Page 65 of Heart Match

Today at 6:35 am

Me: Sorry to disappoint her, it won’t happen. We’re not together, Nate.

Nate: Thea’s asking why not …

Me: Thea or you?

Nate: Are you going to answer or not?

Me: We’re not together.

We’re not. Whatever it was that we had going on in the past week, was just some kind of messing around. Nothing more than that. Now anything between us is completely over.

It is.

Yesterday at 8:48 pm

Dad: Hey love, just checking in on you. Never knew you liked tennis so much. Winking emoji.

Dad: Do you think you can get me an autograph? Or maybe a ticket to watch the finals? Maybe in the player box?

Today at 6:40 am

Me: I don’t think so, Dad.

I can’t even believe all this. I try not to be rude to Dad, after all it’s not his fault, it’s my own for never watching tennis with him.

Someone’s knocking at the door. Again. It’s not even 8:00 am in the morning and it’s as though I’m throwing a party. I’m fuming when I open the door already saying, ‘I just need …’ but it’s not who I think it is, or who, I just realised, I wanted it to be. It’s Naomi and Lexi.

Shit.

In normal times, seeing my friends on a weekday would be a highlight; right now, I just want to hide from the world. And I’m honestly not prepared to talk about Luc or admit to them how I’m such a bad friend and good liar.

‘You know, if I didn’t love you as much as I do, I’d call you a bitch, but right now I’d be happy if you just give us an explanation about this mess,’ says Naomi, storming into my flat.

Lexi gives me a tight hug, and it lasts longer than normal. She knows I need it. She has always been the most sensitive and emotive one. Naomi, is the firm, bossy and reassuring one.

‘First, I can’t believe you lied to us about seeing him. Why would you do something like that?’ Naomi says as she jumps to sit on the kitchen island.

Lexi goes make coffee. I sit on one of the stools and take a deep breath before I begin.

‘I don’t know.’ Now I’m talking like Luc. Great.

Naomi stares me down and raises one of her thick black eyebrows, she knows how intimidating she can be when she does that. So I try again.

‘I never get this involved, you know that. On one side I was embarrassed to admit that being with him was different, is, I don’t know anymore. On the other side I didn’t want anyone to have expectations of me being in a relationship again, you know? Especially because this was going nowhere anyways. I just … I wanted to figure things out by myself.’

There’s silence as they both stare at me curiously, as if surprised with my answer. Probably because for once, I’m being honest about this.

‘Just how involved are we talking?’ asks Lexi from the counter, as she waits for the coffee machine to do its job—though I don’t drink coffee, I keep one for them.

‘Huh. From having a private dinner date at Sketch, to having sex on the kitchen island to him sleeping over. More than once.’ I flush with the admission.

‘More than once what, sex on the kitchen island or sleeping over?’ asks Lexi.

‘Sleeping over. More than once, yes,’ I say, burying my face in my hands.

‘Wait. This kitchen island?’ asks Naomi.

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