‘So, you’re all done with your novel now?’ Tim asked as he cut through the mass of whipped cream on top of his waffle.
‘Until the next round of edits,’ I mumbled around a mouthful of ice-cream and waffle.
‘What are your plans for the rest of the summer then?’ Tim kept checking his phone in a distracted way and I wondered what was going on with him.
‘I’ve got to get ready for my September release.’
‘Good, good.’ His phone started ringing and his distracted expression transformed into a grin. He sucked a bit of caramel sauce off his thumb. ‘Sorry, Noelle, I just gotta nip outside and take this. You’ll be okay?’
‘Sure.’ It was like talking to a fire hydrant anyway. He totally wasn’t listening to a thing I said. I watched him hurry outside, then turned my attention back to my top waffle, stabbing it with my fork and watching the vanilla ice-cream splurge out the sides. I didn’t want to eat it already and that annoyed me as much as everything else. I swirled my fork in the melting ice-cream and a shadow fell over the table as Tim came to sit back down. ‘That was – oh.’
It wasn’t Tim. A man about my age with a closely shaved head and a neat brown beard was in my brother’s seat. ‘Sorry, bud, someone’s sitting there.’
‘Hi, I’m Riley.’ He held his hand out. ‘I work with Tim.’
‘Oh, hi. He’s just popped outside…’ I shifted on my seat and didn’t shake his hand. This was weird.
‘I know. He arranged for us to meet. The blind date?’
What. The. Hell.
I was going tokillTim.
I dropped my cutlery and swivelled to look out the window. Tim was still outside, peering in to see how his little stunt was coming off. I stood up. ‘Sorry, Riley. It’s nothing personal. I just gotta go talk to my brother.’
When I stepped out on the sidewalk Tim was already backing away, hands held up, a half-smile on his face. I grabbed him by the ear, hard, and dragged him away from the window to the mouth of the alley down the side.
‘Ouch, Noelle, cut it out.’
‘What do you think you are playing at?’ I released him with a push.
He rubbed at his ear, looking at me all wounded. That puppy-dog expression hadn’t worked for a long time. ‘Trying to help you meet someone.’
‘This isn’t help, Tim. It’s interference.’ I swallowed and crossed my arms over my chest. He couldn’t have picked a worse time to pull this crap. I was already a walking bag of frustration barely holding it together, and he’d just given me an outlet to focus it on. My voice was hot with fury: ‘Howdareyou spring a date on me.’
‘It was just an introduction—’
‘You got me here on false pretences and then sent in a strange man to eat with me.’
‘He’s not strange. He’s Riley. Is this because you haven’t vetted him with your questions? You can go in and ask him them now.’ He rolled his eyes.
That was about right wasn’t it? Silly old Noelle and her dysfunctional dating habits.
‘It is not about stupid questions.’ I pushed my hair back off my face and neck. Suddenly I was feeling hot and my stomach was churning. ‘This isn’t a joke. It might be amusing for you and everyone else in our family to have a good laugh at me and my disastrous love life, but ithurts, Tim.’ I took a ragged breath. ‘It hurts to keep putting myself out there and getting rejected and treated like crap. The least you can do is letmedecide when I want to risk it.’
Tim’s face fell. ‘Noelle. I never realised…we all just figured you weren’t that bothered. You know, you’re always off, doing your writing and going on dates like err…who’s that one in the series? With all the curly hair?’
‘You meanSex and the City? Jesus Christ.’ I covered my face with my hand and shook my head. ‘I’m a real person, with real feelings and I just want to find someone who loves me,’ I confessed into the darkness of my palm.
I heard Tim’s feet shuffling and then he was hugging me.
‘Noelley. You have loads of people who love you.’
‘It’s not the same.’ My breathing hitched. ‘You know it isn’t. I want what you and Dee have. Lucy and Quinn. Mom and Dad. I just want that.’
He squeezed me. ‘I’m sorry. We never meant to upset you.’
‘I know. But it needs to stop. I can’t…’ I broke off as a sob choked me. The tears had been threatening for days. I shook with them as my pain-in-the-ass brother held me.
