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A quick glance around returns no familiar faces but somehow that calms me rather than scares me.
No familiar faces means no one here to bring up my baggage, of which there is so much that sometimes, maybe too many times recently, I feel like I'm suffocating under a never-ending cascade of LV suitcases crushing my chest.
I walk around the main crowd, most swarming around the table of appetizers, to make my way over to the window where there's an empty spot to stand.
"Hello," a man appears to my right, when I get there, his face a picture of friendliness. "I'm Halifax."
I take a sip, keeping my eyes locked on his as I tip the glass against my lips before I say, "As in Nova Scotia, Halifax?"
He grins. "Let's just say my parents went there on my honeymoon, and nine months later, I was gifted a life of knowing way too much about my parent's love life."
I can't help but smile at him as he shrugs awkwardly, and runs his hand through his floppy brown fringe, his self-deprecating manner instantly relaxing me.
He eyes me when I don't respond and asks, "What's your name?"
"As far as I know, there are no honeymoon destinations that carry my name," I say, mysteriously. Men always love a little mystery. Makes them feel smart when they figure things out.
He narrows his eyes at me for a second, then breaks into a grin. "Okay, so not Paris, Florence... or god forbid, Bora Bora."
"Damn. You guessed it." I sigh prettily, shaking my head so that the curls flutter and frame my face as I fix a doe-eyed look at him. It's a move I've perfected over the years, so much that I don't even notice when I'm using it. I'm not even sure why I'm using it now. I have no interest in twirling Halifax around my little finger. Or maybe I do. Just... to remember what it used to feel like.
"Which one is it? Not Bora Bora? Say it isn't so!" he exclaims, grabbing a little triangle of avocado and salmon toast off a plate that's making the rounds.
I politely decline the food and he passes it over to the couple standing next to us.
"Look, we can't all be named after George Montagu-Dunk," I tease him and take satisfaction from the look of utter confusion on his face.
Finally, he gives up, throwing his hands up into the air. "Bora Bora, or can I just call you Bora, who is George Montagu-Dunk?"
I grin. "George Montagu-Dunk is the earl of Halifax. Or, if you like, the earl of you."
His mouth drops open. "How on earth do you know that?"
"What can I say, useless information, isn't as useless as you might think."
"You're a fascinating woman, Bora Bora."
This time I don't even stop the laugh. It's been a long time since I've had such an easy conversation. It probably helps that he doesn't know that I tried to blackmail my ex-fiancé into getting back together with me. Not tried.Did. I actually blackmailed Damien Baxter, only for him to dump me, for the second time, and go running back to the woman I made him leave for me.
I continue to chat to this funny, friendly man for a few more minutes. It turns out he's a buyer for a coffee company. It makes perfect sense. He looks and talks like a coffee hipster nerd. At twenty-nine, I feel like an old hag to his twenty-two years.
"Anyway, I'm going to Australia in a few weeks. They have an amazing coffee culture compared to us," he says, excitedly.
I don't offer the information that I lived in Australia for three years. No use digging that up.
"You look like you drink a lot of coffee," he says once he finishes telling me about his upcoming trip.
I frown. "I'm not really sure how to take that. Do I look hyper? Or strung out?"
He blinks and then trips over himself saying, "No, no! Not at all. I think coffee drinkers are the best people. That's all that I meant by that."
I enjoy the way I can unbalance him with a single sentence. Well, I would, if I wasn't entertaining the idea of actually becoming friends with this guy. I like him. He's sweet and unaffected. "You know, I don't even know your last name."
"It's Holland."
"Well, Halifax Holland, it's been lovely to meet you." The wide smile I give him is as genuine a smile as I have.
"It was lovely to meet you too. You know. I feel like I should know your actual name now. I feel like we're past the Bora stage."
