Guilty Pleasure

7. Yes

“Australia.”

“Australia?”

“I’d love to go there.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I just think it would be really cool.”

“But why Australia? For some reason you don’t strike me as the kind of girl who’d enjoy getting all up close and personal with nature.”

“What do you know?” I worked to lace my voice with indignation, knowing it probably came out sounding more like amusement. “I love nature.”

“Nature, maybe. Giant crocodiles? Snakes? Poisonous jellyfish?”

I dropped my obviously failing façade, unable to suppress my shudder. “All right, maybe not that whole part.”

Ben smirked. “Thought so. Then what?”

“It just seems so amazing. Foreign. I feel like it’d be a completely different experience. Plus, I’ve heard it’s beautiful – the coral reefs would be incredible to explore. The accents are an added bonus.”

He laughed. “You’re willing to travel all the way to the other side of the world – literally – for cool accents?”

“They’re not just cool,” I defended myself. “They’re sexy. And I said that’s a bonus, not the whole reason I want to go.”

He rolled his eyes. “Please. If the accent is what you want, I can teach you to speak with it right now.”

I raised my eyebrows, challenging him. He just grinned and turned down to his phone, typing in it furiously for a couple of seconds. When he looked back up, he turned the screen toward me and I saw three words written on it: Good eye might. I frowned in confusion.

“What?”

“Say them.”

Furrowing my eyebrows skeptically, I complied. “Good eye might.”

“See? You just spoke Australian.”

“How are those three words Australian?”

“Good eye, might,” he repeated. “Like g’day, mate. Aren’t Australians supposed to say ‘mate’ all the time?”

I burst out laughing. “You’re pathetic. As nice as your little impersonation is, I’d prefer to hear the real thing. Okay, your turn. Since Australia clearly isn’t your first choice, where would you want to go?”

He tilted his head to the side as he thought, and bit the side of his lip softly – something I’d noticed he did a lot when he was thinking. After pondering for a second, he turned back to me. “Ireland.”

“Ireland?”

His eyes were bright with excitement. “Don’t you think it would be awesome? The place sounds amazing, and it would be so interesting. They have so much culture and tradition. And leprechauns are awesome.”

I couldn’t stop from giggling at his childlike excitement. “You do know you’re probably not going to find a leprechaun casually walking around on the streets of Ireland, right?”

“And I still think it would be awesome. Sorry.” He grinned sheepishly. “I think I got overly excited for a second there.”

“You think?” I teased him.

“Shut up.”

The silence that followed sat comfortably between us, never feeling strained or awkward. It was getting close to five in the afternoon on Friday, and we’d been lying on our backs in the park talking about everything and nothing for almost two hours now.