He closes his book again and looks at me. “I’ll be fine, Nate, and I promise I won’t gatecrash the date this time.”
I wave him off. “You didn’t gatecrash, and this isn’t a date. It’s a non-date to help a friend.”
The look he gives me is smug, like he doesn’t believe a word I’m saying.
I don’t think I believe me either.
**********
Everything is ready for our non-date with some help from Archie, and now I’m waiting for Hayleigh in the lobby with my bag and the list in my back pocket. I’m busy watching people go by when a flash of soft pink catches my eye, and my jaw drops because walking towards me is Hayleigh, looking like perfection.
Her hair is swept up in a high ponytail away from her face, showing off her rosy cheeks and glazed, plump lips. My eyes drop to her pink sundress, which stops just above her knee; the top half hangs off her shoulders and cuts across her chest. She looks beautiful
She reaches me, and I realise I’m still gawping. “You look beautiful, Hayleigh.”
A blush tinges her cheeks. “Thanks. So, where are we going?”
I hold my arm out, and she links hers with mine. “That’s a surprise.” She throws me a smile, it feels incredible, and I realise that I’d do anything to make her smile like that every day.
**********
“Oh, wow. This is beautiful, Nate.” Hayleigh’s voice is full of awe as she spins around in circles before darting from plant to plant, smelling the flowers and closing her eyes as a smile blooms across her face. I could watch her like this all day.
I have no clue about plants. Archie bought us a cactus once for the house, and we managed to kill it off, but I don’t say that; instead, I nod and smile. “Yeah, it’s all very…green.”
Hayleigh bursts out laughing. “Man of so many words. Come on, I want to see the butterfly enclosure they have.” She grabs my hand and pulls me along, and I can’t help but puff my chest out slightly when she doesn’t let go.
The butterfly enclosure is humid, and it’s not easy to breathe in here, but even I’m surprised at the sheer amount of butterflies in here, floating through the air without a care in the world. One lands on Hayleigh’s nose, and her eyes cross over as she looks down at it. So very gently, I lift my phone and snap a picture of her. Her eyes are so alive and happy, and I secretly high-five myself with this idea.
We spend a few hours walking around the gardens when Hayleigh floats over to some deep pink flowers that look like they could be dyed daisies. Her eyes fall closed as she takes in the smell of the flower. “These are Coneflowers. My granddad would get them for my grandma because she loved the colour pink. Every weekend, without fail, even when she left us, he kept getting them for her. My mother would tell him it was a waste of money, but he never did care for what she thought.”
“I don’t like your mother, by the way.”
Hayleigh’s laugh bursts out of her so loud she scares a couple walking by, and I can’t help but join in. She wipes underneathher eyes. “Oh, wow. That was funny. Ah, not many people like Morgana Wallcroft; they tolerate her for what she can do for them.”
She slumps her shoulders as she talks about her mother. “Yeah, well, I don’t like her, and I won’t be tolerating her. Especially not if she speaks to you as she did over the phone in front of me.” Her eyes go glassy, and I don’t want her to cry, so I tap my bag and opt for distracting her instead. “I brought us lunch.”
Her eyes light up at the mention of food. “I know the perfect place we can have it, come on, I saw it on the map earlier when we walked in.”
She grabs hold of my hand, and we walk through rows and rows of differently looking and smelling flowers before she takes a sharp left toward a wall covered in ivy. I tug on her hand gently. “Erm, hate to break it to you, Shortcake, but this is a wall.”
Her eyes sparkle. “Oh, it’s a wall, alright, but it’s what’s behind it that we want. Look.” She grabs the hanging ivy and pulls it back, revealing an old, worn-looking door behind it; it must have been at least a few hundred years old. A brass key sticks out of the lock, and she turns it.
I put a hand on hers to still it. “Wait. Are we even supposed to go back here?” Usually, I’m the first one breaking rules.
She rolls her eyes. “Stop being a baby. If they didn’t want people to find this place, then why put it on the map and why have the key hanging out of the door?” I shrug; she has me there.
She turns the key and then pushes the door inwards, and it swings open with ease. When we walk through the door, it’s like being transported to another world. Bright sprays of flowers burst out of every surface, and it’s only when the sun's rays shine brightly overhead that I realise we’re in some huge greenhouse and right down at the other end is a seating area of benches.
We pick our way through an overgrown path to the seats, and when we get there, we see beautiful carved statues of mythical creatures all around us. Hayleigh drops down onto a bench and sighs. “If only a mythical Fae King wandered through here to claim me as his high lady.”
I give her a pointed look. “Mythical Fae King?” I take out our lunch and plate it up on the plastic ones Archie stole from the kitchen. “What is it with you and my brother. Did you know he was reading about aliens this morning?”
She bounces her knee and claps her hands together. “Ooh, was it the alien next door or my alien baker?”
“Aliens bake?”
She sticks her tongue out at me. “These do, yes, very well might I add. God, I’d love to learn how to bake bread.”
