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“Aw.”
“That was it. We were all inseparable,” I said, poking my straw into my drink and playing with the ice cubes. “I would write to Ash and Noah every other week—that was all we really had to keep in contact when we were kids, and I only saw them every summer.”
“Did you ever actually have a relationship?” Steph asked, pouring another round of drinks and finishing off the first jug.
“Yep. I’d do little jobs around the bed and breakfast to earn some pocket money, and Noah used to come by and help me do the garden stuff like weeding, so I’d be done sooner. One day when we were eleven, he asked me to be his girlfriend, and I said yes. I didn’t expect it to last longer than the summer, but it did.”
“Took him two years to kiss her,” Ash said, grinning. “He was such a wimp, and I told him a thousand times to just kiss someone else and get the whole first kiss thing over and done with, but he refused.”
“Aww,” Steph said again. “That’s cute. So, you were, what? Thirteen the first time you kissed?”
“Yep. Right after my grandma’s funeral, actually,” I replied. “I was crying, and he was trying to make me feel better, and he just kissed me.”
“Did you never go out with anyone else? Just each other? That whole time?”
“Just each other.”
Ash nodded. “It’s true. Noah was never interested in anyone else for those, what, eleven years?”
“Yep.”
Steph pouted. “You could write a book with how cute that all is.”
“You’d think. It does sound like a fairytale, doesn’t it?” My lips tugged to one side. “It got easier when mobile phones became commonplace and we could talk more often, but my last summer here was when I was eighteen, right before I was going to university. I came here and didn’t know if I’d come back the next year because it was such a big change for me, and I think that was almost the beginning of the end.”
Steph slowly sipped her drink, apparently riveted by my story.
It was weird to relive our relationship. I knew every little detail, of course, but it’d been a long time since I’d sat and talked through it all. In fact, I wasn’t sure I ever had.
Not like this.
“He told me he loved me right before I was leaving,” I said quietly, looking down. “I didn’t say it back. I panicked.”
“You did, though? You loved him?” Ash asked, eyes wide, like she hadn’t witnessed our entire relationship firsthand.
I shot her a withering look. “You know I did. I was just scared to say it.”
“What happened?” Steph asked, moving her straw so the ice tinkled against her glass. “Did you break up?”
“Honestly, he ghosted me.” I dragged my teeth over my lower lip, staring at the table. “We spoke a bit when I got home, and he slowly just stopped answering my texts. I tried for a few weeks until I finally accepted that he wasn’t going to reply and that whatever we had was over.”
“Wow. Did you not come back after that?”
I shook my head. “I wanted to, but I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t know what to say to him, and I got out of it by going on holiday with my friends from uni. I pretty much left Fox Point behind then, changed my number and everything.”
“How did you end up back here now? Obviously, you have the bed and breakfast, but hasn’t it been closed for a while?”
“Yep. Grandpa got sick about five years ago and came to live with us. We couldn’t move because of Dad’s work, and it’s only been the last year that he pretty much retired, meaning my parents can move back here. Honestly, I’m only here because Grandpa’s wish was to be buried in Fox Point.”
“And now she’s stuck here,” Ash said gleefully, grabbing another jug and refilling our glasses.
These cocktails were going down way too easily.
Steph smiled. “What about now? Are you friends? You and Noah?”
I shook my head. “I guess you could say I’m holding a grudge.”
“I don’t blame you. I’d hold a grudge, too. Have you tried talking about it with him?”
