‘Wow, what’s that?’ Her eyes bulged at the tall plant.
‘This is what I wanted to show you: it’s the Corpse Flower or they call it the Stinky Plant.It only blooms once every two or three years for twenty-four hours and when it does, it smells awful.Apparently, everyone describes the smell differently.Some say it’s like rotting meat, others say sweaty socks, boiled cabbage or stinky cheese.’
‘Nice.’ She scrunched her nose.‘I’m not sure whether I should feel fascinated or offended that you took me to see a plant that smells bad.’
‘I was definitely going for fascinating.This is one of their star attractions.’
‘Phew, I thought you were trying to hint or use it as a segue to encourage me to use a stronger deodorant!’ A nervous smile touched her lips.
I sensed that she was only half joking and that made me feel kinda sad.I didn’t know her well yet, but I sensed that someone had done a real number on her.She seemed insecure.Vulnerable.Like she was afraid to be herself.Afraid of being judged.I knew the feeling.
Whoever did that to her deserved to be knocked out.People didn’t seem to understand the power their words had.I hated that Halle’s confidence had been damaged.
‘Are you kidding?You always smell fantastic.If they had a Halle plant, it would smell like fucking roses.’
Halle’s eyes popped.
Goddammit.
I wanted to make her feel better, but I wasn’t supposed to lay it on so thick.
If Halle was the rose plant, then after that comment, I was the freaking cheese plant.That sounded so corny.
And it was inaccurate.Halle didn’t smell like roses.She smelt like fruit-flavoured candy.
Anyway, enough thinking about how good she smelt.
‘Er, thanks…’ Her brows furrowed.
‘Let’s go,’ I said quickly.‘There’s something I wanna show you.’
‘In public?Won’t you get arrested?’ she said, her face turning serious.
‘What?’ I frowned, then as realisation of what she was suggesting hit me, I shook my head.‘No, I meant, some place, not a… I wasn’t…’
‘I was pulling your leg.’ She slapped my arm playfully before laughing.‘Of courseyou’re not going to show me your…’ Her eyes dropped between my legs then travelled slowly back again.
Whoa.That went from zero to sixty fast.
One minute we were talking about stinky plants and her smelling like roses and the next she interpreted an innocent comment about me wanting to show hersomethingas meaning I wanted to show her my dick?
But it was interesting because it raised two important questions:
One: why was Halle even thinking of my dick?
And two: did that mean she liked me, romantically?
21
HALLE
This was exactly why I didn’t date any more.Because I’d inevitably end up doing or saying something to embarrass myself.
I couldn’t believe I had just suggested that Jake might want to show me his dick.
Honestly. Where the hell had that come from?
I’m blaming the roses comment.When he said… wait, please allow me the indulgence of quoting hisexactwords: ‘You always smell fantastic.If they had a Halle plant, it would smell like fucking roses,’ I swear I almost passed out.
