Page 60 of Swept Up In You

Taylor gave her the rundown: their paddleboard trip, all of them ending up in the drink, Belle swimming with the dolphins (“No way!” Jess said), heading back to Sam’s place, Sam’s dad almost walking in on them kissing, and then—then—she tried to keep a straight face as she recounted Sam shooting across the room out of the shower, Belle getting underfoot, and the whole naked towel shamozzle.

Jess was practically on the floor at this point.

“Oh my god. Stop it! You can’t make this up. I can’t even pour the milk right now.”

She stood there howling with laughter, wiping at her eyes and grabbing a tissue to blow her nose.

“Wow, and I thought you spilling coffee on yourself was pretty bad. But this? This trumps it. The poor thing, was she mortified? I would’ve been.” Jess winced, finally calmed down enough to finally pour and stir in their milk.

“She was frozen for a few seconds. I don’t think evenI’dcomprehended what was happening until my eyes landed on… well,everything. I think it sunk in at that moment for her too, and she just bolted upstairs trying to cover what she could. I wasleft to wrangle the bucking bronco and try to bring some sort of order to the kitchen before she came back down. Oh, and then I asked her out on a proper date.”

Jess slid Taylor’s coffee across the bench and rested on her elbows, blowing on her own mug. “I thought you had a date on her boat.Anda sleepover.”

“Technically, it was just meant to be a thank-you dinner among friends.”

“Who kissed,” Jess added.

Her smile broadened at the memory.

“Who kissed, yeah. Well I wasn’t exactly planning on that, remember?” Taylor replied.

“Yeah, but you wanted to.”

“I totally did.” She picked up the milk and poured it on her cereal. “Spoon?”

Jess rolled her eyes and got one out the drawer. “You are so lazy.”

“You’re conveniently positioned right now, and I like to take full advantage of the housemate situation.”

“You’re lucky I like you missy,” she replied, pointing at her with said spoon before handing it over.

Taylor just flashed her teeth, extra sweet, just like her breakfast.

“So where are you taking her on this ‘proper’ date?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said, slurping her coffee extra loud.

That night, Taylor and Sam entered through a big archway, joining the masses of people milling about. The sun was starting to set behind the buildings, bringing to life the festoon lightingstrung up in the trees overhead. Food stalls lined the outside in a giant horseshoe that seemed to go on forever, while open wood fires were scattered amongst tables of people standing, sitting and chatting on just about every surface available. You could feel the buzz in the atmosphere, and Taylor couldn’t wait to join in with the crowd.

Alive.

That’s how Taylor would describe this place. An open-air festival just ready to—hopefully—impress her date tonight.

With Liz far from her mind this evening, it was nice to finally feel some distance from her past. She breathed in a big lungful of air to celebrate as much, with everything from smoke, a melting pot of cuisines and hints of wine wafting on the soft breeze. This was exactly where she wanted to be.

“Whatisthis place?” Sam asked, dangling off Taylor’s arm as they scoped out the area.

“You’ve never been?” Taylor swung around to look at her.

“No?” Sam’s eyebrow’s rose.

Taylor tsked. “You’ve been missing out.” She looked back out over the crowd. “This is the biggest food festival in the city!” she declared.

“I really need to get out to the city more,” Sam replied, gawking at the different options for their dinner.

“So, what do you feel like?” Taylor was so hungry she could literally eat anything right now. Knowing she was coming here tonight, she had made sure she had ample space to eatallthe things.

Sam sniffed at the air. “Whatever that meat is? It smells amazing.”

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