Page 56

He follows her gaze and looks down at his sweat-and-dirt-streaked torso. “Sorry, I know I’m…” He meets my eyes briefly. “Filthy,” he finishes, amused.

“No, I meant you’re all…” She laughs. “Buff! When on earth did you start working out?”

“Got to keep fit,” he says, having a huge bite of his sandwich. He looks around at the books. “How’s it going?”

“Um, good.” My face is burning with the heat of a thousand suns.

Cate notices and starts laughing. Emma looks at me, too, and her eyebrows rise. Mitch collects one of the coffees from the tray, gives me an amused look, then says, “I’ll leave you to it.” He toasts Emma with the cup and says, “Thanks for this, I’ll settle with you later,” and heads back upstairs.

The two girls turn to me with wide eyes. “What’s going on?” Cate demands. “You’re the colour of a tomato.”

“Oh God, don’t.”

“What happened?” Emma demands.

“We kissed.” I clap a hand over my mouth to stop a squeal spilling out.

Both their mouths form an O. It would be comical if I wasn’t in such a tizz.

“No!” Emma does her best to suppress her exclamation, which comes out as a kind of hushed yell. “You’re kidding me?”

“Where did he kiss you?” Cate asks.

“Upstairs on the balcony.”

“I meant, you know…” She gestures to her face.

“Oh, on the mouth.”

“Just a peck?” Emma wants to know.

I bite my bottom lip and, trying not to giggle, shake my head.

“And what happened?” Cate asks.

“Leo walked in. And we haven’t been alone since.”

“You need to get up there and talk about it,” Emma states.

But I shake my head, eyes wide. “I couldn’t. I don’t know what I’d say. Or do.”

“Want me to draw you a diagram?”

My face heats again, and Cate says, “Aww… Em, don’t tease her.”

“Oh God.” I cover my face with my hands. “I’m so out of practice. And there’s so little time.” I lower my hands and sigh. “I don’t think he’s here for long, so it’s not as if there’s any future in it. And I have to think of Millie.”

“You really don’t,” Cate says firmly. “You’ve had a shit two years, and a spectacularly disastrous six months. And you’re the nicest person in the whole world. You deserve a treat, and Mr. Sullivan wrapped up in a big red bow sounds about perfect. I mean, did you see his muscles?”

“Oh yes.”

“I thought he was a geek,” Emma says. “I feel as if he’s Superman, and he’s just taken off his glasses.”

“Apparently his abs aren’t the only thing that are super,” Cate says mysteriously.

I stare at her. “What do you mean?”

She glances over her shoulder, then leans forward, her eyes dancing. “You know he dated Ophelia Pankhurst in Year Thirteen?”