Page 23 of Christmas Romance Galore!
I rolled my thoughts around my head. Was honesty always the best policy? Not in my experience.
“It’s just... don’t you think you’re rushing into it a bit with Melanie? You haven’t known each other that long, and there’s Heath to consider.”
Nicola smiled. “And now you’re sounding like my mum whose response was exactly that.” She looked me in the eye. “But Melanie asked, and sometimes, if something feels right, you just have to take the leap and take a chance. I’m a big believer in that. I took a chance on Callum, but it didn’t work. I’m going to give me and Melanie my best shot.”
It didn’t sound like the ideal premise for a marriage.
“Have you set a date yet?” I was keeping my voice calm despite the fact my insides were jangling.
“New Year’s Eve,” she said, before holding up her hands. “And I know what you’re going to say — it’s too quick. But when you find the right person, why wait?”
The bullet entered my heart with a direct hit. I felt winded, like I was suddenly stranded on a peninsular, with the wind whipping up and the rain closing in. New Year’s Eve? That was less than a month away.
“That is quick. Are you sure you’re not pregnant again?”
She gave me a look, and now it really was just like old times.
“Can you even get a place to get married at such short notice?”
She waved a hand. “It’s not going to be a big do. We’re doing registry office and then back to Melanie’s parents’ house for the reception.” She shrugged. “We’ve both done the big do before, so this will be smaller.”
I tried to hold Nicola’s gaze.
However, she dropped hers to the table, before taking a deep breath. “Melanie, though — she’s great, right?”
She wanted validation of Melanie from me. I searched my brain for something to say.
“She’s definitely a one-off,” I said.
Nicola smiled. “A one-off. I like that.” She paused and placed her hand on my arm. “And you’re invited to the wedding, of course.”
I jumped at the contact — where Nicola Sheen was concerned, I was still 16.
She squeezed. “And of course, you’re welcome to bring a plus one. Did you say you were seeing someone?” She turned to me and her gaze fell from my eyes, to my lips, then back up again.
My stomach dropped. I shook my head reluctantly. “Not really. I’m dating, but nobody special.” I didn’t take my eyes off her the whole time, and she didn’t budge either.
A warning bell rang in my head, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t misreading the signals.
Nicola Sheen might be marrying Melanie Taylor, but right there, she wanted to kiss me.
She licked her lips again, and my breath caught in my throat.
I checked my watch. I still had another two hours till I had to meet my date.
“Do you fancy another coffee?”
She flicked her almond eyes back up. “Love one,” she replied, a smile playing on her lips.
My date with Spanish Vixen that evening wasn’t going to be easy. I’d only left Nicola Sheen an hour ago and my emotions were exhausted after the extended workout she’d given them — first loves will do that to you. Plus, Jenny was still a fresh, slightly queasy memory.
I don’t know how players do it. I’d only slept with one woman this week and gone for drinks with another, and already I was a multi-tasking failure. As every lesbian knows, keeping one woman happy is hard enough, let alone two or three.
Nicola and I had finished three cups of coffee before she left to meet Melanie for dinner in town, hence I now had a caffeine headache hanging on my brain. The topics had got progressively lighter with each coffee, but I was still stunned she was planning to get married this month, even if her body language was telling me she wasn’t ready. This was a new side to Nicola, and one I wasn’t particularly in love with.
Logically, I supposed there would be a lot of sides to Nicola that wouldn’t exactly thrill me in the present day, but I was still stuck on Nicola Sheen, circa High School. She was a hard habit to break.
I had two friends who’d got married in the past year because they thought it was ‘time’ and they wanted their life to run to the schedule they’d set in their heads. “I have to be married by the time I’m 28, and my first baby is due at 31,” one had told me. When I’d asked them about true love and finding their soulmate, they’d looked at me like I was speaking a language they’d never heard of. “That’s all very lovely, Tori,” the other had said, shaking her head. “But I live in the real world, on real time schedules. If you want your life to run to order, you have to look at what you’ve got, decide if you can live with it and then act or make a change.”
