Page 29 of Midnight Kisses

Either way, it was hell.

“But what does a CEOdo?”

“I make sure the good ideas work, and stop the bad ones from fucking us.”

“I see.” After a minute she said, “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.”

She disappeared down the hall and I waited an age for her to return. When she did, her bag was slung over her shoulder and she was wearing sweats. I could see a scrap of her blue dress dangling out of where she’d stuffed it in her bag.

“Perry?”

“I appreciate your business advice, Miles.”

“Yeah, I’m a fucking genius. I know. Why are you dressed like you’re about to take off?”

She tilted her head then, and it was like a floodgate burst when I could identify this new expression.

It was remorse.

Fuck.

“Perry, hang on?—”

“We’re at totally different places in our lives, Miles. I had a nice time with you. But I have so much I want to achieve now, and I need to do it by myself. Because it’sformyself, you know?”

Every muscle in my body was locked, I was so tense. “I understand that. But for God’s sake, Perry, be smarter than you are proud. Accept whatever help you can get. That’s how shit gets done. Any opportunity? Seize it. Good advice? Take it. You have to choose if you want to cling to some imagined moral high ground, or you want to actually build this thing. I’m not saying don’t have ethics—don’t use child labour or avoid taxes or whatever. But you can be upstanding and ethical without fucking yourself over.”

She looked at me properly then, her heart in her eyes, her hands trembling as she clasped them in front of her.Perry was scared, I realised. Scared of this thing vibrating between us—potential, possibility,happiness.

That made two of us

“Miles, this is all too much.”

“I know.” I came out around the kitchen counter and put a hand on her arm. “Perry, sweetheart, I know. But?—”

She held up a hand, and I saw the square card she’d been clasping. “Please give Sadie this. I’d be glad of any contacts she sends through.”

I took it, studying the swirling Perry Skin logo with her name and contact on the back.

“This is just for Sadie’s use, not mine. Is that what you’re saying?”

Her eyebrows, a rich earth colour, bunched over her face. She had a light spread of freckles on her nose which I hadn’t been able to see in the lights at the party. I hadn’t even known they were there when I kissed her nose this morning, after she collapsed, boneless over my chest. There were so many things about her I was hungry to learn, and now I wouldn’t have the chance.

This was my first attempt at getting a girl to date me, and it was an even bigger failure than I could have imagined.

“I don’t think we would be a good idea, Miles.”

“Why?”

Damn, my chest was hurting. Probably another fucking feeling. What did violent devastation feel like? A heart attack? I had a sudden vivid recall of a scene in one of Sadie’s favourite shows, with a blonde person knee deep in a wishing well, scooping coins from the bottom of it and throwing them out, shouting,‘unwish, unwish!’

Too late, I realised that my search for bathroom girl hadn’t been unfairly hard, it had beencorrectlyhard. I wasn’t supposed to have found her, I wasn’t supposed to feel like this.

And I couldn’t unwish it.

CHAPTER 10

PERRY

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