“What do you want from me?” I groan, trying to push him off me but he continues to kiss my face.
“I want you to get up,” he demands between kisses.
“What time is it?”
“Six,” he says, smiling.
“And you think that’s an acceptable time to wake me up, why?”
“Because I’ve got a surprise for you,” he sing-songs, pulling me up into a sitting position. He pushes the hair that’s stuck to my forehead out of my face and kisses me deeply. I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this feeling. The overwhelming sense of calm that I get whenever he’s around.
“Oh that makes this so much better,” I say sarcastically when I pull apart from him.
“It’s going to be worth it.”
It better be.
I drag myself up out of his bed, still wearing his shirt and his boxers. He watches me as I get up and I realise that he’s already half dressed. His hoodie hangs on the back of his chair at his desk and his jeans are unbuttoned. What am I missing?
“Why are you already dressed? How long have I been sleeping for?” I quiz and then I gasp dramatically. “How long have you been watching me sleep for?”
“Stop asking questions and get ready, woman,” he challenges, throwing a pillow at me.
He follows me into the bathroom, watching as I brush my teeth. My hair is in desperate need for a cut and since I’ve been borrowing the hair products that he uses and it’s making my hair more wavy than usual. Miles leans against the sink, crossing his arms as he watches me apply moisturiser to my face, rubbing it in slow circles.
“In case it isn't obvious, you need to hurry up,” he presses. I glare at him and his smile widens. “Please?”
“Why? Where are we going?” I ask through a mouthful of toothpaste. He laughs at me and shakes his head. I spit out the toothpaste and rinse my mouth, turning to him. “You can’t rush beauty.”
“You’re beautiful every day without even trying, baby,” he says seriously, wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me into him. He kisses me on the forehead. “Now hurry up. Kennedy and Scarlett are already on their way there.”
That gets me excited. Whatever Miles is up to involves my girls so I already know that it’s going to be a good day. Even if I’ve had to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to see whatever it is he’s surprising me with. I finish getting ready, putting on my favourite blue jeans and white sweatshirt, not exactly sure what I’m dressing for.
Miles doesn’t really do surprises. I don’t either. So I know that this must be special. When I meet his impatient ass downstairs, he’s already waiting by the door, my tote bag on his shoulder, ushering me towards him. I pick up my pace and meet him at the door, no idea what I’m walking into.
*
“No way,” I say for the fourth time.
“Yes way,” Miles says.
“No. Freaking. Way,” I say again, punctuating each sentence with a push in his arm.
“Yes way,” Kennedy and Scarlett scream in unison. Miles grins at me, rubbing his arm as if I really hurt him.
“I think I’m going to pass out,” I say, needing to find something to hold onto. I step back from the curb, careful not to turn myself into roadkill and I inch closer towards the bookstore. It feels like I’m dreaming. I must be because there is no way that I’m standing outside the indie bookstore that I’ve been dying to go to since I heard it opened. There is also no way that Scarlett got us all tickets to a book signing with Jasmine James.
“Do you think it was worth waking up early for?” Miles asks.
“Yes! If you had told me that this is where we're going I would’ve got up way earlier,” I say truthfully.
Jasmine’s first book came out at the same time that I had finally started to get deeper invested in writing. It was a perfect fluffy romcom that she wrote about her and her now husband. It gave me the inspiration to finally pursue my writing more seriously and it gave me the opportunity to find writing communities online and other books like Jasmine’s. Since then, I’ve been following every release she’s had and all of the books that are coming up. I even convinced Scar and Ken into reading her books and they have also become obsessed. I didn’t think she’d come here for her book tour for her latest release, ‘The Stars and You.’
“What do you think she’s going to reveal this week?” Scarlett asks, looking down the queue. It turns out we weren’t the only ones with the idea of coming here early because there are people in front of us, even some people in tents, probably been here for hours. The store opens in less than an hour and we’ve been here for almost three.
“Why would she reveal something?” Miles asks, clearly oblivious to the kind of author Jasmine is.
“You know how Taylor Swift releases easter eggs before releasing a song or an album?” I say and he nods. I’ve been teaching him well. “Jasmine does a similar thing. She has a segment at the end of the book signings where she answers questions and usually, she’ll say something that will link to her next release. Sometimes it’s just a few words and others it’s a whole sentence full of easter eggs.”
