I touch the snow and it feels slushy, like it’s only a few degrees from melting completely. I’ve never been to the mountains, and the only snow I’ve ever seen before is the small dusting we get every other year or so that somehow manages to shut the South down.

Seth lines his platter up with mine and holds them in place.

“Are you ready?” he asks. He’s grinning from ear to ear. It feels good, being around someone who’s this excited to be with me. I don’t think I realized how much I missed that feeling until now.

“Yes! Let’s do this!”

We both scream the entire way down. It’s not a long ride — just enough to get my heart pumping. We slide into the rubber stoppers and fall over laughing.

Olivia and Drew crash into us, giggling like crazy. An attendant takes our platters, but no one seems concerned about getting up out of the fake snow.

Olivia crawls over and we lie side by side. “So what do you think?” she whispers, nodding toward Seth and Drew, who are busy throwing watery snowballs at each other.

I smile. “He’s really nice.”

“You’ve had that smile plastered on your face for the last three hours,” she says, nudging me.

I grin even bigger. “Okay, okay, I’ll admit this is the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

“You know, we’ll never hear the end of it when Nonna hears you had a good date.”

I scoot in closer. “Then let’s not tell her. After what she did, we should make her sweat a little.”

We both laugh. Out of nowhere, a huge clump of snow hits me square in the face.

Once I brush the mess from my eyes, I see Seth backing away from me, guilt all over his face.

It feels like time is frozen. I let him squirm until I can’t hold the laugh in any longer. “Oh, you’re going to get it now!” I scoop up a handful of snow and start pelting him. Before long, we’re in a full-fledged snowball war — boys against girls.

It only ends once we’ve been shooed off by the attendant working the event. At this point, we’re all wet, a little cold, and tired from all the laughing.

Drew pulls Olivia inside a photo booth while Seth buys us two hot cocoas from a pushcart.

“Let’s sit here,” Seth says.

We plop down on a bench near the edge of the festival.

“I can’t believe I’ve never come to this before,” I say. I was worried we’d be fumbling around for conversation, but I’m surprised how easy the entire afternoon has been.

“We come every year. The whole thing’s sort of cheesy, but it’s fun getting out of town and doing something different.” He waits a second before continuing. “Olivia told me about your ex-boyfriend and your grandmother’s solution.”

I feel my cheeks turn red. I hope he thinks it’s from the cold. “Yeah, leave it to my grandmother to make things interesting.”

Seth chuckles. “Well, it sounded crazy at first, but I’m glad Olivia picked me for your first date.” He sits up a little taller. “I’m hoping to make everyone else look bad.”

I smile. “Yeah, it will be hard to compete with a snowball fight in Louisiana.”

“Let me give you my number,” he says. “Seriously, when this thing is over, maybe we can go out again. I’ve had a lot of fun today.”

When I take out my phone to add Seth’s number, I see a string of notifications from Griffin. Seth sees it, too.

“Is that your ex?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah. We really haven’t talked since we, um, broke up.”

Seth takes my phone but instead of adding his contact, he opens the camera, and flips it so we’re in the frame.

“Okay, smile,” he says.

I smile but Seth crosses his eyes, and puckers his lips. He snaps a picture as soon as I start laughing, then adds his number to my phone, assigning the image to his contact. He sends a text from my phone to his.

“I’ll get us some more hot chocolate,” he says. I look at the picture, which is cuter than I thought. I feel my cheeks heat up. I really have had fun tonight.

But then Griffin’s face steamrolls over those warm and fuzzy thoughts. When I see another notification from him, it’s like a bucket of cold water was just poured over me. I can’t help but open the messages.

GRIFFIN: I guess you’re just going to keep ignoring me

GRIFFIN: I want to talk to you. I want to see you

GRIFFIN: Can I see you tomorrow? I’ll meet you anywhere

GRIFFIN: Sophie please

My heart is thumping by the time I finish reading his messages. I’m so confused. Does he miss me? Is he regretting what he said? Or does he just feel guilty about how it all went down?

I send back a quick message:

ME: Not ready to talk to you yet

Then I power the phone off before I can see his reply. There’s no reason I should feel guilty — we broke up — but it’s there, underneath everything else. I’ve had a great day and I hate that Griffin is making me feel bad about it.

I watch Seth as he balances two hot chocolates, a funnel cake, and a bag of cotton candy. He gets tangled up in a group of toddlers, then nearly drops everything when some kid who’s texting and walking bumps into him. A few steps later, he and an older woman start some awkward dance when he tries to step around her but she meets his every move. He finally gets in the clear and stops, looking at me in amazement.

“Did you see that?” he yells across the short distance.

I’m laughing when he closes the gap with a little dance in his step.

Griffin may make me feel guilty, but Seth makes me smile.

I take one of the drinks and pinch off a piece of the funnel cake. Olivia and Drew emerge from the photo booth, laughing at the strip of pictures, and that’s all it takes for Seth to drag me in for pictures of our own.

When we finally pull up in front of Nonna’s, Seth has just told us about when Drew was in kindergarten and gave his teacher a tampon as a gift because he thought there was candy inside. Olivia and I can’t stop cracking up.

“This story is going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” Drew says, then pulls Olivia in for a good-bye kiss. I look at Seth so I’m not staring at them, and he shrugs, clearly feeling as awkward as I do.

Olivia gets out of the backseat and I give Seth a quick wave before opening the door. “I had a great time,” I say.

He smiles and says, “We’ll have to do it again.”

Nonna is waiting up for us when we get back, ready to gloat.

“So…how was it? You can’t hide that smile from me forever, Sophie,” Nonna says.

I lean against the kitchen sink, where she’s washing the last of the supper dishes. “You got me. We had a good time,” I reply. “But it doesn’t make this any less weird! And there’s still nine more dates to go, so, you know, there’s still the potential that this is going to be a disaster.”

Nonna hands me a tied-up garbage bag. “I think you’re going to surprise yourself. Add this to the can at the curb for me, please.”

I run down the front porch steps and drop the bag in the trash. On my way back to the house I see Wes pull into his driveway next door. I wave and wait for him to get out.

“Hey,” he says. “How was your first date?”

“Not bad, actually.”

We walk toward each other, meeting right at the property line. “Where’d y’all go?” he asks.

“That festival in Natchitoches. Ate funnel cake, had a snowball fight — you know, typical Sunday night,” I say, laughing.

He nods, then cocks his head to the side. “I think Nonna was right.”

My face scrunches up. “Right about what?”

“This dating thing. You look good.”

I can feel my cheeks warm. “Well, I must have really looked like crap earlier.”

Wes laughs. “I didn’t say that. I’m just glad you’re smiling.”

He heads toward his house and I walk back into Nonna’s, each of us waving to the other when we go through our front doors. Just as I enter the kitchen, I hear Olivia say, “Uh-oh.” She’s staring at the date board.

Aunt Patrice has filled in the details for my next date:

I’m terrified.