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‘That’s not good enough?’
The smile I’d come to anticipate so much widened, and I couldn’t take my eyes away from her.
‘It is. It is more than good enough,’ she said, her eyes smiling back at me. ‘Wow, you really want to be my boyfriend again, huh?’
Ralph noisily cleared his throat, breaking the connection between me and Charlie. I dropped my hand from her face and she pulled her hand out of mine. I leaned back in my chair and enjoyed Charlie getting all flustered.
‘I’m sorry, Ralph,’ she apologized in a low voice, shifting in her seat. ‘I…’ She gave me a quick look that clearly said, save me, say something then her eyes went back to her date. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
I knew what to say, so I thought I’d make things easier for both of them. It wouldn’t have worked out between them anyway. ‘We should leave.’ I stood up and offered my hand to Charlie. She looked at it for two full seconds with wonder in her eyes, then she took it and rose up. I entangled our fingers and turned to Ralph.
‘I’m sorry, but I couldn’t give her up, man. No hard feelings?’
He looked up at me with a confused frown etched onto his brows, then his eyes moved to Charlie, who was holding onto me just as tightly as I was holding onto her. Game or not. Ralph rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes still on Charlie. I glanced back at her, our intertwined hands in between us. She wasn’t returning Ralph’s gaze, but when she felt my eyes on her, she looked up at me and gave me a small smile. I gently squeezed her hand and turned back to Ralph so we could leave.
‘Yeah,’ he croaked out, then cleared his throat again. Then he smiled at us and nodded. ‘Good luck to both of you.’
‘Thank you, Ralph. It was a lovely evening,’ Charlie said softly.
I gave him a nod back and pulled Charlie with me. Before leaving the restaurant, I paid their bill. It was the least I could do after interrupting them. When we were leaving, I had a quick look at Ralph again and he was still sitting at their table. I felt sorry for him, because I knew exactly how it felt.
The second we were outside Charlie started chuckling, her eyes bright and happy. Her hand was still in mine.
‘That was… something. But it was also so much fun! You should’ve been an actor!’
I quirked an eyebrow at her as I slowly pulled her closer to me, under the disguise of pulling her out of the way of other people.
‘You did say we should do this again sometime. I aim to please you as your fake boyfriend.’
Her smile was larger than ever. ‘I did say that and I couldn’t have asked for a better fake boyfriend. You made my night, Willy.’
I scoffed. ‘Willy?’
‘If we do this again, I want to have a nickname for you.’
‘We’re not doing this again.’ I pulled her even closer. We wouldn’t need to pretend.
She raised her eyebrows, her voice turning calculative. ‘We should do it at least once more before I leave.’
I stared into her eyes. ‘Not Willy,’ I said simply.
She beamed up at me. ‘Will?’
‘No.’
‘Willie? With an i and e?’
‘No.’
‘How about Liam?’
I frowned at her. ‘Fuck no.’
‘Just William? That’s it?’
‘You don’t like my name?’
‘I love your name.’ She paused. ‘As in it’s a good, strong name. I like it as a name of its own.’
‘Got you. Then we’re settled. You’ll call me William.’
‘You’re no fun whatsoever.’ She sighed. ‘But I can’t say that, because you are. Tonight proved it. You’re just really sneaky about it. I can only imagine how I looked when I saw you standing over us.’
Shaking her head, she looked away, but she was still smiling.
‘Can you imagine,’ she started, before I could get in a word, ‘someone tracking you down like that, saying all those romantic things to get you back? One day, you know. Hopefully.’ She let out a long breath, looked up at the sky, then into my eyes.
‘You want two guys going after you?’
Her eyes widened. ‘What? No! I’m talking about just being so necessary to someone that they can’t be without you.’ She scrunched up her nose a little. ‘It doesn’t sound so healthy when I say it out loud like that, but do you know what I mean? I mean you making the choice of not giving them up. Every day. Because loving someone is an everyday choice.’
I didn’t say a word, but I couldn’t help myself and reached up with my free hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. It was becoming one of my favourite things to do.
My eyes still caught in hers.
My hand still wrapped all around hers.
