“Did you need something?”
Stevie smiled. “Actually, yeah. I was hoping you’d go somewhere with me.”
Iris frowned. “Where?”
“That’s a surprise.”
“What?”
Stevie ran her hand through her hair, laughed a little nervously. “I was at home, thinking about you, and I realized we hadn’t had a true romantic date yet.”
“A date.”
“Our deal is still on, right?” Stevie said. “You’ve held up your end, but I’ve been a pretty horrible teacher to you.”
Iris sighed. “Stevie, you don’t have to do that.”
“Is your book finished?”
“No, but...” She trailed off, because despite Stevie’s claims, Stevie had actually helped Iris a lot, igniting every dormant romantic bone in Iris’s body. Tegan and Briony’s enemies-to-lovers story was flowing from her like a chocolate fountain at a wedding. Iris had evensent the first fifty pages to her agent last week, who loved them and encouraged her to keep going.
So Iris had, writing as if in a fever dream in the mornings and late into the night after play rehearsal.
Writing and drawing.
Drawing Stevie.
Stevie and Iris.
She shook her head, determined to tell Stevie no, she wouldn’t go with her.
Couldn’t.
But as Stevie tilted her head, that soft smile on her mouth, Iris found she was curious about this surprise, curious about what Stevie had planned for this next romance lesson.
And, if she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t actually sure she was in the mood for Lush, for searching for someone to fuck in a sea of nameless faces.
She didn’t really wantnamelesstonight.
She wanted a friend. The kind of friend who wouldn’t ask her about her love life or give herI actually know what’s best for youlooks like Claire had been doing lately.
And Stevie was just such a friend.
If they ended up having sex at the end of this fake date, then so be it. Iris certainly wouldn’t say no to that. She’d never admit it to Stevie—and definitely not to Claire or Astrid or even Simon—but her night with Stevie was the best sex Iris had ever had.
“Okay,” Iris said. “Fine. What’s this surprise you have up your sleeve?”
TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER,they turned into a driveway with a sign welcoming them to Woodmont Family Farms. The sun wasjust starting to dip below the trees, turning everything golden and soft.
“We’re... going... strawberry picking?” Iris asked.
“Not quite,” Stevie said, smiling as she parked next to a tiny house with a sign on the front porch that saidFarm Office. “Ready?”
“I’m not sure,” Iris said, laughing.
Still, she got out of the car and let Stevie take her hand—this was a romantic date, after all, so what the hell—and they walked along a dirt path through a copse of trees. Iris continued to guess at what they were doing.
“Scavenger hunt?” she asked.
