Page 45 of Love Is…?

“Thanks. You, too.”

Angel’s sigh was voluminous. “Okay, so, Tessa? Grab a coat, because it’s cool outside and Jayde’s wearing torso sex so you’ll need something flash to match it.”

Jayde laughed. “Torso sex. That’s a new line in my repertoire.” She grinned at Tessa’s eye-roll.

“I’m going to the loo as well. Trams don’t have toilets and apparently we’re trekking to dinner.” Tessa widened her eyes in a mock glare, then disappeared around the corner of the kitchen.

“So.”

Jayde turned at Angel’s single word.

“Jayde, just to let you know. Tessa’s more vanilla than ice cream,” Angel said, quietly.

“I get that impression,” Jayde replied.

Angel fixed Jayde with a hard stare. “She’s completely made of joy and stardust and the dating scene intimidates her.”

“I know. She told me.” Jayde shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. “Library love.”

Angel frowned. “What?”

“She told me she’d rather find someone organically like at a library.”

Angel delivered a short laugh, then sobered. “Please be careful with her. Yes, she’s incredibly strong under all that innocent vanilla. She never backs down from a dare or a challenge or when delivering teaching moments. I know all about your semester of learning.” Angel rolled her lips into a thin line. “Jayde, she’ll step outside her comfort zone for you simply because she believes that you’re not a lost cause.”

Jayde’s smile complemented her serious nod. “Angel, we’re hanging out and going on pretend dates. It’s all good. I’ll take care of her. I promise.”

Angel studied Jayde. “Okay.” She gave an affirmative sounding hum. “Tessa believes love is a wondrous thing, but from what Tessa’s told me, you, romance, and love aren’t buddies.” Angel patted Jayde’s shoulder. “Which sounds like me. Who needs that romantic shit, right?”

Jayde inhaled, opened her mouth to agree, but softly closed it. Maybe it was a few weeks ago, or just days ago, or maybe at speed dating two Sundays ago, that Jayde realised her heart felt ready for just a touch of that romantic shit. Just a touch. Tessa’s touch.

She clenched her jaw, then became aware that Angel was actually waiting on an answer. She gave a quick chuckle, abandoning her brain to its ruminations.

“Was that the big brother talk?”

Angel lifted her chin in challenge. “No. That was a warning from a cousin who works at a nursery and knows how to wield pruning shears and a grafting knife.”

The tram ridewas not long enough. The four stop journey was supposed to last half an hour according to the timetable, but surely they’d only been sitting together for five seconds. It wasn’t long enough. Not when Tessa’s thigh was pressed against her own because everyone in Melbourne needed to ride the number fifty-four to the Arts Centre.

Tessa’s head whipped around when she’d worked out where they were going for dinner.

“The Arts Centre Night Market.” Her smile blazed.

Jayde raised an eyebrow, gave herself a mental high-five, and pressed the buzzer to alert the driver. They alighted and, to Jayde’s delight, Tessa tucked her arm into Jayde’s elbow.

“So, yeah. The Night Market.”

Tessa turned square on. “You remembered.”

Jayde shrugged. Her stomach fizzed, her heart rate kicked up a notch. Definitely some of that romantic shit running amok. She hid it all with a shrug.

“I’m a journalist. I’m supposed to remember things. You said you missed this market. It missed you, by the way. Terribly. The chocolate brownies atYouBetchahave been pining for you for six years.”

Tessa cracked up, holding Jayde’s arm with both hands.

“I really can’t imagine a chocolate brownie pining, but I’ll take your word for it.”

Jayde grinned at Tessa’s joy, then bent her arm into a sideways ‘V’. After a quick glance down, then back up, Tessaagain slipped her hand into the crook of Jayde’s elbow, and they strolled to the entrance of the horseshoe-shaped forecourt. The heady aromas of nearly twenty-five different cuisines filled the air and they stopped to inhale the endless dinner possibilities.

---