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“I’m here too!”
We turn to see Amy grinning at us. “Hi, Amy.”
He remembers her name. Truly impressive stuff.
“Hi,” she squeaks and flutters her hands. Attempting to wave, perhaps? “You two look like you belong on a cake.”
Matthew laughs, lighting me up from the inside. “Nat is small enough to fit on top of a cake.”
I poke him in the ribs and he pulls me close to him, tucking me in under his arm and nuzzling his nose into my neck. Oh, holy sweetness, I could die happy right here at this moment.
“Do you want to dance?” His low voice tickles my ear.
I nod and send Amy an apologetic look, which she waves away.
“Enjoy,” she mouths to me as Matthew leads me to the middle of the dance floor.
“Everyone is watching,” I say as he holds my hips and draws me into him. I loop my arms around his neck and step in closer. Until we’re touching. Much better.
“Let them.” He kisses my temple, and I promptly forget everything and everyone around us. There’s only Matthew and this moment, being held in his muscular arms, breathing in his manly smell, swaying to the music and feeling his lips on my skin.
“I’m so glad you’re here.”
His hands tighten on my hips, dropping them to hold my lower back, pressing me closer. “Me too. This is what I dreamed of for my senior formal.”
I stumble, bumping my nose into his chest. With watery eyes, I look up at him. “So that part was true? You were going to ask me?”
He sighs and I feel it with my whole body. “How many times do I have to say it? Yes, New Girl, I was going to ask you to the formal. I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend. I had the biggest crush on you. Everyone knew it. Everyone but you.”
I digest this information as he puts his head on top of me, his arms like steel around my body.
“I had a crush on you too,” I admit into his shirt, too embarrassed to look up into his handsome face. “I wasn’t immune to your charms.”
“I know,” he deadpans, and I stomp on his foot in retaliation. “I’m just kidding! I had no idea what you felt for me. You played it so cool.”
My heart thumps erratically in my chest. It feels like we’re inching closer to something big here. “I tried to put you in the Friendzone,” I admit. “Because I didn’t think I’d ever have a chance with you. That you’d ever fully notice me.”
He stops moving and guides my face to look up at his. His eyes search mine, looking for something, and then a smile grows on his face. A wide, blinding smile that radiates happiness. He takes my face into his hands, his fingers gently stroking my cheeks. “You still don’t see it, do you?” His eyes bounce between mine. “Why do you think I pretended I needed a tutor? Why, if I didn’t have the biggest crush on you, would I spend my free time learning things I already knew? What I told Johnny Summers was one hundred per cent true. I’d noticed you; I’d been noticing you. That day in the hall? When I said hello to you? That was the day I decided I wanted to get to know you. And the more I got to know you, the more I realised I never wanted to be apart from you.”
My heart stops, splutters and kicks back into life. It was the most incredible, heartfelt speech I’d ever heard, and he looks like he meant every word.
“Matthew.” I cover his hands with mine. “That day, when you called me New Girl and winked at me, I felt more alive than I ever had. Our three months together, becoming friends, were the best I had at high school—or ever, if I think about it. My heart broke when I thought you were playing games with me…I realise now that it’s been waiting for you to return to put it back together.”
He stops me with his lips, sliding his mouth over mine, and I melt into him. This, this I could do forever.
“So, what you’re saying?” he says, his voice rough with emotion, “is that you kind of like me?”
I press a swift but urgent kiss on his lips before answering, “I more than kind of like you.”
Matthew whoops, picks me up and spins me around. “Finally!” He flashes his white grin at me. “Finally, New Girl. And I more than kind of like you, too.”
I float back to the ground, with Matthew’s arms acting as an anchor. “So, we more than kind of like each other,” I summarise. “What’s next?”
He spins me out and pulls me in, dipping me low to the ground and kissing me senseless. “Next, I have a confession to make,” he says after we’ve righted ourselves. His eyebrows are bunched together, and he’s biting his lower lip.
I feel a twinge of anxiety in my gut. “A confession?”
He grimaces. “I, ah…I never actually needed you to be my fake girlfriend.”
