Page 73 of The Likelihood Of You

“Hey, what’s the matter?” I asked, pulling her into my chest again and resting my head atop of hers.

“It’s just…it’s been a long time since someone listened to me like that.” Her muffled words vibrated my chest, but I caught them just enough. “It was a throwaway comment about a date, but you listened and…I don’t know.” I noticed her hand wipe at her tears; I’ll get them next time, as she straightened her back, her teary eyes finding mine again. “Just…thank you. This is really sweet.”

My eyes locked onto a tear that was peaking on her cheek, and I caught it before it fell. “Anytime, baby,” I whispered, brushing her cool skin absentmindedly.

A few minutes later, we were setting up the truck bed, making it look less like a bowl of rusty sheet metal and more like those hideaway dens you’d make as kids.

We climbed in, and I was impressed with how comfy the bottom layer had turned out, before snuggling into one another and choosingwhat to watch from the movie selection, which looked like it hadn’t been updated since I was last here ten years ago.

“Huh, however will we choose between Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D…”

“Scratch the last one. There’s no glasses,” I interjected.

“Jaws: The Revenge, my God, how many movies can you make about the same bloody shark?”

My head fell back, a laugh erupting out of me. “Keep going.”

“Ummm,” She mulled, flicking past The Godfather movies, Notting Hill and Mean Girls 2, which was a questionable choice on Bill’s part, until she stopped and gasped.

“What?”

“I found what we’re watching.”

Before I could ask her which Jaws she’d picked, she leapt from the truck bed and ran towards the projector at the back of the field. It wasn’t too far away, but I kept my eyes glued to her the whole time she was out there, until her warmth returned to my side.

“What did you pick?” I asked, tearing open the Twizzlers and handing her one, before turning up the portable radio I’d hauled into the truck bed.

“You’ll find out in a sec.” Her Twizzler-stuffed mouth mumbled.

All it took them was the familiar string quartet score and opening credit scene for me to realise what movie this pain in the ass had picked. “Defenders of Time? Are you kidding me?”

“Oh, absolutely not, it’s a classic, and that’s not just because my boyf-” Her mouth calmed shut before the B word had a chance to escape. “You. Not because you’re in it, at all. It’s a great movie.”

It shocked me how relieved those four little letters made me feel. I hid my smirk pretty well from her. It wasn’t hard, considering herattention was on the version of me that was in space, and I was grateful my acting captivated her so much, because it was stupid how large it was. How her beautiful slip-up made me look, and feel like a fool in love.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty great movie.”

“So, was it as good as you remembered?”

Her head whipped to face me, the shocked expression that’d been resting on her face for the past two hours staying in place. “That was…probably better than I remembered, " she cleared her throat. “Did they oil you up before those shirtless scenes, or was that all you?”

A breathy laugh escaped me, and my head rolled forward. “Did you pay attention to the plot? You know, what the storyline was?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course I did. You used the time-machine thing to go to another dimension to save Addy’s character, Renailia, whom you were working with. You also had to save the long-lost children of that weird red planet called Dremleah, who also had possession of the Chains of Dremuloo, which had the power to save the universe. But Nate’s character, Ovario, had the pendants to the Chains that you needed to put the world back on the right coordinates so that time and space could be saved.”

Wow.

“See, I payattention. I just wanted to ask about the shirtless scenes.”

Smartass.“No, that sweat was all me.”

“Interesting.”

I moved the half-eaten bag of popcorn and the empty Twizzler packet off the blanket to shuffle myself closer towards her. “I’m glad you came with me for this weekend.”

She shifted to face me. “Thank you for tonight, and today. This whole weekend has just been unbelievable. Your family are…wonderful. Your hometown is beautiful. I’ve loved every second.”

I soaked up the way her face was glowing, even in the pitch black and the faint hew from the full moon and the stars that shone above us; she was still the brightest thing out here tonight. “Me too.”

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