AllFreeNovel
Share Us
21
ROSIE
“Nick just messaged you again.” Amanda had the biggest grin on her face. “Oh, he sounds interesting. As in hot.”
“Who?”
“Nick from your third viticulture class.”
“Oh, him. He’s okay, I guess.” I blushed, not at the thought of Nick but of what Tom had done right before I’d left him at home.
Amanda started typing on my laptop.
“Who are you writing to?” Amanda laughed as she hit the enter button. Panic surged through me. “Oh my god, what did you do?”
“Pfft, harmless flirting. All I said was ‘hi there’,” she replied. “Tickets were emailed and I have my itinerary too. I’ll just print my travel documents and leave you to flirt with uni guys.”
“I’ll miss you, you know. You always wanted to live overseas.”
Amanda’s shoulders dropped. “You always said you’d come, but I knew your heart was always here.”
My laptop pinged again and Amanda frowned.
“What is it? Nick didn’t like your way of saying hi?”
Amanda looked up from the laptop. “You like Nick, right?”
“Um, yeah.” I shrugged. “Sure.” I should tell her right now about the party. About Tom and me.
“Okay. Good.” She typed something.
“Are you messaging him again?”
“What? No. Just … editing my itinerary. I’m about to print.”
Page after page of airports, travel times and bus departures popped out of the printer.
There was another ping.
“How was the party? After I bailed in bed.”
Another pang of panic bubbled up. “Yeah, it was good. I mean, Doug was Doug but it was fun.”
How should I tell her about her little brother? Amanda was fierce to a fault over her family and friends.
“When are you coming back?”
“I don’t know.” Amanda shrugged, picking the pages off the printer. “As long as I can. See the world. You could join me,” she added. “You always wanted to live in Italy with Zanetti extended family for a while and see Europe. Maybe after your postgrad studies before you take over the vineyard in earnest?”
“I’ll see. There’s … things I need to explore here first.”
I was the biggest coward in the world if I thought I could get away with telling her while she was travelling across Europe.
Amanda typed something else, muttering.
“You okay?” I asked.
Amanda waved me away with her itinerary and then typed again. “Just telling this guy he needs to back off and leave you alone.” With a flourish, she hit a key. “And done.”
