Page 27 of The Best Book Boyfriend
“Do you want to be single forever, then?”
I’ve never really thought about it that way, so I just sit for what feels like a very long minute. “The last year has been rough. I think when you’ve been with someone for so long, it’s hard to imagine yourself with anyone else. I’ve always done everything with a plan, then the plan just ended without warning.”
“You don’t really strike me as the reckless type.”
“God no, I’ve never been reckless. Are you?”
“Definitely not. Opening Sunshine is probably one of the most reckless things I’ve ever done, but even that had months of planning so hardly the dictionary definition of the word.”
“I don’t even know what recklessness would feel like. My heart is thumping at the thought.”
“OK, so imagine you’re in a book,” he says, sitting up and leaning closer towards me. “What would you do if you were reckless, even just for one day?”
“If I was in a book?”
“Yeah. What kind of main character would you be?”Oh boy.
“Luke, this issucha good question. OK, let me think.” Memories of my recent reads flash through my mind like a virtual library. I try to recall a book where the main character had a wild streak, but I struggle to pinpoint one that feels quite right. Probably because I’m the opposite of wild.
“I guess I’d be a character who went for whatever she wanted, and didn’t worry about the consequences.”
“Maybe you should try being reckless sometime,” he says, his voice almost taunting. “You’ll be on the first guy that looks your way in a heartbeat.”
Is that what he thinks of me?My face must give me away. “Sorry Kara, I didn’t mean that. Please ignore me, my flirting is atrocious. I apologise.”
So he is flirting with me?Fuck, this is all so confusing. I can only bite my lip as I gather my thoughts and try to keep my brain in the room. There is something so sexy about the way he says,I apologise. It makes me want to give him a lot more to be sorry for.
“In books, these women have the confidence to go after what they want, or at least seize opportunities that come their way, and I don’t know what I want, or what I like, or anything really.” If thisisa date, I’m doing the worst ever job of selling myself.
“I have an idea,” Luke says. “More wine?”
“Sure.”
He tops up my glass and stands, carrying both over to the sofa. “Come here.”
He pats the cushion in the corner spot, and I feel like an obedient dog when I follow him and sit down. I get comfortable and tuck my feet up, then he pulls a blanket from the back of the sofa and drapes it over me. He grabs another from the back of the armchair before sitting down at the opposite end of the sofa, facing me. We look like we live in a retirement home and I press my lips together, stifling a laugh at the visual.
“You comfy?”
“Yes?” I say, cautiously. “And weirdly nervous. What are we doing?”
“We’re going to play a game.”
“What kind of game?”
“Like a...” he waves his hand back and forth between us, “a getting to know each other game. I’ll ask you a question, and then you answer it, and then you ask me a question.”
“Sexy questions?”Kara!
He chokes back a mouthful of his wine. “If those are the sort of questions you want to ask, then go for it. I think maybe we can help each other figure out what we want.”
“Luke…” I whisper.
“Yes Kara?”
“This is exactly like something a Book Boyfriend would do.”
“I know.”
