I mean, not that I’m…feeling…shit.
“Well, yeah, right. If this were real,” she says, opening her eyes and throwing up all her emotional shields. She tries to flee but I still hold her head.
“Don’t run away.”
She recoils, defiant, “I’m not.”
I motion my chin over her shoulder and she looks.
“You can run away in disgust when no one’s looking, love. Remember, this is to redeem that sexy neck of yours.” She rolls her eyes and almost smiles. “Come on, tell me it wasn’t totallygross.”
“It was fine.”
“Ah, fine. The stuff of sonnets.”
“You said it yourself, you’re world-renowned.” She pats my arm with a big fake smile and breaks out of my hold. “You don’t need praise from me.”
I nod and clench my jaw to keep myself from begging her for exactly that. She starts walking and I follow. I shake myself.
Come on, Ben, chin up. You saw her body reacted, she can’t fake that. Even if she doesn’tlikeyou, she’s attracted to you. None of it’s real anyway. Get a grip, man! Honestly!
We reach a section of larger trees and Janie says something about the best apples being up high. I’m too focused on reliving the way she arched her body into me to really hear what she’s saying.
“W-wait,” I finally sputter, when I realize what she’s about to do. “You’re not climbing up that thing.”
“The ladder? Here for that exact purpose?”
“That’s not a ladder, that’s a scrap of old wood pieces.”
She waves me off, “It’s fine, just hold the bottom.”
“You’ll break one of your absolutely fantastic legs. I can’t bear it.” I say, but she’s started to climb the rickety thing anyway. I jump forward to grab hold of the bottom.
“It’s so weird the way you do that,” she says.
“Do what?”
“Just say compliments like that, like…earlier. You can’t genuinely mean all the nice stuff you say but somehow, a lot of the time, I actually believe you.”
I frown, “Why would I bother saying something I don’t mean?”
“Uhhh…to get people to like you?”
I chuckle, “Darling, don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people like me just fine.”
“Right and it couldn’t possibly be thedarlingsand thelovesand the compliments all the time.”
I pause and consider that. “I don’t know, in my world, everyone calls everyone love and darling. Mate, angel, those names are just the norm.”
She stretches high into the tree and I want to appreciate the view but I’m too worried about the bloody ladder. She gives up on a bright red apple out of reach. She looks down at me, “And all the fake compliments?”
“Trust me,” I make a show of looking at her legs, “I meant every word about your legs. They will be the death of me. And I’ve meant everything else I said. Why would I lie? I have a good thought, I say it out loud. I feel good, you feel good, everyone’s grand. Am I missing something?”
“Huh,” she says as she climbs down. “I guess not. It’s just so different. Most people don’t just say the nice stuff out loud. Not without a reason, a motive, you know?” She hops down off the last two rungs, making me flinch. She grins, like she did it on purpose.
Cheeky.
I smile down at her, “Nice is good.”
