She nodded, staring at me dumbfounded. Okay, this was bad. I shouldn’t have brought her here. I should have just kept it to myself.
Finally, after a few of the longest minutes of my life she smiled.
“I can’t believe you did that.”
She walked past me and sat down on her usual side, and I sighed. She was sitting and not running.
I had not been that scared in a while, not since Mia’s waters broke when we were home alone.
“Well I didn’t want someone else having their smelly arse on our booth.”
“Why would they have a smelly…” She shook her head. “Actually never mind. Gimme the ice cream!”
Chuckling, I set her milkshake and ice cream down in front of her, doing a little bow.
“You’re dismissed,” she said, playing along and waving her hand at me.
“What am I? Your bitch?”
Her silence and smug smile said it all.
“So, how much did you pay for it?”
Dilemma. Do I tell her the truth and make her think I was unstable, and a bit of an obsessive stalker, or lie, so I didn’t look too bad. I sighed, not really having a choice. I couldn’t lie to her.
“I paid two hundred.”
“Pounds?” she blurted out, her eyes widening in disbelief.
“No Euros,” I replied sarcastically.
She stared blankly and dug her spoon into the ice cream.
“Wow, two hundred pounds. They saw you coming. It’s barely worth fifty!”
“I changed my mind, I didn’t miss you.”
Oakley grinned and shook her head. “Liar.”
Every single time I looked at her I wanted to beg her to give us another chance. We could make it work. I would give up everything and move to Australia if she still wanted to live there. Something stopped me bringing up the subject, and that was the thought of her saying no. It hurt so much the first time. I couldn’t do it again. She loved me, but that wasn’t enough four years ago, so why would it be enough now?
I sighed and sat back in the seat. There was nothing I could do right now. I didn’t want to push it.
“What are you thinking? Your face has gone all serious.”
“I wasn’t thinking anything.”
“Of course you weren’t,” she said sarcastically. “It’s fine, don’t tell me.”
“You’re so dramatic. Anyway I’m getting the keys to the house one day this week so I can measure for carpet quotes and stuff. Wanna come?”
“Are you going to carpet shops after?” she asked, smiling hopefully. I wasn’t going to. I couldn’t think of anything more boring. I was just gonna call them up and get a quote, but her pleading eyes worked on me again.
I sighed. “Yes.”
“Then I’m there. Oh, do you know what colours you want yet?”
“Something neutral? I couldn’t care less really.”
Oakley shook her head. “We can have a look in a couple of places.”
“Great,” I responded with fake enthusiasm. I think I would actually rather play golf than shop for carpets, and man, golf was boring.
“You have to buy everything, don’t you? Like a washing machine, cooker and all the other appliances.”
“Did you think I was joking when I said I was taking it to my mum?”
“You’re twenty-two years old, Cole! You’re doing your own washing.”
She held her hand up as I was about to say something. “Don’t even think about using I don’t know how to as an excuse. I’m going to show you.”
“You just wanna touch my dirty clothes.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Kinky,” I added, wanting some proper reaction.
“Yeah, I’m having a really hard time not jumping you and having wild sex on the table.”
I leant further back, holding my arms out.
“I’m not stopping ya. In fact, I actively encourage it.”
Oakley rolled her beautiful blue eyes again.
“Of course you do.”
I looked down at my milkshake and then back at Oakley. Her eyes widened as she knew exactly what I was thinking. Hmm it had been a while.
“You’re a grown up now, Cole!” She giggled and grabbed her straw too, ready to flick it back at me if I started it.
I slowly stirred the milkshake with the straw, watching her the whole time. Her smile grew wider as she waited for the inevitable. I was just about to flick the straw at her when cold milkshake hit my face. My mouth dropped open.
“Too slow,” she sang.
Quickly recovering from the shock, I dunked my whole hand in the glass, ready to wipe it across her pretty little face but she was already on her feet, heading towards the half open door.
She couldn’t move very fast as she had to weave around all the junk Mum insisted on keeping, so I quickly caught up with her. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her against my chest.
She grabbed my arm, holding it away from her and wriggled to get out of my grip.
“Stop struggling, Oakley. It’s happening.”
“No! Cole!”
“I’ll give up if you say sorry.”
“Not a chance,” she mumbled, laughing. I managed to get my arm closer to her face. “No, no, no! I only flicked a little on you.”
“Fine, I’ll only wipe one finger across your face.”