Page 11 of Four Night Stand

Woah. Nope. Jules takes an overlarge sip of coffee. She’s not thinking those thoughts.

‘Hope so.’

***

Cameron is quiet as they drive out of Canberra. Jules slowly relaxes into her seat, drinking coffee and biting her lip every time she has an inappropriate thought about him. Her lip gets tender quickly. Adjusting the rear-view mirror makes the muscles in his arms stand out, and every time he changes gears, her gaze drops to his thick fingers. Even the fact he’s navigating without using a GPS system is a turn-on. Something about the confidence, probably, and the pre-planning that would have contributed to it.

‘You can put the radio on, if you like,’ Cameron says as they hit the freeway.

‘Oh. Thanks.’ Jules puts her coffee in the cup holder between them while silently freaking out. Music preferences are like an insight into someone’s soul and Cameron is casually asking her to bare hers. That’s got to be, like, a step six on the dating plan at least.

Jules turns the radio on and Duran Duran blasts from the speakers.

‘Shit, shit.’ Jules fumbles for the volume control, shoulders bunched up around her ears. ‘Sorry—Got it.’

She flops against her chair and presses a hand to her chest. ‘Well. I’m awake now.’

Cameron laughs and Jules’s entire body goes taut before a shiver slides down her spine like ice-cream melting down the side of a cone. She’s heard the husky sound through the phone before but in person it’s as luscious as his voice and his smell.

Jules reangles the air-vent on her flushed cheeks.

‘Could you imagine having that as your alarm?’ Cameron asks on the tail end of his laughter.

‘Yes. And it’s a horrifying thought. I’ll stick with the generic annoying buzz, I think.’

‘Generic? That doesn’t seem like you.’ He turns his head to smile at her, revealing literal dimples in his cheeks. Dimples.

Jules’s insides melt. ‘Oh. Uh, thanks. I did have it as a Bangles song at one point, but then whenever I heard the song I thought about sleeping.’

‘‘Manic Monday’?’

Jules twists to face him and narrows her eyes. ‘I thought you didn’t think I was generic?’

Cameron laughs, glancing over at her. ‘I don’t. You’re not.’

Jules presses her lips together to keep her smile from growing overlarge. ‘Neither are you.’

Cameron clears his throat, attention back on the road. He shuffles his hands along the steering wheel and the conversation peters out, leaving only the sounds of George Michael on the radio.

Jules taps her fingers on her thighs, stealing glances at Cameron out the corner of her eye. It’s been a while since Jules engaged in flirting, but handing out compliments and dimpled smiles seems very flirty. Are they at step two already? She hasn’t established yet if he’s boring in person or has weird hobbies.

‘So. Uh. Have you been to the conference before?’ She winces at her own question. It’s only marginally better than asking about the weather, but she wasn’t ready for silence to announce the death of conversation and she’s not sure how to get the flirty banter back. She should have taken up Tori’s offer of practising flirting with her over the weekend.

‘Most years I’ve been in publishing,’ he says. ‘My first was in Melbourne, about four years ago?’

‘No way. I think I was at that one! I wonder if we saw each other?’

‘I don’t think so. I would have remembered you.’

He doesn’t say it like a line but with his voice, anything he says sounds like he’s whispering it directly into her ear. She presses her legs together and grabs for her coffee to do something with her itching hands.

‘Hang on. I think that’s—’ is all Cameron gets out before she takes a sip.

Her eyes widen and she nearly spits the liquid out before swallowing it.

‘Mine,’ he finishes.

Jules coughs, looking between the cup and Cameron. ‘Is there coffee in this or is it just sugar?’

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