Page 3 of Easy
‘What I’m saying is, you have six whole weeks before school starts again. That’s six weeks of lounging in bed to look forward to, and whether you’ll be accompanied by hot tea or a hot man largely depends on your attendance tonight. Now, the words,’ she demands. ‘Say them again.’
‘For me or for you?’
Kallie doesn’t answer beyond the quirk of one highly defined brow. Phone still in hand, I inhale deeply, my heartrate spiking in an excited pitter-patter.
‘He said he’d never met anyone like me.’As he’d pushed a lock of my hair behind my ear, staring longingly into my eyes.
‘And?’ she demands, sounding like the school principal she’ll, no doubt, be one day.
‘He said he wished we’d met earlier. That we’d had more time.’
‘Because?’
‘Because he said I was exactly the type of girl he could see himself falling in love with.’ My heart hitches a little higher in my chest.
‘What I wouldn’t give for a little wooing,’ she says, sighing blissfully. ‘All I ever get are cock shots and invitations to fuck. I’m one text away from officially becoming gay.’
‘I’m not sure about the woo factor.’ We only had one day—a few hours, really.
I’d met Julian at Dulles airport exactly forty-five days ago. I was on my way home after a weekend visit with my parents, while Julian was waiting to fly back to the UK following a business trip. Due to a freak storm, all planes had been grounded that afternoon. At the time, I’d cursed the fact that I hadn’t acted quick enough to get a room at any of the nearby hotels. But then I met Julian as I ordered a coffee. Tall, dark, and so sweet. Handsome, and with an accent that made me melt. In fact, everything about him seemed just... perfect.
Witty and smart, he’d kept me entertained the whole ten-hour period. Truthfully, I think I fell a little in love with him right there and then. We’d parted with such sadness in our smiles and promises to keep in touch, which we hadn’t really, beyond a couple of emails. And an email is exactly how I find myself in my current predicament, standing in Kallie’s cousin’s swanky apartment in London’s West End.
‘Sometimes you just know, though, right?’
‘What?’ Kallie’s voice pulls me back to the moment, and I blow out a breath, long and slow. ‘The only thing I really know is I feel sick with nerves. I wish you were here.’
‘Me, too,’ she answers quietly. ‘Stupid Dee,’ she adds, her brows drawing in over the connection again.
‘Your poor sister can’t help that her baby was born early.’
‘But I wanted to go to London! My God, she’s such a princess. It’s not like it’s even her first pregnancy.’
‘I shouldn’t have come.’ The words are out of my mouth with the half formed thought I know to be true. ‘This is mad.’ My words become frantic. ‘What kind of fool flies to the other side of the world to attend the birthday party of a man she barely knows?’ It’s not even as though it had been a personal invite. I’d just found myself tagged onto the end of a mass email.
Kallie doesn’t answer, though her amber eyes burn fiery over the internet.
‘You can’t stare someone down via iPhone connection, Kal. They might just hang up, thinking the internet is on the fritz.’
‘Please, you’re staying in NW1, not darkest Bombay. Cousin Mo is such a techno geek, I have no doubt he has the best technology, including internet.’
‘This is so ridiculous. I must be mad.’
‘You’re not mad. A little kooky, maybe,’ she says, adding a short shrug. ‘Where’s your sense of adventure? Don’t you want to leap before looking, just once? Jump without a parachute?’
‘You know I’m afraid of heights.’
‘Sweets, you have the chance to find love—true love. Isn’t that a risk worth taking? It’s not like you’re throwing your whole life away. It’s just one summer—or even one evening, if you’d prefer. If it doesn’t work out, you can come back, and nothing is lost.’
Tucking the invisible strands of my fair hair into my crown of braids, I realise she’s right. In six weeks, the new school year begins, but in some ways, I’ll pick up exactly where I left off. Sure, I’ll have a class full of new students—new personalities to discover and minds to engage—but at the end of the day, I’ll go back to my apartment alone. I’ll do the same things and tread the same path; the pattern of my life barely changed from one year to the next.
‘And stop biting your lip. You’ll end up with lipstick on your teeth, and that’s not a good look even for pretty girls.’
‘You’re sure you didn’t frighten Dee’s baby into a preterm delivery?’ Her expression frowns back at me. ‘You frighten the hell out of most people. I’m pretty sure you could hire yourself out to frighten babies from the womb.’
‘I’m authoritative, not scary.’
‘You’re persuasive, all right.’ Wondering if a little Dutch courage might help, I eye the very kitsch 1950’s cocktail bar across the open plan space. Kallie’s cousin’s very lavish tastes extend from his décor to his liquor collection.
