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“So, there’s something that I want to do,” Olivia said as they walked down the street.
Paige looked at her, sensing something unspoken in her tone. “Okay. What is it?”
“Well, it’s kind of a surprise,” Olivia said, twisting her hands together. “I want to go alone.”
Paige felt her stomach pull. She wanted to do something without her?
“Don’t give me that look,” Olivia said, slumping her shoulders. Paige blinked, not realising her emotions had been so evident on her face; had they been this whole time? “You’ll see what it is later. I don’t know how long I’ll be—maybe an hour or more—so I figured you could maybe camp out in a cafe somewhere and read. Only if you’re okay with that? I know it’s not exactly ideal.”
Paige schooled her expression. “No, that’s fine,” she said. “But you really can’t tell me what it is?”
Olivia gave her a playful smile. “Nope. I want it to be a surprise.”
Paige shrugged. “Alright then. I’ll head to the cafe we sat in yesterday.” She paused, peering up at Olivia between her lashes. “Promise me you will come back though? Don’t leave me sitting there like an idiot.”
Olivia’s expression softened. “I promise I’ll come back, don’t worry,” she said. “Now shoo. I’ll meet you back at the cafe in a bit.”
Wondering what surprise Olivia had in mind, Paige parted from her friend and headed back down the avenue to the small cafe they had visited yesterday. By the time she threw a glance over her shoulder, Olivia had already disappeared.
The cafe was fairly quiet, since it wasn’t quite yet lunchtime, so Paige ordered an iced tea and sat on one of the plush sofa-chairs in the corner of the room, where she could keep an eye on the door. Perhaps the timing had worked out well after all, since she now had the chance to check out the book she’d just bought. She didn’t want to show Olivia it just yet, didn’t want to risk betraying her own feelings.
Sipping on her iced tea, Paige pulled the book out of her bag and flipped it open to the first page.
This is the story of the summer I fell in love with my best friend…
Paige lost track of time while she read, falling straight into Amy and Steph’s chemistry as they turned from friends to lovers. Experiencing Amy’s racing heart and sweaty palms and the glances she kept sneaking towards Steph was like reliving all of her own reactions around Olivia.
But when had she started seeing Olivia as anything more than a friend?
She barely managed to stuff the book back into her bag when she noticed Olivia coming into the cafe, the bell tinkling above the door.
Lifting her gaze, she froze.
“So… what do you think?” Olivia said, turning full-circle in front of her.
Paige’s lips opened and closed, searching for the right words. “You… I… I love it,” she finally blurted, raking her gaze over Olivia’s newly-short hair. She’d had it cut to rest just above her shoulders, the layers at the front curling up to her chin. Subtle pink highlights had been added to the ends, making her hair shimmer like a blushing sky. “Seriously, you look amazing.”
Olivia grinned, running her fingers through her hair and fluffing it up around her face. “Thank you, Paige. That means a lot, especially coming from you.” She plopped down into the seat opposite Paige. “It feels so much lighter now.”
“You even got highlights,” Paige said, because she was so caught off guard by Olivia’s transformation that she didn’t know what else to say. Olivia looked even more gorgeous with short hair than Paige had imagined. It suited her perfectly.
“I did,” Olivia said, smoothing her fingers through the dyed-pink ends. “I always wanted to have pink hair, but I thought it might look silly.”
“Definitely not. You look beautiful,” she said before she could stop herself, the word almost causing her to bite her tongue.
Olivia cocked her head slightly, her smile gentle as she stared across the table at Paige.
Paige hardly knew where to look; she felt too nervous to meet Olivia’s gaze, but she felt herself being drawn back to it, again and again.
The air between them almost seemed to tremble with their held breaths, making Paige’s hairs stand on end.
What is this…
“S-shall I order you a drink?” Paige blurted, shaking them both out of their daze. “The iced teas here are really good.” She reached for her drink and took a shaky sip, trying to distract herself from the thudding pulse of her heart.
“Sure. That sounds good,” Olivia said, her smile never fading. She pulled out her phone as Paige got up to order something, wiping her sweaty palms down her shorts.
The last thing she’d been expecting was Olivia to come back with her hair cut off—and to look stunning because of it.
