Page 17 of You Float My Boat

Opening my notebook again, I looked at the top line.

Rules.

1. No kissing

2.

Christ I was bad at this. I’d come up with one lousy rule. And the only reason I’d addedno kissingin the first place was because it was the only rule I needed to have.

It was the only one I wanted to break.

‘Hello.’

My eyes shot up and a split second later I sprang to my feet. I’d been so engrossed in my list I missed Violet walking in. I slammed the notebook shut.

‘Hey.’ I leaned in, just as she did. This time I narrowly avoided bashing her head with mine, and instead planted my lips on the edges of her open, smiling mouth. ‘Sorry.’

But she was too busy laughing as she removed her coat and sat down. It wasn’t her big Muppet coat from this afternoon; this one was a cream, fluffy number that made her look like a cloud, and I had a sudden desire to float away with her on it.

‘Stella was right. We do need to get better at this,’ I grumbled and sat back in my chair.

‘This for me?’ Violet asked, picking up the wine in front of her and taking a large sip before I had time to answer. ‘We will. Don’t worry. Evie will believe we’re a couple.’

I smiled over to her with more gratitude than I’d possibly ever felt. ‘Thanks.’

‘How was training?’ she asked, tucking her legs underneath herself and shifting her body to lean forward sothat she was almost entirely in my space, like she’d done it a thousand times before.

It took me a second to blink through the closeness, to stop myself from focusing on the freckles sprinkled across her nose and the onyx flare of her pupils in their sea of azure, and realize what she was doing.

Being my fake girlfriend.

Anyone walking past would never question us not being a real couple, and I spent too long wondering if I should brush the strand of hair away from her forehead.

‘It was good,’ I replied eventually, clearing my throat. ‘Coach wanted to remind us that our spots on Blue Boat weren’t guaranteed.’

Her face screwed up in confusion. ‘Does that mean you might not be racing this year?’

‘No, we’re all going to be on Blue Boat. The only change we have this year is Marshy, because last year he’d broken his leg and couldn’t compete.’ Fuck it. I reached out and swept the strand away with my fingers before I could think any more about it. Except now she was rolling her lips and I caught a flash of her teeth as she worried them. I leaned back in my chair to create some space. That was better. Now I could focus. ‘How was the rest of your afternoon?’

‘Oh you know … essays, essays and more essays. I should probably make a start on learning lines, but I don’t want to jinx anything.’

‘Who else is up for the part?’ I asked, picking up my water to quench my suddenly dry mouth.

She shrugged, ‘I don’t know for certain. There werea couple of other girls I saw going into the auditions but that could have been for any of the parts. Cecily and Linus kept it all under wraps.’

‘Cecily and Linus?’

‘The producer/directors. They’re putting on the production. Cecily is one of my friends, but she likes to keep things professional, so she won’t tell me.’ She laughed.

‘Guess that means she won’t give you the part outright either.’

She shook her head with a giggle, forcing the ends of her ponytail to flick over her shoulder. ‘God, no! Are you kidding? Otherwise Stella would have confirmed her part yonks ago.’

She picked up her wine again and for the first time I noticed she’d changed the colour of her nail polish. Last week it had been dark red, today it was pale pink. I couldn’t decide which I liked more.

A sharp breeze of cold air had my eyes flicking to the door and the large group which entered before returning to Violet and the reason she was here in the first place.

Rules.

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