Page 74 of By the Fae

“Me too.”

“But . . .”

“But?”

“We have an audience.” I leant to the left. Holly spun her head around at whiplash speed. Sugar Paste and Taur had returned, and were sitting opposite us, sipping drinks, and whispering to each other. They paused, and Sugar Paste waved.

“Don’t stop on our account,” she said, then immediately affected conversation with her mate, though peeking out the corner of her eye.

I turned back to Holly. “Do you want to come back to mine tonight? We can continue making out on my bed?”

She was already getting to her feet.

“Oh, are we leaving so soon?” Sugar Paste said, trying and failing to wipe the ridiculous smile from her face.

We walked the ten minutes back to my apartment. In reality, it took closer to forty-five. I kept pausing to push Holly up against a shop window, a tram-stop, behind a dumpster, for another snogging sesh. Sugar Paste and Taur marched approximately a hundred feet ahead, huffing because we’d stopped,again, and neither of the idiots had brought their keys.

“Do you think you’re ready for sex yet?” I asked, my tongue on her neck, her fingers digging into the hair at my navel. I’d sat her on the wall of the Central Eastside Bridge. The waters glittered beneath us, and the humid summer night had glued our clothing to our backs.

“Um,” she said.

That was a no in my books.

“I’ll wait, baby girl.” I couldn’t help myself from kissing her again. “Plus, there’s something else I want to show you.”

“I hate to rush you guys,” Taur called out from somewhere ahead of us. “But Peaches is going to piss her pants if you don’t hurry up.”

Back at the apartment, we didn’t head straight to my bedroom. Well, I stopped off there, just to pick up my duvet, and then I took Holly up one more floor. To the roof garden of the Halcyon Sunrise building.

As far as roof gardens went, it was an underwhelming space. A few pots with some shrubby flowery things; a tiny, raised veg garden, which belonged to Treave in flat 11B though everybody helped themselves to; and a huge cannabis plant, which nobody took ownership of, and everybody still helped themselves to. In the centre were a few stolen pub benches, and pushed right up to the east ledge, were two sun-loungers. Slightly rusted springs and usually rain-logged cushions. But it had been dry for a few days. A chance worth taking.

So yes, a disappointing garden, but as far as green spaces in inner city Remy went, it was a tropical oasis.

I patted a lounger, testing it for dampness. Dry enough. I pushed them together and unfurled the duvet over them.

Holly walked up to the ledge. Eyes wide and glittering with the cityscape. Her mouth opened. I think she made to say “wow”, but no sound came out as she drank in everything from left to right. Everything East of our apartment was visible from up there. The docks, the piers, the ocean. Even the lighthouse out on Kelpie Island.

“Goldie!” She said it like she was telling me off. “I’ve been coming to yours every weekend for five weeks and this is the first time you’ve brought me up here?”

“I’m sorry.” I pulled back the duvet and patted the probably dry enough cushion. She sat down, kicked off her boots, and pushed her legs under. “I thought if I brought you up here, it might make you like me.”

She was quiet for a few moments, staring at me. For some reason, I couldn’t meet her eyes, so I gazed out into the sprawling, twinkling city.

“You don’t mind if I like you now?”

“No. I do mind. I need you to not like me. I’m a prick, Holly. You should know that already.”

“You’re not a . . . prick.” Under the cover, she grabbed my hand in hers.

“Yuh-huh. Am too. Wouldn’t be able to say it if it wasn’t the truth.”

Holly laughed, and my heart tripped over itself. If I were a video game character, I would have just lost a life. I had two left before Game Over.

“I can see my new apartment.”

“I know. That’s why I brought you up here.”

She nestled her head against my arm.

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