Page 109 of Bad at Love
I immediately relax at the mention of a boyfriend, so much so that Laz’s brows twitch.
“Well I’m glad you managed to come, are you doing Disneyland and all that?”
She nods. “Yup. My boyfriend is back at the hotel, he’s so knackered after being at the park so I took a chance and came by myself. So glad I did, I was just buzzin’ to come to one of his shows.”
“I haven’t seen her since I was a teenager,” Laz says. “I even had to babysit her a few times.”
She laughs, high-pitched and girly. “You were rubbish at it too.”
Now that they mentioned babysitting, I can see that she is in fact quite younger than us.
“Well, I’m going to get a drink,” Samantha says.
“I’ll come with you,” Naomi says. “I’m Naomi, by the way,” she says with a head nod. They both walk off.
“What’s wrong?” Laz asks me as he bends down to give me a quick kiss.
“Nothing,” I say, pasting on a smile. “You were so amazing. Really. The more dancey, up-tempo songs were the right thing to do, people were so into it.”
“Good,” he says, still squinting at me. My god, heiswearing my eyeliner. “But something is up. I can read you like a book you know. If I didn’t know any better, you were worried about Samantha.”
I give him a dismissive wave. “Phhfff. Forget about it.”
“You looked relieved to hear she had a boyfriend.”
I give him a sharp look. “You really are observant, aren’t you?”
“Marina, come on.”
“Well what? I was watching you guys all night and she was totally hitting on you.”
“She wasn’t. She’s, like, twenty-two and I practically grew up next door to her. I was surprised to see her and she’s just happy to be here.”
“I know that now,” I tell him. “But from far away, it looked like she was getting all handsy with you.”
“Well she wasn’t.”
Hmmm. That was a quick denial to something undeniable.
“Naomi was going to go over there and kick her butt.”
He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, well I’m not surprised about that,” he grumbles. “Honestly, I don’t think you should listen to her much.”
“She’s my friend, of course I listen to her.”
“She’s paranoid and thinks all men are scum.” He pauses. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I trust you! I told her I trust you.”
“So then why get all weird about Samantha?”
“Because you’re, like, so much hotter than me.”
He bursts out laughing. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No.” Now I feel embarrassed. “And anyway, she was handsy. I don’t care if you knew her growing up, from over here it looked like she was hitting on you and you were welcoming it.”
“This is ridiculous,” he says with a sigh, rubbing his eyes, smudging his eyeliner.
