Page 59 of Kiss Me Like You Mean It

Lee drops suddenly to her knees in front of me and I swear to god all the blood leaves my head.

‘Hardwood?’ she asks and I let out a strangled laugh.

‘What?’ I wonder if the universe is actually fucking with me as she runs her hands reverently over the floor.

‘Is this the original hardwood?’

I clear my throat. ‘Yeah. It was a nice surprise to find it hidden under the old flooring.’

‘Sorry, I know I’m being weird. I have such a weakness for home renovation TV shows,’ she says and gets back to her feet. I still don’t understand how she moves so gracefully in those death traps she calls shoes. ‘And you’re living inside one. I can’t believe you did all this. I can’t believe you fixed all these things and built all these things and made everything so gorgeous.’

‘I didn’t do it by myself.’ I scratch the back of my neck, feeling suddenly bashful. ‘And Magda and Tom were pretty solid on the upkeep. The place has good bones.’

‘Still,’ Lee moves back to the longest wall and the bookshelves that Magda asked me to paint a deep, navy blue, ‘it feels strange that you’re capable of something like this, and I had no idea.’

‘I think it’s good that we still have stuff to learn about each other,’ I say, realising that I mean it. I don’t know as much about adult Lee as I thought I did. We’ve never spent this much time together – particularly without the buffer of her family around – and it’s addictive. When I saw her drive up with my lunch this afternoon the feeling of pleasure I experienced took me by surprise, although maybe it shouldn’t have been a shock… I find myself thinking about her fairly constantly at the moment.

Lee looks struck by this, too. ‘You’re right,’ she says. ‘It’s nice, being friends. As adults, I mean.’

Friends. Right. I could be overthinking it, but it seems like maybe she’s re-establishing some boundaries after last night when I definitely wasn’t thinking purely friendly thoughts about her. It must have been obvious.

‘I like us being friends, too,’ I say, and it’s not exactly a lie, I’m just starting to understand it’s not the whole truth.

‘You know what this room needs?’ Lee says, turning away from me and changing the subject.

‘What?’

‘A ladder.’

‘A ladder?’ I frown. ‘What for?’

‘For the shelves, of course!’ She spins back to face me. ‘They go so high and all the way around the room… it’s basically a crime not to have a ladder on wheels.’

‘I had no idea you felt so strongly about this.’

‘Please, Nico, any young bookworm who grew up watching Beauty and the Beast knows that the way to a woman’s heart is through a magnificent… library.’

She grins at me, and yet again my body responds like I’m an overeager teenager. I hook my fingers in my tool belt and make what I hope is a subtle adjustment, but as her gaze instantly flies to my hands I don’t think I got away with it.

Her eyes snap back up to meet mine and there’s colour in her cheeks, the same slightly hectic flush she was wearing when she arrived.

‘I—’ she says.

‘Do—’ I start at the same time. We both fall silent.

‘Sorry, what were you going to say?’ Lee asks.

‘I was going to ask if you wanted to eat lunch,’ I say quickly, worried that I’ve made her uncomfortable.

‘Great!’ she replies. ‘I was going to say the same thing. I’m starving.’

‘Let’s take it outside. It’s a nice day, and you have your coat, right?’

‘In the car.’

This is good, I think as we grab the bag of food from downstairs and head outside. After she picks up her coat, I take her through the gardens to one of the benches that Magda has dotted around. Being outside is good. More air, more space between us. Less chance that I’ll do something stupid like tell my best friend’s sister how much I like the sight of her on her knees in front of me.

‘So you did head over to Bean & Gone this morning?’ I ask, digging into the turkey sandwich Kat sent over.