I immediately worry that I’ve made her uncomfortable. I guess old neural pathways take longer to die. ‘I was wondering if you found a sharpener for your lip liner in the end.’
‘Oh! Yeah, my handler Ewa brought me one because theywere worried about the health and safety implications of me getting infected from it. Fair enough.’ She laughs throatily again. ‘Are you excited to kiss Patrick?’
‘Yes,’ I say quickly. ‘I am.’
‘Well, you’re cute as a button. He’s going to love it.’ She shapes my beret one last time. ‘All done. Shall we mynd?’
Back in the living room, I manage to nibble down some toast and butter without getting it all over myself, and before I know it I’m back on my too-warm velvet couch, looking at the mirror barrier between mine and Patrick’s rooms.
‘Hello?’ I call, hoping to hear Patrick’s voice.
When he replies, it’s like a melody. A very Yorkshire one, but it’s music to me. ‘Morning, Carys. How are you?’
‘Good,’ I say, and I can hear the nerves in my voice. I’m going to kiss this man today. The last kisses I had were disastrous, let’s put it that way. This will be like the ultimate redo.
Yesterday, I was so nervous about seeing him, and his reaction to me, that I couldn’t enjoy it.
But now that I’m faced with the prospect of touching him, kissing him, holding him, I feel excited.Finally.
Plus, this will be closer to a normal date than just staring at each other like animals in a zoo.
The mirrored barrier slowly falls, but this time I watch.
There he is.
When I look at his deep brown eyes, the way his stubble glazes his jawline, I feel something. I really do. Happiness, I think. Pride that he chose me back. The kind of warmth in my torso that feelssafe.
‘Hi,’ my potential future husband says.
‘Hi,’ I say back. ‘You know, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to hearing your voice come out of your mouth instead of from around us.’
Thankfully, he laughs at my awkwardness. ‘I know thefeeling. And look, we don’t need to rush this. We can take our time, if you’d like? It won’t change how I feel about you. I can wait for you.’
That’s when I know for sure that I was right about everything. Despite all the confusion, he really is my lighthouse in this storm of an experiment. I know without any doubts that Patrick is the thoughtful, kind, beautiful man I want to spend the rest of my life with.
If it was proposal day, I’d get down on one knee right now.
‘I don’t want to wait,’ I say, a huge smile bursting across my face.
Patrick wears a smile that must mirror my own. ‘Then, let’s not.’
I race across the tiny room, pushing myself through the divider hole into his side, and I throw myself into his open arms. He tilts his head down, and I reach up on my tiptoes, and we kiss.
Our first kiss is a collision of lips and tongues and a little bit of teeth, and we laugh giddily through it. It’s a silly kiss, but it’sus. He tastes of sweetness and spice, like a sweet cup of flavourful tea, poured straight from the pot. I know I could kiss him over and over, forever.
I fit against him like we were made for each other.
Everything is so different now I can be close to him and even touch him. Patrick is no longer a voice through a speaker or a face across the room; he’s a living, breathing person. And one who wants to kiss me!
All the feelings I had for him locked in my heart explode, becoming manifest.
I’m so dizzy on him that I force myself to take a step back, so I can look at him up close.
‘Hi again,’ I say.
‘That was one hell of a greeting.’
‘The first of many, I hope?’
