Tell Me You'll Miss Me | ✓

13. finally

From then on, the date went surprisingly smoothly. Suspiciously smoothly. By the end of it, Summer and David bizarrely looked like they could've been on a real date, and Nora and I weren't doing too bad, either.

When David asked Summer about her parents, the double date had officially split into two dates that just happened to be taking place at the same table. The two of them were quickly wrapped up in talking about their families, leaving Nora and I to awkwardly look on for a minute or two, until Nora turned to me with a grin.

"It's going well, right?"

I nodded, David's in-depth discussion of his mother's career as a dentist turned florist fading into the background. "Weirdly well," I agreed, frowning a little because it was so unexpected. David was just along for the ride, after all – I hadn't expected Summer to actually like him... but maybe she was a better actress than I'd thought.

"They look so cute together," she whispered, trying to dim her smile so as to not distract the potentially blossoming couple from their chatter.

I wasn't so sure, but maybe I was being sceptical because I was in on the fact that even if David suddenly liked Summer, the reverse still probably wasn't true. For Nora, it maybe seemed like Summer was being won over, but I knew their date was as fake as mine was.

Having said that, my date wasn't necessarily going horribly, and it wasn't feeling that fake anymore, either.

We'd been laughing and talking oddly easily ever since I'd decided to pluck up the courage to, you know, actually talk to my date.

My crush on Nora had started to feel incredibly real, after it'd spent so long feeling hazy and undefined, like it still belonged in one of my dreams. She was-- well, very possibly my actual, real dream girl.

Nora's seat had somehow ended up dangerously close to mine and, whenever one of us crossed our legs, we were bumping into each other under the table and laughing. It happened again, and she responded by landing a hand on my knee, as if that would help us stay apart.

"C'mon," Nora said, watching Summer laugh and throw her head back, her hand gripping David's forearm for stability. "We can't let them outshine us too much," she said, draping her arm over the back of my chair. "We're way better at dating than they are," she teased.

My stomach flipped around and my heart started thudding – a nasty combo that almost had me feeling faint. I didn't really know what she was talking about, but the way she was looking at me was giving me the craziest adrenaline rush.

I glanced over at Summer and remembered the confidence I'd conjured up. Maybe I could make this work. After a fortifying beat, I managed to get some words out. "What do you mean?" I asked, raising my eyebrows semi-innocently and smirking semi-filthily.

I hoped she wouldn't ever realise how fake I was, or how fake the date was.

Nora laughed under her breath and looked down, before flicking her gaze back up to mine. Oh, no. This was intense.

She moved in quickly, her lips crashing against mine, albeit with a certain level of cautiousness that said she wasn't sure this was okay. Except, I totally thought it was okay, and kissed back to make sure she knew that.

My heart was working overtime but my head had shut down entirely. I reached a hand to the back of Nora's hair only to remember it was all prettily knotted up on top of her head, so instead my hand drifted down to her neck, then her collarbone, resting there lightly.

"Shut up!"

I guess Summer had noticed what was happening.

We broke apart a few moments later, and as my eyes re-opened, tentative, like maybe this could somehow be another dream, I saw Nora's painted pink lips press together, and then pop open happily into a grin.

I laughed a little, trying to contain myself. This was so beyond every expectation I had; my brain didn't know how to process the last three minutes of my life at all. From the second Nora had had her hand on my thigh, I'd been short-circuiting. I was pretty sure the kiss had blown my harddrive entirely.

Nora slouched back into her seat, and I turned to see David beaming at us and Summer outright staring, mouth agape.

"Well, alright, you guys," David said, his tone congratulatory.

Nora rested her chin against the palm of her hand and covered her mouth as she giggled in response.

"You think we might reach that point before the end of tonight, or...?" David chuckled, but Summer didn't turn to look at him, her gaze still fixed on me.

"No, no, wait, shut up," Summer repeated, somehow casual but terse, hissing the words at him as if Nora and I wouldn't be able to hear. She blew out a low, slow breath, closing her eyes. It almost seemed meditative. "I can't believe that happened," she near-whispered. When she opened them again, her eyes seemed bigger, brighter. "I can't believe that happened!" Summer said again, more enthusiastically now. "Holy shit!" She laughed, bordering on delirious with the excitement.

Nora turned to look at me with a slightly quizzical expression – is she always this--? – I nodded – yes, yes she is – then tipped her chin up in David's direction. "Sorry to, uh, steal your thunder," she said, smirking.

David shrugged, still grinning.

"What thunder?"

Summer smacked his arm and then held onto it for support again, looking up at the ceiling now, the expression on her face dazed and blissful.

"I can't believe this is happening," she breathed, shaking her head. "Finally."