Now Or Never by Stella Rhys
35
HOLLAND
I wokeup a little past nine the next morning.
Unsurprisingly, Iain had already been up. He’d probably been for hours. I could hear him talking quietly out in the living room right now, and I assumed he was on a work call. But then I heard Mia’s laugh.
Oh my God.
I rushed outside to see them sitting at the little square table between the kitchen and the living room, which technically counted as our whole dining room.
Mia was in a David Bowie hoodie and leggings. Iain in his Empires T-shirt and sweats.
Wow.
It was a remarkably cute scene.
Especially when they both turned at the same time and smiled at me. But then they laughed, probably because I looked very confused by the fact that Mia was drinking out of a shot glass.
Mia looked down at it.
“Oh. This is coffee,” she said, holding up the little glass. “And it’s amazing. Have you tried this? He made it.”
I paused, my eyes processing enough to let my sense of smell pick up the scent of fresh coffee. And then I realized that Iain had made his famous cafezinho. When I cocked my head curiously at him, he cracked a smile.
“I went out for a walk after I woke up. Found a coffee place that had something I could use.”
I blinked. “How long have you been up?”
“Since five,” he replied.
“Mm-hm. Imagine my surprise, Holland, when I woke up to the smell of coffee this morning and found this man in my kitchen.”
I burst out laughing because Mia’s voice was casual and pleasant, but she was staring at me unblinkingly in an attempt to convey the true shock she’d experienced this morning.
“Man. Sorry I was just sleeping like a rock,” I said, sitting at the end of the couch. “So… what have you guys been talking about?”
Mia answered in singsong. “Oh, nothing. Iain’s just telling me about your plans today.”
I cocked my head at him. “Which are?”
His eyes glimmered on me as he shrugged. “Whatever you want to do,” he said. “We can do what you originally planned or we can just hang out here. But I canceled most of my meetings for tomorrow and I only have a few calls to make. So we don’t have to rush. We can just take it easy and relax.”
“Huh.” I raised my eyebrows, trying to control just how big I grinned because I could feel Mia’s barely-contained giddiness as she watched me. “Never thought I’d hear you say those words,” I said to Iain, making him crack a smile.
“Yeah, well. You tend to get things out of me,” he said, his voice light but a look in his eyes that told me I’d be getting all his truth today. Everything I’d ever wanted to know.
But for the next few hours, we just sat with Mia and talked. About his job. Her job. The dirt on her coworkers. The scoop on his clients, and which of them he could realistically set her up with.
It wasn’t the most serious conversation, but it was a good laugh, and the whole time, I just sat back, pretending that this was just my life. Sitting around my apartment with my amazing best friend and the unbelievably beautiful man in my life. All of us just casually chatting and laughing. Having a good time. But then I broke into a big grin about an hour in, because that was when it struck me that I wasn’t pretending.
That this was actually mine.
