‘I get that.’ He grins. ‘And I’ll be honest, love-heart trousers suit you.’
‘In that case, I will buy you a pair.’
‘We do like to match,’ he says. ‘But you’d look good in anything.’
Heat floods to my cheeks.
‘That’s going to take some getting used to,’ I say.
‘What’s that?’
‘You giving me compliments.’
‘I’m always giving you compliments, Moss, it’s just that most of the time you chose to ignore them.’
‘No, you’re not!’
‘I told you I liked the hat you bought at the airport, and I told you that you look good in your passport photo.’
‘I thought you were taking the piss.’
‘I could tell.’ He leans forward, casting his gaze back towards me. ‘I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these past few days, and one of the things I am definitely going to try and do is prove to you how much I mean the things I say to you.’
I swallow.
‘You are?’
He nods.
‘Mm-hm. We’ve spent an awful lot of time bickering and not nearly enough time listening to each other, so from now on, I am all ears.’
‘Is that what you decided on Monday Six Open Brackets Ten Years Ago Close Brackets?’
‘Catchy title,’ he laughs. ‘And yes, it is.’
‘Where did that day take you?’
Before he replies, Callum offers me his Tim Tam. He must have noticed how much I like them? Even after all this time, I find I do still have space for another biscuit.
‘Fuck, I missed you that day,’ he says.
My heart swells.
‘Me too,’ I say, mid-biscuit. ‘The timing was awful. You’d literally just told me that you were looping too and I had so many questions, and then I woke up a decade ago. I was fuming, Cal. But in a way, I needed that. It was a push in the right direction, and I definitely figured out a lot of stuff that day.’
‘You did?’
‘I really did,’ I say, realizing that he’s not up to speed on the Hamish thing. ‘Just to be clear, I nipped a whole lot of stuff in the bud. Closed a chapter of my life that had been flapping open for way too long.’
Callum gives me a long, piercing look.
‘The ex?’
‘Dead and buried.’ I nod eagerly.
‘RIP Humphrey,’ he says, not looking remotely sorry for him.
‘I don’t mean that literally!’ I grin. ‘I’m talking about my conflicting feelings. I realized that the past is much better left where it is, that’s all.’
