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They started walking again. When they passed by a boutique that yielded their reflections on its display window, Daria pulled him to a stop and pointed. “Look.”
Nik frowned as Daria preened beside him in front of the display window. “What?”
She pointed again. “Our reflections.” She looked up at him with a beaming smile. “We look great, don’t we?”
He rolled his eyes. “You are incredibly vain.”
She only laughed. “Honestly, you’ve got a really bad opinion of me, don’t you?” She rolled her eyes back at him. “What I mean is that we look good together.” Her arm curled around his, her body snuggling next to Nik’s as she leaned her head on his shoulder. “See?”
He refused to comment.
She took his phone out of his pocket and before he realized what she was up to, she had already taken a photo of them. “There you go.” She returned the phone to him. “Deep inside, I know you want a photo of us, too.”
Her winsome smile amused and disgruntled him at the same time, especially since he realized then that it was true. If he didn’t want a photo of them – of her – he wouldn’t have hesitated to delete the photo right then and there.
Ignoring her knowing look, Nik asked with exaggerated politeness, “Shall we go now?”
Daria only giggled. “You’re welcome,” she said gaily. They had only walked for another minute when she blurted out, “I don’t want to go back yet.”
“What do you propose we do then?” Nik tried to mask his cynicism as he asked the question. He had wondered how long Daria would last without the finer trappings of life, and her words seemed to signal that she had reached her limit.
His belief was further cemented when Daria peered at him under her lashes with a calculating gleam in her eyes. He waited for her to ask him for something expensive – perhaps a treatment at an exclusive spa by the beach or drinks at one of the fancy bars lining the path – just to see how much she could milk him for. Or if not that, he thought grimly, then perhaps she’d ask for any of those and offer to pay. People like Daria Everest had to keep up appearances, after all.
“I’ve decided,” she announced.
“Have you now?” he murmured. “So what is it?”
An impish smile touched her lips, and despite everything, he was mesmerized by it. And then she asked seriously, “How good are you at building sandcastles?”
