“And you guys find that entertaining…how?” he asks.
“You just don’t get it,” Kennedy says, waving him off. “This is our Joker.”
“Right…” Miles says, looking between us. He pulls me into him, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “Why are you so warm? It’s freezing.”
“It must be all those extra curriculars you put me through before we came,” I say, teasing him as he pulls down my beanie further. He smiles at me. One of those real, Miles-type smiles with dimples and crinkled eyes.
“Oh, so that’s why you took so long,” Scarlett says, nodding. “Makes more sense.”
I don’t even bother to make a snide comment at that because all I really want is to be sharing my warmth with Miles in this weather. As scary as it was to commit to this relationship, I’ve started to realise that he has become one of my best friends. He listens to me and does the most insane things just to see me smile. And I would do a thousand insane things to get him to smile too. He’s become my favourite person to talk to and the first and last thing I think of each day. As scary as it feels to throw myself into this, I’m glad that we’ve established a friendship before so it feels less daunting.
I know exactly how Miles felt meeting his idols at the Sports Achievement Evening because that is exactly how I feel walking into the bookstore, knowing that my favourite author is in there. Excited, nervous and a little bit sick. If I had known we were coming here, I would have prepared some questions beforehand. What do you say to someone who basically saved your life without knowing?
The bookshop is small with a deep rustic vibe to it, blue bunting hanging from the ceiling and a huge lifesize cut out of the cover of Jasmine’s new book and a stack of signed editions. It’s a weird feeling meeting an author. Often, you forget that they’re a real person, putting every single emotion you’ve ever had into words. And you also forget that they have a real face with real feelings and a very real personality.
We’re all anxiously waiting for our turn, Kennedy and Scarlett switch places in the line to have a better look at Jasmine at the front of the queue. Even Miles looks nervous, his arm hung around my shoulder as if it belongs there, tugging me tighter into him as if we aren’t close enough already.
“Do you know what you’re going to ask her?” Miles asks me.
“I have no clue,” I admit. I turn to look up at him, brushing his dark curly hair out of his face. “What do you think I should ask?”
“Well, it’s not like she’s a genie or something. Or is she?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. I shake my head, laughing. “Then just something you feel like you could use advice on. Since she’s older and wiser and all.”
“That’s true,” I say, biting my bottom lip as I nod. We start to move down the queue and I start to feel the nerves in my stomach.She’s just a regular person like you. Don’t need to freak out, Wren, I tell myself. “You guys go first.”
Kennedy and Scarlett turn to me, clutching their copies of ‘The Stars and You’ to their chest. “Are you sure? You’re the one that introduced us to her.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I need to mentally prepare myself,” I say, taking a deep breath and switching places with them so me and Miles are behind them. “I’m fine. I’m not going to freak out.”
Miles laughs, rubbing my shoulder. “You keep telling yourself that, baby.”
When Scarlett and Kennedy move to the side after their turn, they give me a huge thumbs up, trying to prepare me for one of the best moments of my life. I thought that nothing could top the week that I had with Miles in Palm Springs but this moment is coming in close second. Miles tells me that he’s going to stand over at the side with the girls, giving me a moment alone with Jasmine.
I get to her desk and oh my God, she is gorgeous. Of course I’ve seen pictures of her online but she’s not one of those very public authors. As much as she likes to share snippets of her personal life with her husband, it’s more pictures of him than it is of her. She has fantastic long ginger hair and unlike her Instagram pictures, she’s sporting owl framed glasses, similar to the ones I use when I read. My hands are practically shaking as I place the book down on the table as she smiles up at me.
“Hi. How are you?” she asks, resting her forearms on the book and her whole attention is on me.
“I-I’m great. My boyfriend and my friends surprised me with this so I’m doing great. How are you? How are you finding Utah?” I ask. Great. Word vomit. Exactly what I need right now. I clear my throat.
She laughs quietly, opening up the book to the first page. “It’s a lot colder than I thought it would be. Honestly, I don’t know what compelled me to pack for a summer trip,” she says, shaking her head.
“It can be very deceiving,” I say back.
“Who am I signing this for?” she asks, picking up her black marker.
“For Wren,” I say, hating how childish I sound. She nods.
“I told myself that I wouldn’t ask everyone this but do you have any burning questions? It can be about the book or about life in general. Are you a writer?” she asks, excitedly and I’m taken aback about how chilled out this all feels. All that freaking out I did is borderline embarrassing.
“Sort of,” I say with a shrug. She nods understandingly. “I do want to ask something, though. You can totally ignore this if it’s stupid but I just want to know if you know how to do something even if it’s scary. To put yourself into something that could possibly turn out to be a shitshow.” I gasp at myself. “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t swear in front of the baby.”
She laughs at that, rubbing her stomach. “Trust me, you should hear the amount of curse words Ida’s dad uses. It’s not going to be any different with this one,” she says, pointing at her small bump. “Anyway. What are you worried about turning into a shitshow?”
I sigh. “Everything,” I explain. “Mostly a new relationship.”
Jasmine smiles faintly, she gestures for me to come closer to the table and I do as if she’s about to tell me a secret. “Sweetheart, I met you…what? Two minutes ago? And I can already tell that that boy over there is head-over-heels, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds kind of in love with you.”
I don’t mention the fact that we have never said those words to each other. That this is all still new. We’re practically still in the honeymoon stage. Instead, I ask, “How do you know that?”
