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‘Okay, see? You don’t want my advice.’ I think about anything real I can give her. ‘I guess, for me, I like it when someone shows an interest in something I enjoy. So the fact you’re going climbing should put you in his good books. Then for the next date—because that is definitely happening, if you want it to—pick somethingyouwant to do instead. Something you’re excited for.’
‘Thanks. And how’s it going for you?’ The words dart out of her. ‘With Alex. Have you been on any more dates?’
‘Why do you wanna know?’
‘I’m nosy, I guess.’ She shifts on her feet. ‘You were having a good time together at the restaurant, and I’ve seen you glued to your phone recently. I put two and two together. Figured you might’ve seen her again. Call it curiosity.’
‘You’re curious. That’s the only reason?’ Her cheeks turn slightly pink but she doesn’t say anything. I wonder if she’ll ever admit it. ‘If I were to tell you that I’ve been on my phone a lot trying to plan things with my dad, and that I met up with Alex that evening because she’s in marketing too and her mum thought she might be interested in taking over my contract when I leave, would that satisfy your curiosity?’
It’s only when I finish my sentence that I remember I’d intended to keep the truth of that meeting to myself. So much for my morbid enjoyment of Ava’s reaction to thinking I was on a date. Turns out lying isn’t for me, even if it’s only by omission.
Ava’s trying to hold back her bewilderment when a pair of hands grabs my shoulders. I recognise Julien from his cologne alone. He smells expensive. ‘Getting a pep talk from Ava before the biginterview?’
Rory appears from behind him, perpetually looking both lost and dishevelled.
‘Shit, that’s today?’ Ava asks, mask back on, running my drinks and snacks through the till at an unbelievable discount. She’s definitely gonna get in trouble for that with her manager. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Must’ve slipped my mind,’ I say with a shrug. In reality, the prospect of this new job and next stage of my life buzzes through my brain constantly; more responsibility, more opportunity, more new things to try. But when I stand in front of Ava listening to her complain about her ridiculous issues, the new job is barely a hum in the background. I don’t want to sully the time we have with it, for some reason. ‘Julien and Rory are here to help quiz me and listen to my pitch.’
Rory grabs a packet with a noise of unconstrained glee and Ava watches him clutch it like Gollum and his Ring. She meets my eye and says, ‘That’s my requirement. Someone who looks at me the way Rory looks at biscuits.’
‘You don’t think anyone looks at you like that?’ Julien asks, a smile teasing the corners of his mouth.
‘Full transparency, I don’t actually know much about your job,’ Rory says as he peels the packet open. ‘Whenever you talk about SEO I zone out. I’m here because I wanted a coffee, and Julien said he might need reinforcements to keep you away from Av—’
‘Let’s sit,’ I say, a surprised chuckle bursting out of me. As we take our places at a table in the corner, I sweep a few sugar granules off the table into a napkin and look at both Julien and Rory to say, ‘Thanks for that, you two.’
‘No worries,’ Rory says, crumbs flying everywhere as he chomps on a biscuit. ‘Wait, for what?’
The sounds of the coffee shop are a soothing soundtrack to my afternoon of interview prep, and Ava has been covertly administering sustenance in the form of free drinks and snacks for the past few hours.
At one point, she places a cup on my table and says, ‘This is decaf. Because, you know, your bowels.’ Romance isn’t dead, folks.
As it nears four o’clock, I glance away from my laptop to see her running her hands through her loose hair, lifting it into a makeshift ponytail and then dropping it onto her shoulders. She touches her wrist and frowns.
‘By the till,’ I say, stretching my arms above my head with a grunt as I peer at my laptop one last time.
‘What?’ she asks, distractedly reaching for the missing band around her wrist again.
‘Your hair tie. It’s to the left of the till.’
She finds it where I said it was, secures her ponytail again, and pulls the ends apart to tighten it. I pretend I can’t feel her eyes on me as I pack up my stuff.
Her voice is calm when she starts to speak. ‘You’re gonna smash it. You’re good at what you do. At least, I assume you are. I don’t actually know. But there’s no way they won’t hire you. You are,’ she pauses, taking the time to choose her words, ‘to my great distress, extremely likeable.’
I raise an eyebrow as I turn to face her. ‘Are you flirting with me?’
I can’t help it. This is the game we’ve played for months; teasing that goes nowhere, incessant back-and-forth. The longer it goes on, the more I know how much I’llmiss it.
‘As always, you have decided to make this conversation about how much everyone fancies you, which is not only false, but also untrue and incorrect.’ She tries to keep a straight face but a grin spills over her expression the way moonlight brightens the dark. ‘But it’s true. They’ll love you. So go, and good luck.’
‘Good luck to you too, with your date.’ We have such different plans for the next twenty-four hours, but both of them could culminate in something new. In opposite directions.
‘Not as important.’ We walk to the door together and she darts in front to open it for me. ‘Don’t let my lateness rub off on you.’
I stop inches away from her in the doorway, close enough that I can smell the vanilla in her perfume. My mouth opens to start a sentence my brain hasn’t quite figured out how to finish yet. ‘You’re…’
‘I’m what?’ She leans against the door, a ghost of a smile on her face, watching me spin out of control behind the eyes.
