‘Hey!’ The paintbrush Luca had just produced from behind his back dabbed clumsily across my face, leaving a cold streak of paint down my right cheek. My eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, it’ssoon.’
I got him on the forearm, a thick swipe of yellow running from his wrist to the inside of his elbow. His grin widened. Brandishing his brush like a fencing sword, he lunged forward,landing another blow to the sleeve of my left arm. Bouncing on the balls of my feet, I aimed for the face, but Luca dodged quickly to the side, grabbing my paintbrush-wielding hand in his. He spun me around, so quickly that I heard myself gasp, my own arm pinning me against his chest. I could feel the contours of his body through the worn coveralls, his belt buckle pressing against the soft, fleshy part at the base of my spine.
‘Care to admit defeat?’ Luca teased, his breath warm against my ear.
‘Never,’ I vowed, twisting free from his grip and reaching down to swap my paintbrush for the roller. Luca hesitated at my choice of upgrade. ‘What’s wrong, Patel? Start something you can’t finish?’ My roller struck gold, gliding up the right side of his face and forming a perfect half-beard from jaw to ear. I smiled triumphantly.
‘Oh, I always finish. Don’t you worry about that.’ Something flashed hot and molten behind his eyes, confirmation that his dual meaning was no accident. My breath hitched audibly in my throat, an unexpected rush of desire scorching through my veins, throwing me off-guard. And off balance. My foot caught in the trailing end of my trouser leg, sending me lurching forwards and straight towards an unsuspecting Luca. The floor rushed up to meet us and I screwed my eyes tightly shut, every muscle in my body bracing for impact. But then I felt Luca’s arms wrap themselves around me, strong and sure as they pulled me tightly against his chest, cushioning my fall.
When I opened them again, we were about as close as two people could possibly be. Noses practically touching. A tangled mess of limbs as our hearts beat furiously against each other through our overalls. Luca’s mouth formed a perfect O beneath me, his gaze flitting from my eyes to my mouth. Eyes. Mouth. Eyes. Mouth. And for one wild, terrifying moment, I thought about kissing him – how easy it would be to snake my armsaround his neck, twist the ends of his hair between my fingertips as I pulled his lips closer to where I wanted them—
‘Ahem.’
Someone cleared their throat behind us and we sprang apart, scrambling to detach ourselves from one another. Terry was stood in the doorway, rubbing at his stubble with one hand, an amused look on his face.
‘Sorry, didn’t mean to .?.?. interrupt.’ It looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh. Warmth flooded my cheeks. Why did it feel like I’d just been caught with my hand in the cookie jar? ‘Just forgot my keys,’ he explained, his boots echoing in the silence as he sauntered over and swiped a handful of metal off one of the chairs.
‘As you were,’ he called over his shoulder, jangling his prize noisily in the air as he disappeared through the doorway, dipping his head as he went. The door slammed shut once more, the moment gone, vanishing into the night along with a chuckling Terry. A swirl of cool air hurried in from outside, biting against the bare skin of my arms. I shivered.
‘It’s getting late. I guess we should probably call it a night too,’ Luca said reluctantly, his eyes fixed on mine as though willing me to disagree. And just like that, my whole body was ablaze once more, one look from Luca enough to restart the burning flame in the pit of my belly.
I nodded. ‘Probably.’
16
‘What do you think it means?’
Jacob craned his neck closer to my phone, re-reading the text message we’d been poring over for the past five minutes. The same text message that had prompted me to send an emergency SOS message to the group chat at 7 a.m., resulting in Jacob showing up at the pub twenty-seven minutes later, out of breath and slightly red-faced, eye mask still atop his head.
‘OK, hear me out,’ he said, nursing his cup of coffee with the tenderness a mother would her baby. ‘Call me crazy, but what if—’ he paused for dramatic effect ‘—he wants you to meet him for dinner tonight at 7 p.m.?’
I rolled my eyes at Jacob’s fake sincerity, flicking him between the eyes before swiping my phone off the kitchen table. I read the text one final time before slipping it into my pocket.
Dinner. Tonight. 7pm.
That was it. No details. No explanation. Not even a bloody question mark. As if my attendance were mandatory. The sheer presumption of it all irked me a little, but another part of me fizzed with excited anticipation, something fluttering nervously behind my breastbone at the thought of going on a date with Luca.
‘Yes, thank you, Einstein. Thank God you came over,otherwise I’d never have worked that one out,’ I drawled, taking another sip of coffee. ‘I mean, do you think it’s a date?’
‘Of course it’s a bloody date!’ This time, it was Jacob’s turn to roll his eyes. My teeth halted their worrying of my bottom lip, panic causing every tiny muscle in my body to freeze. Jacob must have seen it on my face because the next minute, he was backtracking. ‘Or,’ he added quickly, one finger in the air, ‘it could just be two people having dinner together? I mean you’ve got to eat, he’s got to eat, why not eat together?’
‘Mmm,’ I murmured quietly, running my index finger round and round the rim of Joe’sStar Warsmug, the edge of my nail catching on the hairline crack down one side. It had been eight months. Eight long months without Joe and it still felt like a betrayal even thinking about going on a date with someone else.
‘Look, it doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be. It can just be dinner. A chance to escape your mum’s for the night, get a change of scene, have some fun. You do remember fun, right?’
I took a loud slurp of coffee, ignoring his question.
‘Hey Siri, what does it mean to have fun?’ Jacob asked, his eyes trained on my face even though he was talking to his phone. After Alice and me, Siri was probably the most important woman in Jacob’s life. The display lit up, a robotic female voice echoing around the kitchen.
‘Fun is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as light-hearted pleasure, enjoyment, or amusement; boisterous joviality or general merrymaking.’
‘You hear that?’ Jacob angled his head towards the phone. ‘General merrymaking. Doesn’t that sound delightful?’
‘Know-it-all,’ I mumbled into my mug, glaring accusingly at Jacob’s iPhone as the screen returned to black.
‘Look, if you’re still worried, I’ll be your get-out-of-date-free card and phone you half an hour in so you can bail if need be.What do we think, the classicI’ve been knocking on your door for ten minutes, don’t tell me you forgot you said I could crash at yours tonight?’ Jacob wailed, flapping his hand dramatically in front of his face. ‘Or I could pretend I’ve been arrested? No wait, I’ve got it – kidnap!’ He mic-dropped his half-eaten croissant, crumbs flying everywhere.
‘Wait, have you been kidnapped or are you the kidnapper?’
