Page 12 of Girls Will Be Girls
“No, what?”
“Just no.” He leans back, sipping his drink again. “Pretty sure we agreed we were even now.”
I look at him skeptically. “And you don’t care I was mean to you?”
“I don’t think you’ve ever been mean to anyone.” He smirks. “I’d like to see it though.”
Before I even have a chance to blush, Lou stands up.
“Buffet?” He says.
“There’s a buffet?” I ask.
“Of course there’s a buffet.” He waves me up. “Come on, I’m starving.”
I am once again vindicated in how early I arrive at airports because we have time for two rounds of the buffet and two more cocktails each.
For some reason, our conversation never moves on from the first topic we start with. We purely discuss what movie we think is the ultimate plane film. It feels weird to be having such a heated and passionate discussion about something as unserious as terrible movies when this guy is basically a stranger to me.
I don’t know a thing about him — apart from the fact that he’s not picky about cocktails and he drinks his coffee black.
That’s it.
My knowledge is solely about his drink preferences.
It’s kind of nice. Sort of like becoming friends with someone as a kid. You don’t know them, or anything important about them, you just bond over something menial. Like riding your bike on the same street, Pokemon cards, or in our case, which Nicolas Cage character would we be willing to die for — because obviously he would feature in the ultimate plane movie.
I choose Cameron Poe fromCon Air— obviously — and Lou is adamant it needs to be Nick Cage fromThe UnbearableWeight of Massive Talent. As if not choosing one of the classics is an option.
Also, we all know that Pedro Pascal’s character is the hero of that movie.
Despite his incorrect choice, I’m sort of warming to Lou. I’m warming to the idea of revisiting this meet-cute, and not just because I’ve had three free cocktails.
But because,have you seen him?
He has romcom lead written all over him.
We make it to the gate, even though the journey there was a tipsy struggle.
“Ah crap.” I stop right before reaching the boarding queue. I rummage into every corner of my little crossbody bag. “Can you wait here? I just need to grab some gum.”
“Um, yeah. Sure.” Lou says with a confused look on his face.
“I just-” I start to explain. “My ears just really hurt on planes if I don’t constantly swallow, so…”
“Okay.” He chuckles. “Wouldn’t want you to have problems swallowing.” He grins.
My eyes roll. “You really had to go and make it sexual.”
“It’s only sexual ifyoumake it sexual.” He corrects.
I look over at the people boarding. “You can board without me.”
He holds his chest in mock outrage. “Just because I made it sexual?”
I laugh. “No.” I point to the queue. “You don’t have to wait for me though.”
“Nah, I’ll wait.” He nods. “I could never leave my fiancée.”
