Page 71 of Shout Out To My Ex

‘Old-world Hollywood.’

‘Exactly.’

‘How about spaghetti Westerns?’ he asks with a cheeky smile. ‘The confluence of both our styles.’

‘Er, how about no, thank you?’

Leo’s smile falls away and he regards me intently. I stand taller, meeting his unwavering eye unwaveringly.

‘You know that was a joke, right?’ he says, the corners of his mouth twitching. Ah, there it is – a smidge of the arrogance from that night at the restaurant.

‘Of course,’ I reply, one eyebrow lifted. When we were together, he was jealous I could do that.

Our eyes are still locked the moment an idea comes to him. It’s like watching lightning strike: his jaw drops, his eyes widen, and his whole face lights up.

‘What about—’ He cuts himself off, making his way to the workbench that’s set aside for design work. He takes a sketchpad from his satchel, then scrounges inside it for something tosketch with. I open a drawer under the bench to reveal a large selection of pencils – any kind a designer might need, even though I mostly sketch on my tablet.

‘Perfect,’ he says, grabbing a graphite pencil and flipping open the sketchbook.

‘Are you going to tell me what?—’

‘I’m going toshowyou,’ he says, his brow creased in concentration.

I watch over his shoulder, mesmerised by the deft movements of his hand. I’d forgotten what beautiful hands he has – or perhaps I didn’t let myself remember. Minutes pass without us exchanging a word, but even from a set of rudimentary sketches, his vision starts to become clear.

‘And then…’ he says. He tears the page from the sketch pad and, on a fresh page, sketches several more designs. Eventually, he steps back to regard his work.

I draw even nearer.

‘Do you see it, how we can come together?’ he asks in a whisper.

I do. He’s devised a way for our combined aesthetics to work within one collection.

In my periphery, he looks at me and I nod, my eyes still riveted to the pages. Of course, these are just rough sketches and I will need to put my stamp on the designs, but the concept is there – thevisionis there.

‘Leo,’ I say, ‘it’s incredible.’

‘It’sus, Ellie.’

I tear my eyes from the sketches and peer up at Leo. His eyes are alight with excitement and possibility, his lips stretching into a broad smile. It’s impossible not to be swept up by his obvious passion, by everything dancing behind his eyes. I beam back.

It’s us, Ellie.The words echo in my mind as I direct my attention back to the sketches.

That’s exactly what thrillsandterrifies me.

‘Elle, Leo, we’re just going to get some lunch,’ says Cassie. ‘Did you want to come?’

Somehow, several hours have passed since Leo arrived. We’ve been bouncing ideas off each other with a dozen or so rounds of ‘What about this?’ and ‘Yes, and how about this?’ The workbench is now littered with sheets of paper, and each of those are covered with sketches and notes.

‘Oh, er…’ I look to Leo. ‘Are you hungry?’

He flicks his wrist and checks the time. ‘Starving,’ he says, ‘but I kinda wanna…’

‘Me too.’ I turn to Cassie. ‘We’re staying. We’ll order in.’

‘Suit yourselves,’ she says, then shepherds the team out the door.

‘I really am starving,’ says Leo.

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