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"What if I start babbling and make a complete idiot of myself?"
"As the king of all idiots, I say this with authority—it doesn't matter. Unless you vomit all over him."
"Yeah. Vomiting is the worst."
Wilby ducks his head, nodding. "It so is. So don't do that. Everything else is fine. Even if you do go off, who cares? If he's a nice guy, he'll take it as a compliment, and you'll get a funny story out of it."
"I guess."
"Trust me. Get out of that pretty head of yours and justbein this moment. Okay?"
"Okay. I'll try."
And we're up. There's no one left between me and a guy who's work I adore. Time for being in the moment right fucking now.
"Hi," Benji says with a big smile as we approach."
"G'day," Wilby says, since I'm a little speechless. I am standing in front of my favorite author in the entire world, people. He's looking at me. We're sharing the same oxygen. This is a big freaking deal.
Benji's eyes slide lower, and I'm too giddy with nerves to realize he's looking at the book I'm clutching to my chest.
It's only when Wilby whispers, "The book," that my brain snaps into gear, and I place it on the table for Benji to sign.
Benji looks between us, smiles, then uncaps his pen. "Thanks. Who should I make this out to?"
"Col." Yay, I'm enunciating single syllables.
"With aC. NoE." Look at me go.
Benji opens the book, but doesn't write anything in it. "So how do you two know each other?"
"We're friends," I reply, as Wilby says, "He barely tolerates me."
We turn to look at each other.
Wilby smiles. "Well, he pretends to hate me, but secretly…" He looks at Benji and winks, reminding me so much of Polly it's not funny. "He's totally into me."
"Right." Benji grins, looking between us. "Friends, eh? That's how Darren and I started."
"It's a little more complicated than that," I point out.
"How so?"
"I don't know if we have the time to get?—"
"See, it all started one night in Sydney…" Wilby talks over me and begins regaling Benji with concise, but not necessarily entirely factually accurate, snippets of the time we've spent together.
"I was walking the streets, minding my own business…"
"He was drunk and shirtless…"
"He wanted to do the typical bloody touristy thing and go to Bondi…"
"It's a world-famous beautiful beach, andBondi Rescueis one of my favorite shows…"
"He couldn't get enough of me, so he followed me to Scuttlebutt."
"Wait," Benji interjects. "Scuttlebutt? That's the name of a real town?"
