Chapter 6

"I don't care!" I flashed him an angry look. "I hope you read the rules? At the end of every date, each participant has the right to press the Red Button and leave the show. So use the opportunity. Before my company causes you permanent trauma."

"Well, you've already ruined my favorite jacket."

"So what? It's not your only one."

"Keeping tabs on me, Catkin?"

"What is there to keep tabs on? Common orangutan, omnivorous womanizer! You do not interest me as a biological species. So go hide in your zoo with your white slippers!"

"Then go ahead and press the Red Button yourself!"

"Dream on. I did not come here to lose!"

I had only just straightened my shoulders proudly after our verbal ping-pong, only just crossed my legs and stuck the cocktail straw in my mouth, pretending I had everything under control and couldn't care less about Demond's murderous glare, when Valentine headed toward our table with a confident stride, surrounded by a retinue of two camera operators and an assistant.

Smiling dazzlingly, the dark-haired host adjusted the scarlet rose in his lapel and, without slowing down, sat on the chair quick little Rita "red curls" set out for him. He swept the microphone toward the camera.

"And here is our couple number two! You saw for yourselves how sweetly they chirped once they were alone. Diana, Dennis, the viewers are delighted! Such an effect from one meeting... Have you already found something in common?" Valentine narrowed one eye and burst into laughter himself. "Dennis, we all noticed how you reacted when you saw Diana. As the host, I have only one question..."

I shrank inwardly, feeling the jacket on my knees turn to lead and my back literally go wooden under the point-blank aim of the cameras.

"Dennis, tell us honestly, what exactly struck you so much about Diana when you met?" Valentine continued in the tone of a curious master of ceremonies. "We all saw your reaction. You looked... well, simply stunned? Or am I wrong?"

I froze with the straw in my mouth, unable to move. Well, that was it. Sorry, Mom, I tried, but I could not withstand Valentine with a microphone and Demond's mockery. I slid a panic-filled glance toward him and braced for impact.

And... blinked, because in that second Dennis's face changed. The camera aimed at him, and he stretched his lips into a charmingly arrogant smirk that made half the girls in our year squeal. A long strand fell over his forehead, his eyes looked straight ahead... He sat there so relaxed, as if we had not been throwing poisoned darts at each other only a minute ago.

My heart stopped, waiting for betrayal from the enemy...

"You're not wrong," Demond said slowly, in the tone of a lazy playboy. "What normal guy wouldn't react after seeing a girl with stunningly beautiful legs? Yes, I literally walked into a wall."

He leaned forward slightly and deployed his trademark rasp, the very one that switched off women's critical thinking:

"I thought I was dreaming. I swear."

What?

Huh?!

What did he just say?

Apparently I froze with a completely idiotic expression, because behind the camera operator, Rita the assistant started waving her arms hard to get my attention.

In vain. I was so stunned by Demond's words that I sucked harder on the straw and fluttered my lashes.

"Just look at her. Perfection itself, isn't she?"

That was when I choked and spat out the straw along with the cocktail. Right onto the jacket. And that bastard half rose as if he were genuinely worried and delicately patted me on the back. Exactly enough for the viewers to see it as polite and touching, in the finest tradition of true gentlemen.

No. He is up to something. I can feel it right in my mini-dress!

"Are you okay?" he asked with concern.

I slowly exhaled and turned my head toward Demond. Our eyes met. I wanted to kill him. No one had ever played games like this with me. But first I had to answer somehow.

"Th-thank you... Dennis. Not exactly. You... know how to make an impression."

"Oh, no doubt!" Valentine immediately picked up, delighted. "We all noticed your reaction to each other. Tell us, Diana, what struck you about Dennis? Was it that very arrow that knocks people off their feet and pierces hearts?"

I squeezed the glass with both hands, absorbing the icy cold of it through my skin, and turned to the star host. He had frozen in expectation, smiling so widely it looked glued to his face. I had exactly one second to set the glass down and pull myself together.

If the compliment had come from a stranger and not Dennis, I would probably already have been looking for a way to escape, red with embarrassment to the roots of my hair. But he was sitting on the other side of the tiny table, happily showing off that signature bite of his and lying shamelessly... at least about the wall. No, I could not let him have the last word.

Yesterday, the girls and I had spent two hours rehearsing smiles for every occasion from the special guide One Thousand and One Ways to Win People Over, so now I remembered every recommendation, adjusted my hair with a neat gesture, and gave the host the most enchanting smile I could manage.

"Oh... yes!" I answered more slowly and softly than usual. "I admit, I wasn't expecting to see a guy with such... blue eyes either. Almost like in dreams you can't remember. For some reason I was expecting to meet an intellectual, a lover of books and philosophy... But as soon as I saw Dennis, I immediately understood that was not about him. He reminded me of a prince in a white cloak from a romantic ballad, the kind who easily climbs onto princesses' balconies, tells fairy tales... and then disappears into the fog on a unicorn, taking the shampoo with him."

I looked at Demond, frozen in silent stupor, and smiled sweetly at him.

"I bet your voice is just as stunning as your hair. I wouldn't be surprised."

And I fluttered my lashes shyly.

"And what about your first date and getting to know each other?" Valentine asked.

"Oh, I can't believe I got so lucky!" I breathed with enthusiasm. "I've never met a guy before with such an, uh, stunning sense of humor!"

Valentine laughed with satisfaction and signaled to the camera operator. The man with the camera immediately began circling our pair while Valentine continued, though I don't know about Demond, since I wasn't looking at him at that moment, but I already wanted everything to end:

"By the way, my assistant has just told me an interesting fact through my earpiece. He looked into your profiles and discovered that you study at the same university. Different majors, true. Dennis, tell us," he turned to Demond, "how did it happen that you never crossed paths before?"

"No idea," the guy said with gloomy surprise, forgetting the smile. "But I would definitely remember a girl like that!"

Jerk!

"And you, Diana?"

"At the same university?" I lifted my brows in astonishment and turned my head toward Dennis. "Well, would you look at that..." I played complete innocence. "I don't understand how I could have missed such a charismatic guy. Apparently, your stylist worked especially hard today. I don't even remember him!"

"Same here," Demond returned the pass without blinking. "So what faculty did you say you study in?"