Fly With Me | ✓

00.2 | bonus chapter

[early august 2029]

Being drunk in a Tesco Express that was unfortunately open for 24 hours was one thing.

Being drunk in a Tesco Express that was unfortunately open for 24 hours with the love of her life who somehow made shitty fluorescent lighting work for him was another thing entirely.

It had become somewhat of a heinous tradition of theirs: getting drunk some weekend night and hitting up the shop for whichever snacks their stupid stomachs required; they each took turns paying. One of the workers had clearly taken over the AUX cord in the back, because—

"Am I really this messed up, or is this, like, the fifth Bruno Mars song in a row?" Maverick asked, tearing his attention away from a box of Jaffa cakes. (He had eaten Jaffa cakes a thousand times.) (Didn't stop him from reading the box every single time.)

"I'm pretty sure they're playing Doo-Wops & Hooligans in order," Everleigh answered.

"How do you know the exact order—"

"How do you not—" Everleigh tsked her tongue. "Some eidetic memory you've got."

"I've forgotten the lyrics to songs I've written," Maverick said. "Give me a break."

(That was a concert in Vancouver during his Curtain Call tour.) (It wasn't so much forgetting the lyrics as it was panicking and letting his brain go into meltdown mode.) (Esmé had made him nervous with her appearance and suddenly the lyrics to last night in soho had disappeared from his brain like dust in the wind.) (The crowd got him back to where he needed to be—they always did.)

"I think Bruno Mars should take up your headspace," Everleigh said, waving him off.

"I think you're mixing me up with Stevie again."

"Everyone should let Bruno Mars take up their headspace."

"You recognize you're dating—"

"Oy. Cut it out." Everleigh took his chin in her hand, squeezing his cheeks ever so slightly. She pressed a kiss to his nose. "Don't be a spoon."

Maverick grinned when she let go of him. "Making sure you remember me."

"Not like your name is on the lease to our property or anything," Everleigh said.

"Yeah. Guess you're stuck with me."

Everleigh wrinkled her nose. "Only to get to Stevie."

Maverick shoved his hand in her face and gently pushed her away from him, Everleigh laughed. Maybe a small snort escaped.

"You're such a shit." Maverick laughed.

"I dunno," Everleigh said. "I don't have matching tattoos with Stevie."

Maverick did. Still had her name tattooed on his middle finger, too.

"I don't have permanent friendship bracelets with Stevie." Maverick stuck his wrist in her face, jingling the silver bracelet he had bought for them the Christmas before and had permanently welded to his wrist. Everleigh had a gold one around her ankle, bracelets weren't the best in labs and she didn't want hers contaminated with something gross.

Everleigh held her hands up in surrender, the bag of MilkyBar buttons rattling in her hand. Probably melting, too. Her cheeks were rosy, her palms were probably roasting. "So sorry."

"How dare you forget we're friends forever."

"You sleep with a lot of your friends?"

Maverick choked on his own spit like the classy guy he was and that she'd fallen in love with. "Everleigh Jane, this is a Tesco."