I want to banter back, but I feel my stomach flip-flop.
“Is it just me, or is this getting worse?” I ask.
“My corny attempts at flirtation?”
“No, the waves.”
“They are becoming rather ominous, now that you mention it.”
“Oh my God,” I say. “I just remembered your last name is Segrave.”
He nods solemnly. “Me too.”
“I wonder if that only dooms you to a watery death, or if I’m cursed by proximity.”
“Let’s get you into a life jacket, just to be safe.”
“It doesn’t go with my dress.”
“And it’s quite a dress,” he says softly.
So softly, so intentionally, that I blush clear down to the pads of my feet.
He walks over to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.
“You lookperfect,” he says, looking into my eyes. “You look so perfect it’s making me nervous.”
I let out a breath. “I’m nervous too,” I confess.
It feels good to say that. To be honest with a boy.
“Like, I’m trying to play it cool here,” he says, “but actually…”
“Yeah. Same.”
He opens his arms to me. “Maybe it would help to just…”
“Yeah,” I say again, stepping into them.
He wraps me in a hug.
Not an erotic, gropey kind of hug. A steadying one. One that feels like we’re telling each other,It’s okay.This is okay.
“Better?” he asks into my hair.
“Better,” I whisper.
“Me too.”
We separate, and he smiles at me. “Tea,” he says decisively.
“Oh! Yes! Quick, before it cools down to eighty-three degrees.”
He takes the two mugs and walks carefully to the sitting area, putting them down on the coffee table. Despite his efforts, they slosh.
As does my stomach.
I sit down on the sofa, hopeful I will feel better if I don’t have to work so hard to stay upright. Felix sits down beside me.
