant that loomed over every social gathering—prom. “Mitz, I’m like the ugly duckling. I know I’ll be a swan, but I don’t think anyone will be there to actually see the transformation.”

I peeled back the clementine in my hand, watching the juice spray out. The citrus scent surrounded me and reminded me of summer. Summer, which was after graduation, which was after prom, for which I had no date. And no prospect of a date.

Mitzi’s eyebrows raised as she looked at me from across the lunch table. “Um, what? You’re the ugly duckling? You’re being a tad melodramatic. Just ask Adam. He’ll come back and take you to prom.”

“I can’t ask Adam. He would be guilted into coming. And he should be studying for exams, not taking his cousin’s best friend to a high school dance.” I rolled my eyes.

“I agree,” Cynthia said before dipping her spoon into her yogurt and taking a bite.

I popped an orange slice into my mouth. My eyes squinted at the burst of sourness. I swallowed and said, “I asked Dan.” Cynthia’s and Mitzi’s mouths dropped open. I shrugged my shoulders. “I thought I would at least have a hilarious time with him. But he told me he found a full tank of a propane girl and had already asked her to prom.”

Mitzi shook her head as she set down her sandwich. “Not sure what that means, but I get the gist. You have no date for prom, and you’re low in the prospects zone.”

I nodded my head as I placed the clementine peels into the baggie that my sandwich had been in. I looked up at my friends, leaning toward them. “I guess I’ll just have to skip it.”

“Nope, you have to go. Prom will not be prom without the third amigo ,” Cynthia said, and Mitzi nodded. “I have an idea. Give me until this afternoon. I’ll have a plan.”

Cynthia’s plan involved her cousin Sebastian. He wasn’t a blood cousin, but they grew up together as if they were related. Their moms lived next door to each other when they were young. Sebastian’s mom was the only one who was stuck by Cynthia’s mom through the craziness of her Hollywood years. They were as close as sisters. When they had children, the two women became aunts, and their children became cousins.

The welcome news was that Sebastian and his family were planning to come up from Tarpon Springs for a visit the following week. I agreed to meet him and see if the whole go-to-the-dance-together thing was even a possibility. He was into traveling soccer and attended online school, so he had no plans to attend a prom. Thankfully, he was open to the idea of going with me to McCracken High’s.

He took me to a local Greek restaurant, one that Cynthia had suggested. Over dinner, I enjoyed looking across the table into his brown eyes, which were set perfectly in his olive skin. He was the right height for me, and soccer had created a bit of eye candy topped off with clean-cut dark hair.

He made me laugh with stories of a younger Cynthia and touched my heart with tales of his big Greek family. We finished the night with a walk along the beach. He held my hand as we sank into the wet but warm sand under our feet. We didn’t have to speak—being together was enough.

We stopped to watch a pod of dolphins arch out of the water. When I glanced over at him, his gaze held mine. He put his arms around me. We both leaned in, and our lips met as the moonlight danced on the water. The crashing waves acted as the soundtrack of the most romantic moment of my life until that point.

On the way back to the car, I thought Cynthia was right. Maybe my fairytale story is going to look more like My Big Fat Greek Wedding!

Sebastian didn’t have time to go out again before they left, but he did text me every day after that.

Sometimes, it was simply “thinking of you.”

Sometimes, it was a question that would start a flurry of texting before we called and talked for hours.

Sometimes, his text was a gif of a moonlit beach or a dolphin.

With the last two, I knew what he was remembering—the feel of his lips on mine. He bewitched me, and I clung to the promise that we would see each other again soon.

Each text we exchanged made my choice of whether to go to college in Alabama or New York easier. Cynthia had told me he was planning to play on the Frogmore University soccer team the next year. In my daydreams, I imagined a future college fairy tale for us.

After weeks of anticipation, the day of the prom arrived. Mitzi, Cynthia, and I got ready together at Cynthia’s house. Things unfolded like the night of the dance with he who shall not be named. Thankfully, unlike that night, prom night was guaranteed to be far better!

We girls looked beautiful, thanks to the team of stylists that Cynthia’s mom had hired. Our dates entered, and they looked handsome. The sight of Sebastian in a tux melted my heart. As always, the pictures were painfully long. And when we thought we could take no more, our parents finished. We left for the Beachside Hotel , where the prom was being held.

The dinner was a deliciously fancy fairytale affair. Sebastian was the most attentive date. He pulled my chair out. When I sat down, the waiter draped a napkin across my lap. We ate several courses with more than one fork. It was like being in the royal dining hall.

But once the music started, the formality dropped. We danced until our legs felt like Jell-O. When the music stopped, the six of us had a bonfire on the beach. Sebastian carried my shoes as we walked the beach and snuck kisses whenever he could.

It was a magical night that ended with the sunrise. Prom eclipsed every other memory of a McCracken High dance, which was a good thing.

It wasn’t until the next day that things slid downhill. Sebastian and I needed some rest, but we wanted to spend as much time together as possible. He was leaving in the morning. For dinner, we went back to the Greek restaurant where we had our first date.

“We need to talk,” I said after dinner as we strolled hand-in-hand on the same beach where we had our first kiss.

“I know.” Sebastian nodded in agreement.

We both stopped and faced each other.

“Listen, I know we don’t live near each other. And we haven’t talked about college, but—” Sebastian cut me off with a kiss. The kiss deepened, and I momentarily forgot what we were discussing.

After several minutes, he broke away and stepped back, leaving me breathless. He looked into my eyes and said, “I’m falling for you, Adelaide, but there’s something I haven’t told you.”

He’s falling for me!! I only heard the first part.

I spoke before my brain processed the second half. “I feel the same way, Sebastian. I don’t want this to end. I was going to say that I’m this close to deciding to go to Frogmore University next year. Cynthia said you would be there, too, and I want to be there with you.”

I looked up at him through my eyelashes, expecting to see him leaning in for another kiss. But Sebastian’s eyes flew wide open.

“But I won’t be in Sparksville, Adelaide. That’s what I was working up the courage to tell you. I got a last-minute acceptance into the Coast Guard Academy.”

What the what? My brain was not processing his words. It was still back on the whole we-can-be-together fairytale fantasy.

“I’ll be in Connecticut at the Coast Guard Academy, Adelaide.” He let the statement sink in.

I had a momentary image of him in a white military uniform, one that was oh-so-pleasing before reality set in. “That’s kind of far away.”

“Yep.”

I plopped down on the sand.

Sebastian sat down next to me. “Look, Adelaide, I don’t want us to make any promises that we’ll regret tonight. Let’s enjoy the time we have together, and we can talk about it later once you’ve had time to think about it.”

I nodded, mentally adding one point in the long-distance relationship column. Sebastian could read me so well.

We spent the rest of the evening wrapped up in each other’s arms, kissing and staring at the ocean. Subconsciously, I think I knew that night what my decision would be because that night felt like we were saying goodbye.

We talked a few times over the next week, but we called it quits just before we left for our senior trip. While I was super proud of him, I didn’t want to have a long-distance relationship going into college. The points in the pro column didn’t beat the ones in the con column. So, with a fair amount of tears, I said goodbye to Sebastian, placing a dolphin on my bracelet in his memory.

It hurt knowing that time and location weren’t working in our favor. Sebastian was to be my Prince of the Prom and nothing else.