Luis glanced back over his shoulder at Lori and Lance outside the building. “I never would have guessed a woman with hair like that liked dick.”
Jase smiled. “Please be good tonight. A lot of these people have never seen a gay couple in person before. I'm sure most won't care. I'm sure there will be other gay people here. But Lance and Lori were both very religious in school. Lori's father was one of those evangelist preacher types and they've led sheltered lives.”
Luis laughed. “Yeah, it sounds like Lori was a real church girl in high school.”
“Ah well.”
Luis nodded. He made a serious face and said, “I'll be on my best behavior. I swear I will. I won't ask Lori if I can dance with Lance.”
Jase laughed. “Well, you can do that if you want. But you have to promise to do it when I'm around so I can see the look on their faces.”
There were long folding tables set up in the front hall of the school, covered with white paper tablecloths, decorated with blue and white streamers twisted together. Luis hadn't seen decorations like this since Hunter's last kiddie cupcake event at pre-school. Evidently, blue and white were the school colors. When Luis glanced at the glass shelves behind the table and looked at the wall of trophies, he spotted a large photo of Jase in a blue and white football uniform. Damn, Jase had been even hotter than Luis had imagined back then. If he'd known Jase in high school, he would have been swinging from his padded shoulders.
Luis pointed. “Look, Jase, there's your picture. You must have been very popular. No one else has a picture so large on the shelves.” Luis noticed there was no mention of Jase being The Virgin Billionaire. It was a photo of Jase in his football uniform, with a plaque beneath it that read, “Best Star Quarter Back Ever to Grace These Halls.”
Jase shrugged and glanced around at the other people in the hallway. “I played football,” he said. “They took a lot of photos here. In small towns, high school football is the biggest thing there is next to church and funeral parlors. There were times when I felt like I was wearing football gear all year long. Let's get our name tags and find the table. I'd like to sit.”
Luis noticed Jase was speaking faster and his left eyelid was twitching a little, so he didn't ask any more questions. They crossed to the long folding table and asked for their name tags. And when the two women standing behind the table realized it was Jase, they threw their arms up in the air and screamed so loudly everyone else turned to see what had happened.
One woman with short blond hair reached out and shook Jase's hand. “It's Betsy,” she said. “Betsy Melchiorri, from student government. I don't think you've changed at all, Jase Nicholas.” She looked him up and down and licked her lips. She was wearing a strapless dress made out of royal blue polyester fabric that hugged her large body. She had cleavage both in front and in back of the dress. “If anything, I think you're even more attractive now than when you were in high school.”
Jase said, “Ah well,” and rubbed his jaw.
Luis reached for Betsy's hand and said, “I'm Jase's husband, Luis. It's nice to meet you, Betsy.” The way she looked at Jase made Luis's stomach pull. Though Luis wasn't normally the jealous type, this pushy broad was a little too obvious. It looked as if she were undressing Jase with her eyes. She'd probably had a crush on him in high school and would love to get into his pants now.
Betsy shook Luis's hand and said, “Hi, sweetie. Nice ta-mee-tcha.” Then she turned to Jase, ignoring Luis completely, and continued to rave about the way Jase looked, leaving Luis a full view of her ample back cleavage.
The other woman stood there gaping at Jase, with her hands pressed against her mouth. She had mousy brown hair, in a layered, feathered hair style Luis hadn't seen since the last time he saw a rerun of the 80's TV show, Mr. Belvedere. He wondered if they all went to the same hair stylists.
While the people standing around the table stared and whispered about Jase and Luis, Luis leaned forward and said, “Could we please have our name tags, Betsy dear? We'd like to sit down now.” He bit the inside of his mouth.
Betsy Melchiorri sent Luis a nasty, catty glare. Then she reached down, found their names tags, and gazed into Jase's eyes as if she were about to swoon across the table. She tossed Luis his name tag without even looking at him. It landed on the floor. But she reached over the table and gently pinned Jase's name tag to his lapel, caressing his chest with her fingertips. Before Jase turned to leave, she ran her right hand up and down his lapel and said, “I'll see you later, handsome. I hope we get a chance to dance together and talk about old times.”
Jase smiled. “Ah well, we'll see. I'm not much of a dancer.”
“I'll reserve a slow dance,” she said.
Luis couldn't control the urge. “And I'll dance with your husband, sweetie.”
Betsy sent Luis another glare. She spoke with a deadpan tone. “I'm divorced.”
“I wonder why,” Luis said, then he grabbed Jase's arm and yanked him toward the auditorium where the dinner tables were set up. On the way inside, he asked, “Did you have a thing back in high school with that awful pushy Betsy woman, Jase?”
Jase laughed. “We dated in our senior year a few times,” he said. “Don't be jealous. I don't really even remember her very well. She was one of those student government types, always talking about politics and worrying about the world's state of affairs. Always something boring. I remember when she spoke in normal conversation she used words like “truncated,” no one ever understood. She's the type who probably knows how to explain how an e-reader works where most people simply push a button and read the damn book. I ran for the student government because it helped me get into college and Betsey talked me into it. I dated her because I wasn't sure what else to do at the time.”
Luis tilted his head sideways. “But you were President. You must have been interested in school politics.”
Jase shrugged. “I was more interested in football. I don't even know how I got elected President of the Student Government. I don't even remember campaigning. They just sort of elected me.”
Luis closed his eyes and shook his head. This was typical Jase; true to form: clueless. He had the ability to stumble into things without even knowing it was happening. Luis smiled when he thought about the poor bastard that ran against Jase. He'd probably worked hard to get elected, and there was nothing he could do or say to match Jase's charisma.
When they entered the windowless auditorium, the lights were lower and there were small candles lit at each table. It must have been a large class, because there were enough tables to fill the entire space. Jase had mentioned this had been a regional high school and students from small towns all over this part of Alaska had gone there. Luis glanced around at all the unfamiliar faces. He gulped when he realized there weren't many gays in this crowd ... not a feather boa or a rhinestone to be seen. And word seemed to spread fast with this group. A lot of them were staring at Jase and murmuring to each other. But what really made Luis reach out and grab the back of a chair was when he looked up at the stage and saw a massive photo of Jase in his football uniform. It had to be over nine feet tall.