Page 62 of You Belong With Me

‘This bit where they shoot all his limbs off disturbed the hell out of me when I saw it aged fourteen, even though you know they’ll turn him into crime-fighter Metal Mickey,’ she said.

‘I should think it did, it’s an eighteen certificate. Fourteen? What kind of two-bit peep show in Rio de Janeiro was your dad operating?’

‘Dad would never have let me see it – I was watching it round Joel Winship’s!’

‘Who was Joel Winship?’

‘The contraband DVD dealer in my form. I used to go to his disturbing film parties.’ Edie interpreted Elliot’s disapproving frown. ‘He wasn’t a boyfriend – a gang of us were there.’

‘My mistake, you were committing other underage crimes. The BBFC is just a joke to people like you, I suppose?’

Edie started giggling helplessly, and Elliot used the moment of weakness to lean in and start kissing her. It had been a bitambitious to think they could be entwined on a bed without getting distracted. Soon zips were being pulled down, and it was a game of mentally tracking where his hands were roaming. Edie accepted they weren’t going to see the middle, let alone the end, ofRoboCop.

Falling in love is a temporary insanity.

‘You know, it won’t always be like this,’ Edie said, drawing away from him, aware as she did so that breathing had become shallow. ‘I hope we’re all right when it’s not like this.’

Lager was her sodium pentothal – lager, and the stupidity of listening at doors to things you shouldn’t.

Elliot pulled back and started laughing, practically wheezing. ‘Fucking HELL, Edie. You can’t be for real.’

‘What?!’

‘This is your best yet. We’re going to fail because we have jobs – we’re going to fail because my brother knows some dicks. Now we’re going to fall apart because we’re too attracted to each other.’

‘I didn’t mean that!’

Was he going to work out the connection? How to paraphrase him without him realising he was being paraphrased?

‘… I meant, I know the beginning is super intense, and I don’t want to think it’s significant if it calms down a little. That’s all.’

Elliot propped himself up on his elbow and surveyed her with curiosity. ‘Are you subconsciously willing our demise so you can quit the ultra-high-maintenance, travelling salesman boyfriend who’s never here?’

His question was forthright, but his tone wasn’t combative.

‘I’m willing the exact opposite by trying to swerve any bumps in the road. Also, I like the way you’re away a lot. It’s restful and gives me time to recuperate from your brutal physical pummellings. I didn’t do superhero body training in the gym.’

‘Here I am trying to work out how offended I am at you effectively sayingI won’t always want to jump you, you know,and then you’re even more outrageous while I’m catching my breath from the first insult.’

‘Before you twist this any further, I’m not saying that. And I love how it is.’

‘Then why the coitus interruptus gloom-mongering?’

‘Because I know the early days are a bit of a … fugue state, and I wanted to be honest about that. If there’s a stage after, when it’s less like this – I already know that I want that, too. I want grouchy Wednesdays as well as Saturday nights.’

Elliot said nothing for a moment. ‘What have I done to make you think I don’t?’

Well, this is awkward.

Edie felt sure that disclosing that she heard this would ruin the night. Elliot was taking her mysterious flash of insecurity with good humour. But confronting him – armed with a weapon she’d stolen – would very likely turn play-fight into fight.

‘Nothing. I’m being nervy.’

A beat of silence passed.

‘Tonight, I told you that in a hypothetical it’s-me-or-her war with my brother, who I’ve known all my life and love beyond all words, I’d pick you. I don’t know how toembarrass myself by being more explicit than I already am with you, Edie. I spend quite a lot of time thinkingdid I scare her off by being too much?Stop being so tragically needy with her.Then you barkI KNOW THIS IS UNSUSTAINABLEwhile I’m trying to undo your bra. It’s quite a ride, you and me, eh?’

Elliot gave her a penetrating look, lit by the flickering blueish glow of crime-ridden science-fiction Detroit.

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