All That and a Bag of Chips

Chapter 30

Sam lowered the volume on the television and sat up. "Okay," she said, "I think we need some snacks to help us brainstorm." Then she jumped up as Collin sat down.

In the kitchen, she opened a cupboard and grabbed a bag of potato chips, then grabbed two cans of coke from the refrigerator. She tossed the chip bag onto the coffee table, where it landed with a crunch. Then she handed Collin one can. "What was the song that you first danced together to?" she asked as she popped open her can and then sucked a drop of soda off the tip of her thumb.

"I don't know. Why?" he asked as he opened his can and took a sip.

Sam sat back down on the couch, placing her coke on the coffee table and reaching to open the chips. "Come on, you really don't remember?"

Collin didn't. He knew they had gone to the Irish pub, and he recalled the way her skin had glittered under the club lights, but there had been several songs, and no one stood out. He tried to think. "Jenny from the Block? Maybe?" He scratched his chin.

"Well, that's not a romantic song." Sam bit into a potato chip, a crumb flying down on the carpet.

"We were at the club. Dance hits are more about the beat than romance." Collin reached over and grabbed a handful of chips for himself. "But, why? What are you thinking?"

"If we're going to win Heather back, we need to think of a hook."

"We?"

"But playing Jenny from the Block from a boombox just isn't going to cut it." She scarfed another chip, then put the bag down, wiped her greasy hand on the thigh of her jeans, and picked up her can of coke.

"Excuse me?" Collin vaguely wondered if she was also expecting him to borrow someone's Chevy Malibu and wear a brown trench coat for this little scene she was constructing in her head.

"Say Anything is the best. Don't deny it. And what girl doesn't love John Cusack? Heather would totally appreciate the reference."

"She did mention liking John Cusack once." He thought back to that evening spent together stuffing envelopes at the Holiday Inn. Hadn't she said she had seen the movie High Fidelity specifically because of John Cusack?

"See?" Sam asked with a bit too much enthusiasm.

"No, that's creepy. Not doing it." He bit into another chip and shook his head.

Sam paused, her mouth quirked to one side, and she closed one eye. "If only you had a diamond earring to give her."

Collin laughed. It was just too cheesy. "What movie are you referencing now?"

She scoffed. "Do you really have to ask?"

"All I can think of is when Molly Ringwald gives Judd Nelson her earring in The Breakfast Club, but I don't see..." He shrugged.

"It'd be a gender-swap move. Might be fitting." She took another sip of coke.

"Sam, come on." She was being ridiculous. Were all her ideas going to come from decade-old teen rom-coms? "I need an idea that is actually going to work."

"Okay, okay. Let me think..." Keeping the can in one hand, she reached for another few chips with her other. "The bottom line is that you need to talk to her."

Obviously, he thought, but what he said out loud was, "I think she blocked my number."

"I didn't say call her, I said talk to her." She waited for Collin to catch on to what she was thinking, but when he didn't immediately respond, she continued, "We need to orchestrate an accidental run-in."