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“Totallysure,” Quinn grounds out, exaggerating the words. He scoots out of the booth, then plants a knee where he’d just been sitting, so he can lean in and press a kiss to the top of Lily’s head. “Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
I swear Lily’s cheeks flush. “That doesn’t leave much.”
He grins slyly. “I know.”
With that, she bends forward, taking another sip of her nonexistent drink.
“Bye, London. It was lovely to meet you. I trust you can get our girl here back home?”
I nod, suddenly extremely nervous about this endeavor. “Yeah, totally.”
“Good.” He seems pleased as he turns to go.
“It was great to get to know you, man,” I call after him.
“Back atcha, Tiger.” With that, he walks off toward the door.
Both Lily and I watch him go, but when he’s gone, we turn back to each other a little less comfortable than we were a moment ago. I don’t want this evening to end, but I don’t know how to continue either.
“So,” I say, by way of my brilliant conversational skills.
Lily picks up her discarded chip and digs it into the guac. “So.”
I clear my throat and point to her nearly empty glass. “Did you want another drink?”
She thinks on it for a moment and shakes her head. “You know, I better not.”
“Okay,” I respond, my word close to a whisper as I reach out and spin my glass of water. The ring from condensation makes it rotate easily.
Just when I’m sure she’s about to pull the plug, she asks, “So, you haven’t really talked much about yourself. Did you go to college?”
A wave of relief washes over me and I lean back in the booth. “No, never quite made it that far. I ended up working for a nightclub in Colorado Springs. From there, I hopped around, learning the club scene. I’m a manager of one now.”
“Ah, you like your nightlife, huh?” she says with a smug grin.
I narrow my gaze. “I guess. Why?”
“Remember how many nights we’d pretend to go to bed, then sneak out of our houses so we could stare at the stars for hours and hours?” Her brown eyes sparkle as she holds my gaze.
“Yeah, I remember.” My heart thumps unevenly at the memories that float to mind. They were some of the best in my life.
“Most nights, we were up until at least …ten,” she giggles.
“More like ten-thirty, for sure.” I laugh, scratching at the side of my eyebrow with the back of my thumb.
There were so many nights where I’d stay up, fighting the siren call of sleep just so I could be close to her. She always had a way of making the night feel spellbinding. Like everythingreally was magical—and not in the Rebecca kinda way.
“It just seems fitting that you’d find a job that lets you stay awake into the night,” she whispers, dropping her gaze to the table.
I take a deep breath and drop my own gaze.
She’s kinda wrong there. It was never about my innate desire to stay awake. Not then and definitely not now.
In fact, it never occurred to me until this very moment why I really chose this line of work. It’s so I can fill the void in the loneliest hours of my day.
I blink the realization away.
“Uh, so Quinn mentioned you’re an event coordinator,” I say, trying to steer the conversation to my ulterior motive. “How do you like that?”
