“You’d better not, either.” Phoebe stretched out her dancer’s figure and pressed those perfect petal lips against mine, indulging me with a kiss before she dropped back down to her feet and stepped out from my embrace. “Now, let’s get this little role play thing of yours out of the way before I chicken out.”
“Chicken out? What are you scared of?”
“I’m a dancer, Henry, not an actor.”
“This isn’t acting, Phoebe. We’re just reliving a core memory. Only this time, with a few… adjustments.”
“Adjustments?” She raised a brow.
“You’ll see.”
From the look on her face, I knew we had to go now or never before she really did back out. It had taken me a few hours the night before, after we’d arrived for our first night in Mykonos, to convince her to do this, and I didn’t intend on giving her enough time to back out now.
“See you downstairs in two minutes?”
A look of uncertainty flashed over her face before she gave me a firm nod and bit down on her bottom lip.
“Good girl.” I leaned in to kiss her once more before I pulled away and whispered, “Don’t forget your flip flops.”
“You’re so weird.” She chuckled.
“Trust me.” With a playful slap on her arse cheek that brought out a squeak of surprise, I made my way out of our apartment and headed down the stairs to the pathway where Phoebe and I had first met, exactly a year ago to the day.
Twelve perfect months of nauseating happiness since my world had been turned upside down for the better.
Nerves danced around in my stomach in a way I rarely experienced as I found the exact spot where she’d slammed into me, all the memories of that time washing over me. There’d beenso many things I’d done wrong the first time I laid eyes on her, nothing mattered more than putting them right now.
I bounced on my toes and shook out my arms, trying to free myself of the pressure I felt, then I waited for her to arrive.
The moment she stepped around the corner, her eyes on her feet, I pressed forward until Phoebe’s familiar body landed against mine with a small “Umph” falling free, and she faked a stumble to the side that had one of her flip flops sliding off her foot.
Just like it had back then.
That’s my girl. Playing along perfectly for me.
I reached up to grab hold of her arms to steady her, not missing the softness of her skin the way I’d noticed it that day. It had been the first thing to annoy me about her because my body had reacted instantly, demanding I run my hands over all her other body parts, too.
Without pause, Phoebe looked up, her wide eyes taking me in as her mouth twitched on one corner, trying to break out into a smile before she schooled her face. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”
I didn’t respond, just glowered at her like she’d been sent to me from the Devil himself.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” she croaked.
“No ‘fuck’ this time?” I asked, raising a single brow as I faked my hatred towards her. How I’d ever been able to fake anything negative towards her, I’d never know.
But no blush rose to her cheeks this time. No embarrassment took over. She held no fear over what I thought of her. Instead, Phoebe wanted to laugh, and she had to press her lips together and make her eyes pop to stop herself from doing so.
“Behave,” I mouthed, struggling to stay in character myself.
“Sorry,” she mouthed back. “Right. Erm.” She blinked quickly before something dawned on her. “Wait. You need to let me go.”
“I do?”
“Yeah, your hands fell away, and you got this really, really angry look on your face the moment you weren’t touching me.”
“That makes sense.” I never had wanted to let her go. Even so, I let my hands fall away from her this time and took a small step back to put an inch between us.
“And I think I put my flip flop back on at this point.”
