Page 22 of You Float My Boat

‘Or as the French would say “tu as l’air magnifique”.’ Her fingers burst open against her lips.

‘Oh, shut up.’

‘What? I’m telling the truth,’ she shrugged, ‘and Charlie’s liked it. He wrote “best study partner” underneath. He put a little heart next to it. What’s not cute about that? I liked it too, by the way. Wanted to add some authenticity to it.’

I freed my hair from the grip of the iron before I singed it entirely. It was too hard to concentrate on curling my hair while my heart was flip flopping about at the thought of Charlie liking the Instagram I’d posted last night. Even though I’d told him he had to.

‘You’re being a menace.’

She let the door close with a bang, dropped her bag on the floor and flopped onto my bed – rather the pile of clothes hiding my bed. ‘I’m not. I promise.’

I knew better. ‘Hmm.’

She wriggled around, yanking a pale blue cardigan from underneath her hip, then tossed it over on the chair. ‘Vi, why does your room look like your wardrobe threw up in it?’

‘Couldn’t decide what to wear,’ I muttered, trying to keep my face as still as possible while I mastered the perfect flick of eyeliner.

‘Wear to what?’

‘I’ve got to go and meet Charlie after his tutorial, as the good fake girlfriend I am.’

And because he hadn’t ventured far from my thoughts since this entire escapade started, or the past five years, my phone buzzed on the dresser with his name flashing up.

Charlie:

Meet you by the fountain?

I put down the eye pencil and let the little buzz of nervous excitement work its way through my system. At least it gave me enough time to pause before I responded, so it didn’t look like I was hanging around waiting for him to message me.

I wasn’t doing that. Nope.

Violet:

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