Page 24 of Midnight Kisses

“What do you mean you have one?” he asked.

“My company, Perry Skin. You may be thinking that a sleep spray doesn’t fit into the skincare family?—”

“I wasn’t thinking that.”

“It’s okay if you were. At first thought, it doesn’t?—”

“I was thinking that you’re very impressive. But carry on, tell me why this is a third cousin in the family of skincares or whatever you were going to say.”

I giggled and his white teeth split the darkness in return.

“Well, the truth is, the best thing you can do for your skin is to hydrate from the inside out and get a good amount of sleep. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not an alternative medicine girl. Oils aren’t a substitute for medication. I’m the daughter of scientists.” It was important he know this about me. “I’mverypro-science. I’ve spent years lab-testing my products and working out the perfect combination of high-performance actives and natural ingredients. With that said, the biggest change indicators for skin texture, porosity and luminosity, is water and sleep. After that, you have to hydrate from the outside, and that’s where Perry Skin comes in.”

“My—what did you say? Luminosity? Is fucked if it depends on sleep.”

I turned over the plastic bottle in my hands so I could feel the label. It was too dark to read, but I recognised the jagged circle of the label. “Ah, that’s who I thought it was by. This is a good product. It retails more cheaply than mine, but it’s readily available in major retailers. Like my company, this brand avoids synthetics, but my bottles are slightly bigger. You’ll pay more upfront forPerry Skin, but it’s a better purchase.AndI package with glass, so you can buy refills and at end-of-life, recycle the vessels, either with us—we’ll sanitise and reuse them—or at any local recycling centre.”

So go fuck yourself, Sadie.

Clearly, I wasn’t as evolved as I liked to think I was, because even as I lay in this man’s bed in my slip, my body pleasantly aching from our sex, I couldn’t stop a vulnerable question tumbling out of my mouth.

“Why is your EA buying you pillow spray?”

“Huh? Oh, because she’s the one who has to deal with me if I’m a sleep-deprived demon. Sadie has a vested interest in my sleep cycle.” He looked sideways at me. “Are you… Perry, do you have an issue with Sadie?”

After raising the topic impulsively, I forced myself to think carefully about how to proceed. The directions this conversation could go in had my stomach in knots.

If things between Miles and Sadie were platonic, I didn’t want him to brush off a long time friendship or diminish her role in his life just to appease me—it wasn’t respecting women if you only respected the ones you wanted to fuck. I would think less of him for that.

But on the other hand, if he disregarded how I felt to prioritise another woman that would hurt. And if therewassomething between Miles and Sadie—either a history or a will-they-won’t-they vibe—I didn’t want to be in his bed, feeling like a consolation prize. Most of all, I didn't want him to act like I was having a weirdly disproportionate response, and it was all in my head. The most sensible thing to do would have been to stay quiet. Be demure.

But it was too late now.

“Perry?” he prompted.

I sighed. “I felt weird about how Sadie was staring at me when we were dancing. It’s clear the two of you are close, and the degree of scrutiny I got from her felt hostile and made me feel uncomfortable.”

He opened his mouth. Then he closed it, and stayed silent for nearly as long as I had.

“Okay. Hear me out,” he said eventually. “Sadie is the biggest pain in my ass that could possibly exist. I hate her, and I love her—like a sister. The thought of our relationship being anything but that makes me feel physically ill. There’s nothing like thatbetween us. Mum had hoped, once upon a time, but both Sadie and I were clear that the idea was violently repulsive.Violently.”

“Violently. Gotcha.”

“But Sadie is important to me. I’d never tell her this, but she’s my best friend. Can you be okay with that?”

“Why does it matter if I am? This is just a one night thing.”

Even in the dark, Miles visibly blanched.

“…Isn’t it?” I whispered.

“I don’t know, is it?”

Neither of us answered. We were silent for a two minute eternity, in which hell froze, the sky wept, and I screamed internally.

He recovered first. “I guess…it matters because being observed by Sadie and her friend bothered you, and even though I’m arascalwith a single feeling to my name, I’m compelled in my role as your recent sex partner to do whatever is reasonable within my power to assuage any uncomfortable feelings that you may or may not have.”

This man liked to say he was unfeeling, but he wasn’t.

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