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He supressed a smile. “Oh, you’re woman enough all right.”
I looked down to hide my smile, sneaking a look to make sure Maddy was still asleep. “So? You wouldn’t want to hang out with all our friends on a date, would you?”
Roman sighed. “Are we being serious now?”
I looked at his profile for a moment before I replied. “Yes.”
“Okay then.” He shifted adorably in his seat like it was suddenly too big for him or something and put both hands on the steering wheel. He cleared his throat. “Aside from the serious fact that our friends seriously don’t get along and I suspect not even a serious apocalypse would change that, seriously no.”
I was stuck wondering if that had been a subtle John Cusack reference so I forgot what it was a ‘no’ to for a second. “No, what?”
“No, I wouldn’t want to hang out with our friends on a date.”
“What would you want to do?”
“What?”
“Say you were taking me out on this proverbial date, what would we do?”
“Again, not asking you out, Barlow,” he chuckled.
I swatted him playfully. “I know. But… Pretend I’d asked you out! What would we do?”
“You asked me out? How would that go, then?” he teased.
“Oh, I don’t know. I expect I’d say something like ‘Roman?’ and you’d say ‘yes, Piper?’” I dropped my voice low and he laughed, then checked the mirror; but, Maddy was still asleep.
“Was that supposed to be me?”
I nodded. “Yes. Shush, I’m getting in the zone.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Not allowed. Now, shush. So, you’d say ‘yes, Piper?’ and I’d probably blush bright red and look at my shoes and say ‘I know I said I’d never be one of those girls, but I broke my promise. We said no lies, so no lies, Roman. I think I’m falling in love with you and I want you to be that guy. I want to date you.’ Right, so then–” I paused when I saw his face. “What?”
“You…” He shook his head and wriggled again. “Never mind. So, then what do I say?”
I looked out the side window. “Well, I imagine you’d say something like ‘Piper, I’ve been in love with you this whole time but I’ve been too busy maintaining my mysteriously brooding, bad boy image to admit it.’ Then I expect you’d fall to your knees at my feet and agree to date me.”
He snorted and I turned to see him shaking his head. “Of course, I would.”
“Well, what do you think you’d say then?”
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and I saw him steal a couple of glances from the corner of his eyes. He leant his elbow on the door while his hand held the steering wheel and rubbed his chin with his other hand.
“I think I’d be more likely to say something like ‘Piper, I’ve never wanted to be that guy before. But even if you weren’t that girl, I’ve found myself wanting to be that guy for you. You’re beautiful, you’re smart, you know how to make me smile, you make me happy without even trying, and your touch drives me wild. I fell in love with you, Piper, before I even really knew what love was, before I really knew you. Now, I know both far more intimately than I ever thought I could, and I would be honoured to date you’.”
My cheeks had flamed burning heat, but I couldn’t look away from him. I could only stare at him and blink. My chest constricted and my stomach cartwheeled. I opened my mouth a couple of times. But, nothing came out and I forced myself to look out the other window.
“Barlow?”
“Jesus, that was…something else, Lombardi,” I breathed.
“Just because I’m not romantic doesn’t mean I’ve failed to grasp the concept. Besides, you forced enough of those movies on me last week. I like to think I’ve picked upsomething.”
I nodded. “Sure. Of course you would have.”
“You okay?”
