‘A bear?’
He froze, his mouth slightly open as if he was waiting for the right words to present themselves.
‘But it’s gone now,’ Bel added. ‘Whatever it was, monkey, bear, Kristen Stewart. She lives around here, did you know that? Such a tiny human. Did you find the tequila?’
‘Yes,’ Ren said, moving on as Bel’s shoulders sloped with relief or resignation, I wasn’t sure. ‘The bottle is kinda dusty. I don’t know how long my grandpa had it but he didn’t waste his time on bad tequila.’
‘Doesn’t matter. Pour it.’
He did as he was told and I wondered how I could get Bel to lob a shot up to me. Below, the two of themraised their drinks, Ren taking a sip while Bel tossed hers all the way back.
‘It’s a beautiful evening.’ He looked out at the gorgeous sunset while she stuck out her tongue and shuddered before hastily refilling her glass all the way up to the rim. ‘That sunset is something else.’
‘It really is,’ she said. ‘It’s so … orange.’
When he didn’t reply, she tapped her nails against the glass, shifting anxiously from foot to foot. ‘Do you like hiking?’ she asked.
From my perch on the terrace, I sent her a mental high five. Questions! She was asking questions!
‘Or what about swimming?’ she added before Ren had a chance to answer. ‘Or the beach. Travelling? Do you travel ever?’
Correction, she was asking every question ever, all at the same time.
‘Yeah, I guess yes to all those things,’ Ren replied. ‘But you know, I would really love to talk to you about your letter. It kind of took me by surprise.’
‘Because sending a letter is cheesy and it made me look like a stalker?’
I gently knocked my forehead against the floor of the balcony.
‘Because most people send some lame message when they meet someone,’ he replied. ‘To be so brave and vulnerable, it honestly blew me away. You blew me away. That’s why I was surprised.’
‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Cool.’
Bel reached for the bottle of tequila and poured another shot while Ren stared at her like a Magic Eye picture, trying to work out exactly what he was looking at.
‘The things you said about looking at the world from underwater,’ he added. ‘That’s exactly how I feel. I must have read that line a hundred times since yesterday, I don’t know how you managed to put my feelings into words.’
‘Well, I’m a big swimmer,’ Bel said, pointing to his pool. ‘And I read this thing about Kate Winslet learning to hold her breath for ten minutes when they were filmingAvatarso I’ve been trying to do that too. In case she ever needs a stunt double.’
To be fair, she’d said it would go badly and it was going so, so badly.
‘I just remembered, I have to go get something from my car,’ she announced very, very loudly as she walk-ran over to his side gate. ‘Don’t go anywhere, I won’t be long, but also don’t follow me because everything is totally fine.’
With a weary sigh, I slithered all the way across the terrace, through the house and back around the corner to find Bel waiting in front of her car.
‘Phoebe, it’s the worst date ever,’ she wailed, right as my phone chimed with a new text alert. ‘You have to get me out of here.’
I opened my messages and winced.
Hey, not to be rude but are you sure this is the same person who wrote the letter?
‘I will admit it’s not going brilliantly.’ I slid my phone back in my pocket before she could see Ren’s text. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Tequila shots mostly.’ She groaned loudly, bottom lip quivering. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong, you said ask him questions, I asked him questions.’
‘I didn’t mean ask him all the questions at once,’ I said as she wailed into her hands. ‘Most people wait for an answer before they move on to the next one. It’s a date, not a pub quiz.’
‘I’ve had a glass of champagne and two shots of tequila. That’s usually enough for me to charm the pants off a plant pot,’ Bel said before turning to me with accusatory eyes. ‘You said he was easy to talk to.’
