Max glanced down at me, then over at Jake. I looked up at Max and gave him an extremely pleading look.

“Please, please Max, don’t make me do this. Please.”

Max hesitated for a moment, looked really torn. Then he sighed, patted me on the shoulder and shook his head. “Look, Jo. I love you. You’re my sister. But you need to talk to him yourself.”

And with that he left me. All alone. Facing Jake.

Jake walked up to me, looking straight at me in the eye.

“Look, Jo. I’m really sorry about the pool thing. I talked to Max, and…I thought you were drowning or something. It was stupid of me, yeah, but…” He trailed off and shrugged.

I wwas currently doing a very intense study on the grass.

“Jo, look at me,” he said impatiently. I looked, despite myself, looked him straight in the eye.

My stomach flipped. I wanted to look down again, but didn’t.

“Josephine Ann Robinson,” was my middle name in the directory too? “I want to go out with you next weekend. Please, say yes.”