The seagull tattoo was absolutely tiny, only about an inch, hidden under my arm and my sundress. My bra still couldn’t be put back on – too tight – and I was more than a little aware that when the evening started to get nippy, so would I.
But that was the least of my problems.
The real trouble?
I was falling head over heels for Patrick Tetlow, and I was almost certainly going to have my heart broken.
‘Laura’s mad at me, of course.’
Patrick frowned. ‘Laura? Why?’
‘We always said we’d get matching tattoos – I told her that hasn’t changed,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘But you’d think I’d betrayed her!’
‘You two are very close, aren’t you?’
It was impossible not to grin at that. ‘Aren’t all twins?’
‘I guess so.’ Patrick’s gaze was soft. ‘I like that she’s got your back. That you have someone in your corner, always. You want the last bit?’ He held up the piece of chicken.
I shook my head. ‘Nah, you have it.’
The thirty-piece box had disappeared criminally quickly as we shared it between us.
‘Seriously, glowing yellow curry sauce?’ I’d wrinkled my nose as Patrick had leaned past me to place his order, the scent of him almost enough to distract me from his weird condiment choices.
‘Do not knock it until you’ve tried it.’
I’d tried it. Once I’d downed more lemonade than I thought was even possible and stopped glaring at Patrick, who was clutching his sides with laughter, I dipped my own chips in mayo and swore never to eat anything off his plate again. Moments later, I had begun to tease him about the way his fingers kept meandering to his ear, just about managing to stop himself from touching his anchor.
God, it suited him. How was it that getting tattoos together was one of the sexiest and most intimate things I had ever done with a guy?
‘Do you think Derek will be impressed that we stayed right until the end of his precious event?’ Patrick said offhandedly, snagging a chip from my portion.
I batted his hands away as discomfort swirled within me. ‘I hope so. We managed to last longer at this one than the one before.’ It was getting harder and harder to remember to care about what Derek wanted from us. What Patrick’s label wanted from us. Now I thought about it, I hadn’t asked Laura in ages how this whole fake relationship was going for Butterflies. I hadn’t heard how the app downloads had been going for days now – almost a week?
I unlocked my phone, fully intending to drop Laura a message – but got distracted by an email that popped up. Karun. Oh, hell.
Hi Jessy,
Great work with Owen yesterday – really appreciate you meeting our high value clients. Looking forward to seeing you back in the office when your sabbatical is over. There are a few things we should discuss.
Karun
Ugh. Work. I placed my phone down and tried not to think about how much I was dreading going back.
‘First kiss,’ Patrick said, returning to the game that we’d been playing since we sat down.
This was not a topic I wanted to linger on. ‘Ross,’ I said, putting away my phone and picking up a chip and dangling it in the air as I tried to smile. ‘Well, first grown-up kiss anyway. And, honestly, it was not great.’
‘Sloppy?’
I threw a chip at him. ‘Yep, and not the good kind. You?’
‘Katie … Katie someone. How have I forgotten her surname? She was my school crush.’ Patrick shook his head fondly. ‘OK, next. Earliest memory?’
‘Oooh, toughie. I think most of my memories are of Laura,’ I said with a shrug. ‘I guess that’s normal, with twins?’
‘Nothing about the two of you is normal.’
