Upside Down(17)

He was now looking at me like he had serious concerns for my mental health. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’m just really nervous and you were going to ask me something yesterday but you didn’t and I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours freaking out and I’m pretty sure Merry is—” His expression was growing more concerned so I stopped talking. “Not relevant to this conversation, sorry. You were going to ask me something. Please put me out of my misery.”

He smiled and the bus came to a stop and he brushed up against me again. He didn’t apologise, which could either mean he wasn’t sorry for the physical contact or he was a mannerless jerk, and I hoped to all the gods it was the first.

“Yes, I did want to ask you something,” he said. “And there’s no right or wrong answer. You need to do what you’re comfortable in doing. I don’t want to influence your decision.”

The bus jolted forward again as we took a right at Cleveland. Shit his stop was next. “If you don’t just spit it out, I’m pretty sure Merry will hunt you down. Not sure she can take much more of me not knowing what you were going to ask me.”

“You told her?”

“Of course. I might have mentioned it once. Or eighty-seven times.”

He looked out the window and made a face when he saw his stop was coming up. “I just wanted to know,” he said. “You know, the support group I run?”

“Yes.”

An amazing explosion of blush coloured his cheeks. “Well, I was just wondering if you were thinking of coming back.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t have hidden my disappointment if I tried. Of course it was about his meeting. It wasn’t about me at all. “I was planning to, yeah. Do you like need to know for numbers or something? Because that’s fair. Or if you need to change venues because we got interrupted by the drunk, horny couple. Oh God, did I make someone feel uncomfortable with all my crying and you need to tell me that it’s probably for the best if I don’t come back? Because you can just tell me. I’ll understand.”

“No, no. Nothing like that,” he replied and the bus slowed to a stop. “Shit. I wish we had more time than five minutes a day.”

Wait, what? He wants more time with me?

“Um, me too,” I replied in that traitorous breathy voice. “I mean, what even is five minutes?”

The doors opened and people started to pile off the bus. He looked a little panicked. “Tomorrow’s Saturday. Are you free tomorrow? For a coffee, say two pm? I have more questions and—”

“Yes!” I all but yelled, then tried to play it all cool. “I mean, sure. I think I can squeeze that in. I have questions too.” Yeah right, because my plans to do absolutely fucking nothing all day needed scheduling.

“Awesome. So, Alberto’s at two?” He asked. I nodded; he grinned and, still facing me, took a step backwards to the door. Now some people were trying to get on the bus and he was kind of in their way, but he didn’t even seem to notice. He was too busy smiling at me. “Oh, Alberto’s is just around the corner.”

I nodded. “Yep. Alberto’s at two.”

He bounced down the steps and onto the footpath. He pulled his headphones back on. Still smiling, he peered back up at me. The wind tousled his hair under his headphones and he bit on his bottom lip, like he was trying not to smile, and for one split second, for one perfect moment, he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

If this was a movie, this shot right here would be deemed a goddamned cinematic masterpiece.

I all but collapsed into a seat, sighing with relief that I’d spoken to him and he’d asked me his question, which I would no doubt overthink later. But yes, I was so relieved and even more excited because I had a motherfucking coffee date with him tomorrow.

I fished my phone out and hit Merry’s number. She answered on the third ring with, “So help me Jordan, if he was a no-show and there was no resolution to this freakin’ life-altering question, I’ll be changing my name to River Blossom and moving to Nimbin where I can make hemp-infused soaps, and I’ll grow carrots and smoke purple weed, and you’ll never find me.”

“Well, it won’t be hard to find you because you just told me where you’d move to and your new name,” I replied. “And you’d be so high from the weed and vegan pot brownies, I’d only have to follow the pizza delivery guy and he’d lead me straight to you. You’d also probably be glowing orange from all the beta-carotene from living on carrots too. You really need to work on your witness protection schemes, Merry. If this was in the Bourne Supremacy universe, you would have died in the first book.”

She laughed and made a contented sound and I pictured her plonking herself on her couch.

“Are you home?” I asked.

“Yes, thank God. And I have no intention of moving from in front of Netflix all night.” Then she groaned. “I should have got myself a drink before I sat down. Jordan, be a darling and come over and bring me a glass of wine so I don’t have to move. And pizza.”

I sighed dramatically. “I’m sorry, beautiful. I’m far too busy. I need to spend my entire night planning my coffee date tomorrow at two o’clock with one totally gorgeous Hennessy… Hennessy… Mister Hennessy who has no last name because he has no social media presence and he’s too cute for a surname.”