Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
“Hello.”
“Yvonne, it’s Dylan.” His deep voice sounded scratchy through the old phone that had probably been installed in the eighties. “Can we come up?”
“Sure, I’ll buzz you in now,” I replied cheerily before pressing the button to open the door.
Glancing over at Ev, I noticed her chewing her lip and suppressed a smile. She was nervous, which was expected. She and Dylan had been an item when they were teenagers. Tragedy cut their budding relationship short and I was hopeful that perhaps they’d rekindle things now that they were both living in the same city.
I went to grab my handbag while Ev opened the door to greet Dylan and Conor. I listened to their friendly hellos as I emerged from my room, tucking my bag over my shoulder.
“Hi everyone,” I said, smiling widely at Dylan before my attention went to the man beside him. My heartbeat stuttered, my smile momentarily wavering, before I gathered my composure. Wow. Gone was the gangly, glasses wearing nineteen year old boy I’d known. Conor had grown even taller, his shoulders broader, his once shaggy, curly hair cut short. The barest hint of a five o’clock shadow darkened his angular jaw, his rich brown skin smooth and flawless. He wore jeans and a shirt with a casual navy jacket and I had to will my heart to slow down.
Again, wow.
I’d expected he’d changed but I hadn’t expected he’d have changed this much.
“Dylan, it’s good to see you again. And C-Conor, it’s been a long time,” I finally managed, casting a quick look to Ev to show my shock at his transformation.
“Too long,” Conor said in a voice much deeper than I remembered. “Hello, Yvonne.”
He gazed at me confidently, observing me in a way that made my skin prickle with heat.
My brain was yelling at me to shake his hand or something but I was too overwhelmed to move. And that was how we found ourselves staring at one another for a beat too long. I sensed him studying me, just as I had been studying him, though I doubted he was as impressed with what he saw.
I took care of myself, worked out, ate well, and slept eight hours every night. I even spent a sinful amount of money on skincare, but that didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t in my twenties anymore. I was certain it showed in the laugh lines around my eyes and the few extra pounds I carried in my stomach and hips. Not that I had to worry about being found attractive by him. It wasn’t like I was out here trying to catch the eye of a thirty year old who for all I knew was married with kids. Though saying that, I couldn’t see a ring.
Oh, Yvonne, stop that right now.
Besides, even if he was single, he was no longer confined to our little community back in Dublin, where the only person to crush on was his friendly older neighbour. Now he lived in a bustling metropolis where there were beautiful, eligible women hanging around every corner.
“Well, let’s get going, shall we?” Ev said, breaking the quiet and I tore my eyes away from Conor.
“We have a taxi waiting outside,” Dylan replied.
A little less than half an hour later we found ourselves in an Irish pub that was so over the top kitschy it made me feel a little homesick. There was lots of green décor and shamrocks everywhere. Like being stuck in an eternal Paddy’s Day.
Conversation flowed as we drank pints of Guinness and ate some surprisingly decent pub grub. My skin prickled with awareness every time Conor’s eyes fell on me, and it must’ve been the alcohol because I could’ve sworn there was a flicker of interest there.
No. I was just seeing what my loneliness and two year dry spell wanted me to see.
I seriously needed to sober up and get my head on straight. He didn’t see me like he used to. How could he? Sure, I wasn’t bad looking in my day, but it was no longer my day. I could count on one hand the number of times someone flirted with me in the past year and I worked in a nightclub. It should’ve been a lot more frequent than that. My bartenders were flirted with constantly. Ev had only been at the club for a few weeks and flirtations from punters were a nightly occurrence.
Then again, it wasn’t like I was out working the bar. I spent most of my time holed up in my office.
Speaking of Ev, she and Dylan were chatting away on the other side of the table. I could see how they were already slipping back into that comfort zone with one another. The spark was certainly still alive between them. My heart ached as I watched them, because I never had that kind of connection with anyone. Those two were magnetized. Even people sitting on the other side of the pub could see it.