A beautiful image.
‘So, you think I should ask him out?’
‘Oh my God, no!’ She rears back with a horrified look on her face. ‘Nope, he wouldn’t go for that. Michael wouldn’t care, Bryn, you’d have to, but Oli definitely wants to be the man. Which is rank if you ask me, but you didn’t, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.’
‘A polite way to put it would be to say he’s more old-fashioned,’ Alice offers, pulling her hat down all the way to her eyebrows when the wind picks up and blows in our direction. ‘He’ll want to do the asking.’
I chug my coffee and fold the paper cup in on itself.
‘So, I need to make it obvious that I like him but let him ask me out? What is this, 1952?’
Alice nods. ‘More or less. He’s that sort, Mia. Went to a fancy school, fourth- or fifth-generation Hemden student, I forget.’
‘Proper posho,’ Jenna adds. ‘Probably inbred.’
‘Proper public school boy,’ Alice amends. ‘Probablynot inbred.’
‘And by public she means private,’ Jenna says, and I sigh.
‘You do know a lot of Britishisms don’t make sense, right?’
‘Yes.’ Jenna nods. ‘It’s part of our charm. The point is, OliverJenkins is posh, and you can’t expect posh boys to behave like normal people. Al, do you remember when he was always wearing silk scarves in the first year?’
‘So he’s eccentric,’ I say, defensive. ‘Very Harry Styles.’
‘So chill your tits and let him ask you out,’ Alice advises. ‘You’re a perfect fit for his fantasies. Gorgeous American exchange student, destined to leave him at the end of the school year, setting him up for months of heartfelt, handwritten letters and painstakingly curated mix tapes. Men like Oliver live for the drama. Don’t make it too easy.’
Jenna straightens my scarf, fixing me with a stern look. ‘And I would add, be careful. He’s never been very consistent when it comes to women.’
‘Noted.’
‘It’s all a game,’ Alice says as the visiting team slope out onto the field, twisting at the waist and raising their knees high like the Rockettes. ‘You just have to know how to play it.’
‘And speaking of games, can we stop talking about idiot men? We’re about to kick off.’ Jenna stamps her feet and claps her hands while letting out an impressive string of expletives, aimed at the opposite side of the stands.
‘Honest, babe, you’re stressing too much,’ Alice tells me, speaking as quietly as she’s able as the volume around us increases. ‘Dating here can’t be that different to dating at home.’
‘Trust me, everything here is different to how it is at home.’
‘Not everything,’ she says, nodding towards the soccer field.
The crowd is going crazy around us, everyone yelling and chanting and clapping. Then I see why. The Hemden team, led by Ethan, runs out onto the grass, maroon shirts, shorts, high socks and black boots. Not that I’ve spent a significant portion of my lifechecking out soccer players, but I have to admit they look good. Ethan looks good.
‘Our colours suit your boy,’ Jenna notes as he jogs over to a white circle painted on the middle of the field.
‘He’s not my boy,’ I respond, my eyes cutting away when he glances in our direction. ‘And heisincluded in the things that are different. I’ve already told you, Ethan doesn’t know I exist back home. Even when he wasn’t drowning in adoring fans, he had his ultra-hot girlfriend to keep him busy. Although he did say they broke up.’
‘Well, yeah, he wants to keep his options open,’ Alice comments. ‘Not many lads his age are going to do the long-distance thing when they’re in a different country.’
‘I guess not.’
It makes sense. I haven’t kept track of all the DMs that flooded my inbox last week, but Alice was probably right. No wonder Breanna doesn’t want to talk about it. Her supposedly besotted boyfriend of two years blew her off so he could hook up with a bunch of British girls, and he got started on his very first night at Hemden. That has to suck, especially if she didn’t see it coming.
‘I assume he’s got some sort of ticket system in place,’ Alice says. ‘Take a number, wait on a bench outside his room?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Can’t blame anyone involved. If I hadn’t sworn off dating completely, I’d happily put my name on his list.’
