As soon as we heard her door slam, I burst into giggles. Eric was laughing, too.

“What a witch,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Sorry I went off like that. Sometimes I get a little carried away. And she just pushed all my buttons.”

“No, I loved it. My dad always says to let him handle anyone who’s trouble, but I was having a really hard time.”

“Yeah, well …”

I nodded. My head felt heavy. I really needed some coffee. And there was something really unnerving about just standing in front of this guy. I thought of him sitting in the dark, drawing. He was kind of weird.

Dad and Kathy were in the corner by one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. “What was that all about?” Dad asked when I came over.

“Oh, nothing. Never mind,” I said, grabbing a coffee cup.

“Wanna join us for breakfast?”

He and Kathy both had plates full of eggs and bacon. I was pleasantly surprised to see Kathy chewing away. I had pegged her as a strictly cantaloupe girl. But still, the thought of food and Kathy made me pretty queasy right now.

“Sorry, gotta make a phone call,” I said, and headed out of the dining room.

I plopped down at my usual spot in front of the fire. I was thinking about getting a sign for this chair that said: Back off. Levy territory.

Mmm, the coffee felt good.

“’lo?” Her voice was faint and sleepy.

“Pheebs!”

“Hey, Sam!”

“Did I wake you?”

“No.” I knew she was lying and that I should let her go back to sleep. But I couldn’t help myself.

“Oh, Pheebs, it was amazing! We sang ‘Lost and Found’ — just the girls — and I closed my eyes like you said. And then we all went into this hot tub — did you get that? Hot tub? And Drew and I kissed — a lot. And it was really fun kissing him and did I mention he has this blond spiky hair and these incredible eyes and he almost went to the Olympics and he reads ravioli and eats lots of magazines but — no, wait. Whatever. You know what I mean. We actually didn’t do much talking; mostly kissing, but he told me I have kissable lips. Can you believe that? Is that even a real adjective? Kissable?”

“I think —”

“But I didn’t let him see my ears, even though he was really close and then he said, ‘I want to explore you’ and I was, like, what? And he totally wanted to have sex! And of course I freaked out and told him that I couldn’t because I was sharing a room with Jeremy, just because, I don’t know. I mean, I just met him, like, twenty-four hours ago, but I mean, no it’s been forty-eight, but still I don’t know, I don’t even know if he’s a serial killer or if he has a middle name or works for the CIA or anything! Help!”

“Okay, first of all Sam, that’s fantastic. And, do you realize how fantastic this is?”

“Oh! And you know what the best thing about him is? He is nothing like Leo! I’ve totally moved on. I am over him. You were so right, Pheebs. I just needed some crisp mountain air and a few kisses in a hot tub to realize there are other fish in the sea, you know? I mean, what did Leo and I have in common really except the play, right? We never really talked. I think I idealized him because he was my first kiss, but it wasn’t really a kiss. I mean, who says ‘purty’ right? And now that I’ve really been kissed, it’s so completely different. I mean, Drew is more confident, more serious, more mature….

“I wish that you could meet him, Pheebs. Well, maybe you will. Maybe he’ll come down to New York for spring break. I bet he has frequent flyer miles. Did I mention he’s eighteen! Oh! it looks like my dad and Kathy are done with breakfast. I gotta get ready to go to the slopes. Hey, but wait — I didn’t hear anything about you.”

“Oh, nothing. Same old. You’re the one with news.” Phoebe sounded excited for me, but there was definitely a little edge in her voice. Uh-oh.

“How’s Grandma?” I asked.

“Okay, I guess. She called me Florence the whole time, and she can’t find her cockatoo.”

“And what’d you do last night?”

“Murphy’s. The usual crowd.”

“Any time with Paprika?”

“No, but I didn’t even see him.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Oh … I don’t know … It just wound up being a few of us watching movies. It was stupid.” She sounded distracted and there was this weird pause at the end of her sentence. But then, before I could cut in, she started again, cheery and bright. “Anyway, you gotta go. You’ve got a man waiting for you.”

“Yeah!” I said. I tried to sound upbeat, too.

“Call me later,” she said.

“Or you call me!” But she had already clicked OFF.

By the time we got to Sugar Peak, there was already a long line for the ski rentals. It was so hot in the chalet with all the furry collars and matching leg warmers. Dad and Kathy were going back out to some of the cross-country trails, and Jeremy and I got fitted and headed to the chairlift. I tried not to look too eager as I searched for Drew’s dirty-blond spikes and orange goggles. It was 10:30. He would be teaching his new class by now, right?

“Looking for someone?” I felt a hand on my shoulder. I gasped, turning around.

“Gotcha!” said Jeremy, his eyes on fire, his freckles laughing.

“Dumb butt,” I said, and punched him in the arm.

“Oh, come on. Can’t you take a joke?”

“Not funny,” I replied, pushing past him. The chairlift came, and we slid into our seats.

“Come on, Sam. You can’t take everything so seriously. Anyway, how was it?”

“Fine.” There was no way I was talking about this with Jeremy. “So, what’s up with you and Liz?”

“Oh, you know. Whatever,” he said.

“What’s that? Whatever. You left the hot tub together.”

“Sam, it’s none of your business.”

“Jeremy has a new girlfriend,” I sang. I know. I definitely regress about ten years when I’m around him sometimes.

“No I don’t,” he said, annoyed.

“But why not? She seems pretty cool and she was really into you — which, let me tell you, Jer — it takes a special breed of woman to want to be with you. It probably takes —”

“Listen, Sam. Just shut up, okay? I didn’t want to do anything with her because I — whatever. I just wasn’t interested.” And now his voice was more than annoyed. It was teetering on real anger.

“Okay, I get it,” I said.

“Listen,” he said, softer this time. “Just, don’t go blabbing about this to any of your friends like Phoebe or … Rachel, okay?” He looked me right in the eye. And I knew he was waiting for me to answer.

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Promise?” he pushed.

“Yes, okay! Jeesh!” Wow, that was really good ammunition. Rachel was friends with this girl from the orchestra named Anna. I knew that Jeremy and she had hooked up once at a party. Rachel had told me. But when I asked him about it he, of course, wouldn’t tell me anything. I didn’t know that he was still interested. I have to say, even though I acted like he was bugging me, I was kind of impressed. Maybe Jeremy wasn’t such an unfeeling robot after all.

It didn’t take long for him to break my little reverie, though.

“Besides, Sam, we’re only here for a week. It’s stupid to get involved with someone.”

“Right,” I said.

“You know that, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Sam, I’m talking about you.”

“What? Who said I was getting involved?”

“It’s all over your face.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.”

“Not it’s not!”

Ugh. How did he always turn it back to me? “Whatever,” he said. “Remember, we came here for Dad and to ski.”