‘Yes.’ Edward smiles. ‘But cock, spelled with an aitch.’
There is something about the way he says cock and I can suddenly feel the blood pumping around my body. My coat feels tight and I’m noticing how warm it is in here. There is a tense silence as we look at each other. The room spins a little. After a second, Edward looks away.
‘Anyway…’ He clears his throat. ‘We’re going to wait here until Mum and Dad get back, to make sure everything’s okay.’ He takes a tiny step back, pausing, and then speaking in a lower voice. ‘Are you all right, Liv, being here around my family?’ His eyes search mine anxiously. ‘You know, justwhen we’ve started getting into conversations about your parents? I don’t want this to be painful for you.’
I blink up at him as he furrows his brow, looking at me penetratingly. This is such an intensely thoughtful thing to say – to ask – and I am momentarily rendered speechless. I swallow. ‘That’s so… nice,’ I answer at last, trying to recall a single other man in my life – mywholelife – who would’ve thought to check in with me like this. I don’t think Justin even knew my parents weren’t around. He was probably just relieved I wasn’t making him meet them. I nod, looking away. ‘I’m totally fine, don’t worry about me. I just want your mum to be okay.’
Edward steps closer again. ‘Look, Liv, of course I won’t ask you to stay – I’m sure you have a life to be getting back to – but if you fancied it, Jake and I are going to get the board games out and play drinking games like it’s Christmas. If our parents think we’re still teenagers, we might as well embrace it. You want in?’
I consider the other options waiting for me at home: an empty flat that needs a deep clean. Sam’s wet washing probably still hanging up everywhere because it takes her a week to fold it up. A laptop awaiting words for a book that more than likely isn’t wanted anymore. An internet full of horrible comments.
Though at least the viral sensation of Tiramisu Girl seems to finally be dimming. I might even be able to access the real world again one day.
Oh, and Justin and Orla all over Instagram, showing offtheir great love to the world. My fingers itch at my side thinking about it. I’m desperate to look. I need a distraction.
‘I could be persuaded to stay for a quick game of Uno,’ I grin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
‘Dad’s texted!’ Jake shouts across the din, waving his phone in the air. ‘She’s fine, it’s all good! She’s had the once over. They reckon it was definitely just a migraine, and I was being a big old worrywart as usual!’
The room cheers, clinking glasses, as Jake re-takes his seat at the table with his friends. They’re playing a very competitive game of Monopoly and the shouting over Park Lane immediately resumes. A few feet away, playing our own board game at the coffee table, Edward and I make relieved eye contact.
‘Phew,’ he says quietly, and I smile widely, rolling the dice and moving my piece four squares. Yay, a ladder!
‘Phew indeed,’ I echo back, handing over the dice for his turn, ‘And now we know your mum is okay, Edward, I get to ask you something I’ve been dying to know since before we even got here.’
His face changes in that moment and something charged zigzags between us. The rest of the room gets dark and far away. I feel my heart thump in my chest as I scramble to quickly continue. ‘Er, about you and your brother, I mean.’ I swallow. ‘You guys are… Edward and Jacob?’ Our surroundings rush back in as he blinks at my question, then frowns.
‘Yes?’
I wrinkle my nose. ‘C’mon, you know what I’m saying, don’t you? You’re Edward and Jacob! Do you also have a sister called Bella, perchance?’
‘What?’ He looks baffled, and I burst out laughing. ‘No, we don’t have a sister.’
‘You cannot tell me no one has ever pointed this out to you?’ I snort. ‘The characters fromTwilight? Edward and Jacob?’
He shakes his head. ‘Never heard of it. Is it a TV show? Were they brothers?’
‘No,’ I say with frustration. ‘They were rivals or whatever… come on, there’s no way you don’t know this! It was a book, then more books, then a huge movie series! Edward was the vampire and Jacob was the werewolf…’
‘Werewolf?’ Edward sounds astonished. ‘Was it a horror film?’
‘No!’ I wave my diet coke around, exasperated. ‘It was romance, really, I guess. Romantasy. It kickstarted an entire generation of sexy monster fiction!’
‘So, the werewolf and the vampire were in love?’ Edwardrolls the dice and moves his piece up another ladder. He’s winning.
‘No!’ I cry, grabbing the dice for my turn and shaking them furiously. ‘Absolutely not. Bella Swan was the one in love – with both of them. And they were in love with her. She had to choose.’
‘So, there was a vampire, a werewolf, and a swan?’ His face is the picture of confusion.
‘Oh my god, stop talking,’ I laugh as I slide down another snake. ‘Basically, they were two iconic love rivals, and the entire world – apart from you it would seem – was either Team Edward or Team Jacob.’
He’s looking at me again. ‘Which were you? Team Edward or Team Jacob?’ He asks this in a soft voice.
‘I was Team Charlie Swan actually,’ I giggle again, trying to dispel the weird tension between us. ‘Bella’s dad.’
‘That seems wrong on a few different levels,’ Edward comments wryly, raising one eyebrow.
