‘Me?’
‘Yes, you.’
‘What about me?’
‘I find you very …’
‘Very?’
‘Very.’ I land on.
‘I find you very too.’ He smiles. ‘Very many things.’
‘You don’t like me,’ I say.
‘That’s not true.’ He shakes his head once.
‘I think you might hate me.’
‘I do not hate you, Moss.’
‘Then what?’
‘It’s complicated.’
‘Here we are agreeing on something, again.’
Callum pauses to give me a lingering look that fires right into my soul.
‘Why don’t you tell me why it’s complicated?’ he suggests.
‘Over my cold, dead body do I go first.’
‘Is that an invite?’
‘See!’ I can’t help but smile at this. ‘Please, after you. It’s complicated because—’
‘Fine,’ he says, looking upwards for a minute before taking a long swig of champagne and passing it back to me. ‘I’m not sure that’s helping, to be honest.’
‘Fuck it,’ I say.
‘Funny, that’s exactly what I was thinking,’ he says, watching me as I take my own sip. His lips have parted and I have a fight on my hands to stay sitting where I am and not crawl straight over to him and pounce.
The air is thick.
‘It’s complicated because …’ begins Callum. ‘I can’t breathe when we’re in the same place. I can’t think straight. You occupy every thought I have, every minute we’re together, and it’s intoxicating, Nina. It’s like a drug and I just want more and I keep coming back to you because I can’t help it even though I know you don’t like me. I know you don’t want me near you.’
My heart is slamming up against my chest so hard I can hear it.
Callum’s just sitting there, casual as you like, describing exactly how I feel about him.
‘So, that’s what is confusing,’ he adds, taking his glasses off and pinching the tip of his nose. ‘I want you so badly even though you hate me and even though your ex is on this flight and clearly,clearly, you two have some unresolved history. And the weirdest thing of all is, I suspect a little bit of you wants me too. Which is probably why I’m still here.’
I gasp. Pull my hair up on top of my head, because it’s suddenly very hot in here, and let it fall back down again. Callum watches my every move, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth.
‘A few things to address there,’ I say eventually.
‘Oh?’ Callum says with a little hint of a smile.
