Page 92 of Kiss Me Like You Mean It

‘Can you take a selfie with that fancy camera of yours?’ I ask Nico.

‘Let’s find out,’ he grins, and he pulls me in tight while I sling an arm over Phoebe’s thin shoulders, manoeuvring her in front of us, a triangle of smiling faces. ‘Say flax seed,’ Nico sings.

The sound of the shutter merges with our groans.

‘Was it worth getting up early for?’ Nico asks, his arms still around my waist.

I look up at him. The wind is ruffling his hair, his smile is wide, I can feel his giddy pleasure in this moment. Something important just happened.

‘Yes. It was worth it,’ I say.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lee

‘Did you say “wow it’s beautiful”, while looking at the view, and then he said “yes it is” but when you turned around he was actually looking at you?’ Tara asks, her eyes wide.

‘What? No.’

My best friend groans. ‘Such a wasted opportunity.’

‘I have to agree.’ Kat leans across the table to grab a nacho. ‘It feels like the scene really called for it.’

‘Again,’ I sip at the pink, frothy drink that Mei returned from the bar with a couple of minutes ago, ‘I’d love it if you stopped trying to turn my life into a romance novel.’

‘Babe,’ Tara sounds exasperated. ‘We’re not trying, this is happening.’

‘If it was actually happening then wouldn’t Nico have made some sort of move by now?’ I blurt out.

The three women look at me with sympathy. When Tara texted me this morning saying that we needed to have my long-promised girls’ night at Darlene’s, I’d been relieved. My situation with Nico is so complicated, and for the first time, I have friends who I can actually talk to about this stuff. At first I was worried about Kat and Mei’s obvious loyalty to Nico, but Mei had held my hand and looked me dead in the eye.

‘This,’ she said, gesturing around the bar, ‘is a safe space. Tonight is girls’ night. The four of us are entering into a sacred covenant. You can tell us anything and we will be completely on your side. Anything at all. Please. We’re actually dying for all the juicy details.’

‘Dying,’ Kat chimed in.

So I gave in and spilled the whole story.

We’re sitting at one of the high tables next to the juke box, and tonight is a highlight in Roseport’s social calendar – the monthly ‘Dollyoke’ night, when Darlene and her patrons get up to perform stirring renditions from Dolly’s extensive catalogue. In honour of this special occasion, Kat took me to Target (which I loved) and the four of us are decked out in denim and matching pink cowboy hats. I even found a pair of shiny gold cowboy boots that Kat insisted I must have. They are definitely made of plastic and they pinch my toes, but I love them.

When I looked in the mirror before I left I barely recognised myself, but what I couldn’t miss was my wide smile, the excitement in my eyes.

‘So what about the last few days?’ Mei asks now. ‘After the whole sunrise hike?’

I shrug. ‘Nothing. Every morning Nico’s been gone before I wake up.’ This is presumably so that we don’t have a repeat of Sunday, but as I’ve withheld the details on that particular incident, I keep that part to myself. ‘Sometimes I get a text saying that Charles is in a specific place and the two of us will rush over so that we “happen” to bump into him.’

‘Oh yeah, I heard about the run-in at the grocery store,’ Kat says, and I’m fairly sure she’s trying not to laugh.

‘It wouldn’t have been so bad if Rita and her pals hadn’t put together that little decoy shopping basket and shoved it into my arms just as he arrived.’ I take another deep slug of my drink, wincing at the memory.

‘Wait, why would they do that?’ Tara asks, understandably puzzled.

Kat leans forward, unable to hide her smirk. ‘I think the idea was to have Charles see what was in there, right?’

‘Oh god,’ Mei whispers. ‘What was in there?’

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ I drop my head to rest on the tabletop.

‘You have to tell us now!’ Tara shakes my arm until I sit back up.