Page 39 of Heart Match

Me: I will, I’m dying to know what happened with Lewis last night…

Naomi: A lot my friend. A LOT happened.

Me: emoji with heart eyes

I can’t hide from them forever, so I start to play excuses in my head before the call, preparing myself to lie and not be discovered. Now that things have escalated from a simple thank you dinner into Luc staying the night and having breakfast with him in public, there’s no chance in hell I’ll tell them the truth. How will I even explain that I asked him to stay? And that we didn’t even have sex?

‘Hey, sis.’ It’s Nate, overly excited to see me, followed by a, wait, a brunette? I can’t believe she’s Thea, his new girlfriend. I’ve never ever seen him date a brunette before.

He notices my surprised face, but in his eyes I read a perfectly clear ‘shut up’. When he hugs me he quickly whispers, ‘Don’t mention it.’ Sure thing. I’ll keep it to myself until the next opportunity I have alone with him.

‘You must be Thea,’ I say giving her a hug.

‘And you must be Livvy,’ she says with a strong southern American accent. I give Nate another stare, raising my eyebrows and widening my eyes at him. This must be the reason why Mum’s been complaining about her voice. She speaks as if she’s singing, and it doesn’t help that her voice is high-pitched.

‘It’s really nice to meet you, Thea,’ I say.

Behind Thea’s back, I see Mum rolling her eyes.

‘Thank you, it’s finally nice to meet you too, Nate talks a lot about you.’

‘I bet he does.’

I raise an eyebrow at him, making him grin like a naughty child.

When lunch is finally served on the big mahogany table in the dining room, Dad asks why Mum went to pick me up in London when I could have driven with Nate and Thea. While she makes up an excuse—something about she needing to stop by a friend’s nearby—Nate’s studying me. I avoid his gaze. He can tell we’re hiding something. I’m glad Thea is sitting beside me making conversation non-stop. Boy the girl can talk. If she ever marries my brother Mum is going to wear invisible cancelling noise earplugs every time she visits.

‘Nate told me you design lingerie,’ she says in a low voice, so she doesn’t interrupt my parents’ discussion, which now is about whether I should or shouldn’t get a car. Again.

‘I do,’ I take a sip of the refreshing watermelon lemonade.

‘Do you think I can get an exclusive one?’ she whispers, half covering her mouth with her hand, such a girlish thing to do. I can’t help but laugh, she looks so innocent and she doesn’t even seem to care.

‘Yes, of course.’

It’s not the first time I’ve gotten this kind of request, especially not the first time from one of Nate’s girlfriends. Even though I find it awkward that my brother will be having sex with someone wearing one of my designs, for some very strange reason I don’t mind if it’s with Thea. I like her. Or maybe I just like how my brother looks happy around her.

After lunch we linger around on the couch, watching TV, discussing politics and cars with Dad, the most recent anti-ageing treatments with Mum and eating a bombastic caloric cake, which, as my Mum always says, on Sundays it’s ok.

I drive back home with Nate and Thea. She talks during the entire ride, telling me how she ended up in London after getting a job offer as an architect. She works with one of Nate’s friends, who introduced them. All the while, Nate watches me in the rear-view mirror as I sit in the back. I’ve never seen him want approval of a girlfriend so much, but apparently he concludes I’ve approved of her by his satisfied smile at me in the mirror. I, in fact, like her. Mum, I’m not so sure.

Nate parks the car and gets out to talk to me before I head back home.

‘Hey, did something happen?’ he asks.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You and Mum seemed to be hiding something from Dad today. And why did she pick you up, really?’

Nate is like a danger detector, ever since Josh happened in our lives.

‘Oh, that? It’s because I kind of didn’t answer the girls’ call last night and today in the morning. Naomi got worried and called Mum, so she appeared at my place freaking out.’ I roll my eyes. ‘You know how it is.’

‘Hmm. And where were you?’ he insists.

‘Don’t give me that stare, Nathaniel.’

It’s the doubtful one.

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