She handed me a black T-shirt with a scoop neck. I peeled off the one I was wearing and put it on. ‘Okay?’ I asked.
‘Hmmm?’
She was staring at me with a kind of stricken look on her face, like I had a massive food stain on my shirt. I looked down.
‘Not that one,’ she said decisively. ‘That one’s all wrong.’
She grabbed another T-shirt from my suitcase and shoved it at me, a frilly lemon yellow one with cap sleeves. ‘Give this one a go.’
I took the black shirt off and pulled the lemon one on. ‘Better?’ I asked.
‘Better,’ she said, tugging at one of the sleeves so it sat straight. ‘You look adorable. Cute as a button.’
Adorable.A word for puppies and small children.
‘Here’s hoping man-Dylan likes his women adorable,’ I choked out.
‘Who wouldn’t?’ she said, tapping my nose with her finger. ‘But be careful today, all right?’
I was still reeling from the nose tap, so it took me a second to realise what she’d said. ‘What do you mean, be careful?’
‘He’s an easy man to like,’ she said. ‘Just… try not to get carried away, okay?’
Is that really all it takes for you to fall for someone, Mandie? Someone to walk up to you and give you the tiniest bit of external validation?
‘I won’t,’ I said tightly, around the giant lump that had appeared in my throat.
‘Good,’ she said, straightening my other sleeve, her fingers deft and gentle when they brushed my skin. ‘The last thing I want for you is to walk right out of one heartbreak and into another.’
I didn’t say anything.
‘Oh, shit, babe, that came out wrong,’ she said. ‘It’s not that I think he won’t like you. It’s just—’
‘That he’ll probably like someone else better?’
She hesitated.
‘Like you?’
‘No, no, no!’ she said. ‘That’s not what I’m saying at all!’
‘It’s okay,’ I said, looking for an elastic to tie my hair back, more as an excuse to turn away from her than anything else. ‘I know you’re the frontrunner, Dylan. I know he likes you. And you like him.’
‘Mandie—’
‘I forgot to tell you,’ I said, scraping my hair back into a ponytail, totally unable to make Mandie 1.0 shut up. ‘At the last Last Chance Party? Lily told me I was a wifey. Can you believe that? Of course, it’s probably not true, given she said Marija was a wifey too and she got cut, like, five minutes later, but even if it is, you don’t need to worry. I like him, sure, butif this ends up with you and him together, I wouldn’t dream of getting in the way.’
‘Mandie, can you listen to me? Please?’
I stilled.
‘This isn’t about me and him,’ she said. ‘It’s not about me. It’s not even really about him. It’s just – you.’
‘What about me?’
She swallowed. ‘I’m sure you’ll have a lovely date today,’ she said. ‘You’re lovely. He’s lovely. Of course it’ll be lovely. But… keep your guard up. Don’t forget there are still ten women in the game.’
‘Trust me,’ I said. ‘There’s no way I could forget that.’
