Page 58 of The Lucky Escape

I turned back and flashed a smile at him. Alone in my room I replayed exactly what had just happened. How hard my heart had beat before I said I was going to kiss him, where the tips of his fingers had caressed as he’d kissed my mouth, my neck, my chest, how giving in to what I’d been feeling was a victory and surrender, all at once. I drifted to sleep committing every detail of it to memory.

27

I woke up beaming inanely, and desperate to tell Kezza what had happened. I couldn’t believe Patrick and I had kissed. Not even kissed –made out.I was a grown woman who did not need to run back to her group of girls to unpack what that all meant, like a teenager trying to figure out if her crush was going to ask her to the end-of-term dance. Except …

Kezza,I typed into my phone.I wish the time difference meant you weren’t always asleep when I’m awake, and that I wasn’t always awake when you’re asleep. I have things to say!!

I started typing out the ins and outs since she’d coached me on the phone, but it was hard to know where the story actually started and what my point was. I thought about it. The point was, Patrick and I made out, and now I was lying in bed the morning after the night before trying to decide how to play it when I came out of the bedroom. He would, inevitably, be sat eating breakfast in his underwear, just as he was every morning.

Underwear that contained quite the excitable beast, too, if last night was anything to go by.

I deleted everything I’d typed in the text box to Kezza and replaced it with:Patrick and I kissed. I am freaking out because … I liked it??? But also: omfg??? I wish I could talk to you!!

I added:Nothing further happened, we just kissed. He kisses like you hope to be kissed. I’m obsessed. I had to … you know … relieve myself (!!!) once we’d said goodnight!

‘Annie?’

Patrick’s voice came through from the lounge area, but it sounded like he was approaching my room.

I pulled the bedsheets around me for protection – from what, I don’t know. I cleared my throat and tried to sound as neutral as possible as I replied, ‘Yes?’

There was a soft tap on the door.

‘Can I come in?’

Patrick pushed open the bedroom door and, true to form, was in his underwear and an open dressing gown.

‘Morning,’ I said, distracted by how good he looked. His hair was stuck up on end, and his eyes were still sleepy and small. I wanted to reach out and pull him into bed with me. ‘You okay?’

He nodded sagely. Making eye contact made my stomach lurch.

‘I have something to say, and I could have waited until you were up but …’

Oh God. Was he going to tell me it was all a mistake? That we were about to spend the next six days in the most self-conscious, awkward, embarrassed way possible? I wished I could recall my text to Kezza. The only thing worse than explaining that we’d made out would be explaining that afterwards I got rejected becauseNEWSFLASH!no man wants me! It’s hilarious I ever thought they could! I’m not the woman men ever fancy!

I waited for the blow to come.

‘I just wanted to see your face,’ he continued, ‘when I told you that …’

I wished he’d bloody hurry up and spit it out.

‘You sent your text to me instead of one of your friends. You freaked out at me instead of Kezza.’

I instantly leapt across the bed to pick up my phone and open it to the screen I’d just been writing on. At the top of the thread it didn’t say Kezza. It said Patrick. I’d been thinking about Patrick and so I’d texted Patrick.

‘Gah!’ I squealed, pulling the covers up to my face to hide myself from a level of mortification that might actually kill me. I could hear his laughter through the sheets.

‘No!’ I insisted. ‘Noooooo!’

His laughter came closer and his weight sank into the bottom of the bed.

‘Permission to enter?’ he said, and his face peeked under the sheet from the other side of the bed.

‘I can’t believe I texted you and not Kezza. That’s so humiliating. Forget everything it said,please.’

‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Come on. Now you’ve got me in your bed, so at least some good came of it … Or did you need some more special alone time?’

Why had I told Kezza I’d masturbated? PATRICK NOW KNEW I’D HAD A WANK OVER THE THOUGHT OF US SNOGGING.

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