When we got into my car and I reminded her to buckle up, she rolled her eyes. “You’re such a loser, Eli. It’s always ‘buckle up, buckle up’.”
I shook my head, not understanding her logic.
“Only losers don’t wear their seat belt. Ye’ve no idea how many scenes I’ve been to that someone could have survived if only they were wearin’ one.”
Bailey didn’t reply, instead she buckled her seat belt.
“I can’t even believe I’m doin’ this,” I grumbled as I put the car in reverse. I put my hand on the back of Bailey’s headrest and looked over my shoulder as I backed out of the driveway. “Of all things in the world she wanted to do with me, why does it have to be this?”
“Don’t be such a bloke,” Bailey said, her tone clipped. “Ye love Noah, and she never told ye she wanted to do this, she told me and I told you.”
“Still,” I sighed, putting the car in first gear. “Dance lessons. I’m feckin’ dreadin’ it.”
“Not just any dance lessons.” Bailey shimmied her shoulders. “Salsa lessons.”
I glanced at her as we drove. She looked entirely happy about salsa lessons, and it irked me.
“You’re enjoyin’ this, aren’t ye?”
“More than ye’ll ever know, big brother.”
I snorted. “She better appreciate this – she bleedin’ well better.”
It was mine and Noah’s three-year anniversary, and up until a few weeks ago I’d had no idea what to do for it. Noah didn’t like bags, jewellery or shoes. I had more clothes and runners than she did. The only thing she actively bought was make-up, but I’d checked her dressing table in our bedroom and she was stocked up on everything. Apparently, Superdrug had a half-off sale and she’d gone a bit mad on her way home from work recently, which left me with limited options as to what to get her as a present.
I was stuck, until I happened to mention it to my sister, who then told me that Noah had mentioned that she wanted to take dance lessons with me for fun, but had never told me because she thought I’d say no. She thought right – I would have said no . . . but I’d let my kid sister bully me into arranging four weeks’ worth of lessons beginning on the afternoon of our third anniversary.
Today.
“Ye know she’ll be happy with anythin’ ye get her, Eli,” Bailey said. “Noah is so in love with you that if ye picked wildflowers for her, she’d be over the moon.”
I smiled. “I know. She’s smitten with me, right?”
“Right.” My sister chuckled. “But you’re equally as smitten with her. I still can’t believe ye asked the first girl ye’ve ever liked to be your girlfriend. I didn’t think ye had it in ye.”
“Ha ha.” I grinned when Bailey laughed. “Ye should learn from me. I knew what I wanted and went for it with Noah. There was no point in beatin’ around the bush when I knew she was my one.”
“How did ye know though?” Bailey asked, turning her body slightly to face me. “Was it love at first sight?”
“Love? No. Lust? Yep.”
“Ew! I’m fourteen, don’t talk to me about how ye sex up Noah. She’s practically me sister.”
She sounded revolted at the very thought.
“Let me finish,” I laughed. “I saw her before she saw me. It was me first day in school the week after we moved here, and she was sittin’ on the basketball court outside – she was readin’ a book and eatin’ an apple. I wasn’t sure what caught me eye first, how captivated she was by what she was readin’ or how her hair seemed to shine like gold as the sun hit it. Either way, I was instantly attracted to her . . . and because I had no clue what to do about it, I ignored her for the first few days at school.”
“That was almost poetic until ye got to the end, dumbarse.”
I shook my head, amused.
“She liked me too, but I didn’t realise it,” I continued. “I caught her lookin’ at me a few times, and when I started to pal around with AJ and realised she was his friend too, I started to plan ahead.”
“What’d ye do?” my sister quizzed. “Bully her until she loved ye?”
“What the hell? No. That’s toxic, Bailey. No boy will treat ye like shite if he truly likes ye . . . If one ever does, tell me and I’ll kill him.”
“Yeah, yeah, continue with your story.”
“There’s not a whole lot to it. We were friends and we grew closer; we had a bonfire on me eighteenth birthday and I kissed her that night. We started casually datin’, then I asked her to be me girlfriend a few months later. We haven’t looked back since.”
“That’s like a Wattpad story . . . except nothin’ dramatic happened before ye both got together. It’s a little anticlimactic, I won’t lie.”