“I will leave you at this airport.”
“No you won’t. You need me.”
“I will find someone else. There are probably dozens of guys in this terminal who would fly to Toronto with me.”
“But none of them would be as charming as me.”
“Rodriguez. I swear to god?—”
“Okay, okay.” I hold up my hands in surrender. “How about this. You can call me RoRo. I’ll be RoRo, you’ll be JuJu. Couple nicknames.”
She looks at me like I just suggested we get matching face tattoos. “Those sound like poodle names.”
“Poodles are classy.”
“Poodles are ridiculous.”
“So are we, apparently.” I grin at her. “Come on. RoRo and JuJu. It’s cute.”
“It’s absolutely not cute.”
“You’re right. It’s adorable.”
“I’m going to get your name out of you this weekend and you’re going to have to deal with it.”
“Looking forward to it.” I finish my coffee. “But for the record, RoRo is growing on you. I can tell.”
“It’s really not.”
“Give it time.”
She shakes her head but I catch the tiniest hint of a smile before she hides it behind her coffee cup.
“Moving on. Anything else I should know?”
“You already know the important stuff. Figure skater, from Toronto, stressed-out overachiever with a perfect younger sister and parents who love her more than me.”
“They don’t love her more than you.”
“You haven’t met them.”
“I don’t have to. Parents don’t love the easy kid more. They just worry about them less. You’re—” I stop myself before I say something too honest. “You’re pretty great, JuJu.”
She looks away, but not before I see color rise in her cheeks. “We should head to the gate.”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
At the gate, I check the time. Still twenty minutes before boarding. Juliette is looking at her phone, probably texting her sister or checking weather or doing whatever organized people do before flights.
When they call for boarding, I grab both our bags. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
We board and I guide her to our seats in first class, my hand finding the small of her back. She still tenses slightly when I touch her, but less than before.
Progress.
“You do this all the time,” she says.
