Chapter 14 #2
‘Oh, that’s Jasmine, Luca’s cousin,’ I said, grabbing Jacob’s hand and navigating a safe path through the crowd.
‘Figures, with those cheekbones. Honestly, what is with the genes in that family?’ Jacob muttered, sounding half-impressed, half-irritated.
‘You made it! Luca said he’d invited you, but he wasn’t sure if you were going to come,’ Jasmine cried as we eventually emerged through a scrum of lads wielding Coronas, jumping to her feet and pulling me in for a hug. ‘And wow, you look a-mazing!’
‘Mhmm, doesn’t she?’ Jacob mumbled under his breath, raising an I-told-you-so eyebrow at me.
‘Well, you’ve only ever seen me in last night’s clothes with crazy bedhead, so I feel like the only way was up.’ I laughed nervously, letting my hair fall in front of my face.
‘Wait, what’s this about last night’s clothes?’ Jacob’s head appeared at my shoulder and I bit my tongue, forgetting I hadn’t told him or Alice about my accidental sleepover at Luca’s.
‘How rude of me. Jasmine, this is Jacob. Jacob, Jasmine,’ I said quickly, thrusting Jacob forwards in the hope that he wouldn’t ask any more questions.
‘I’m the best friend,’ Jacob announced, his hand hovering in the space between them. Jasmine ignored it, placing her tiny hands on his shoulders and planting a kiss on either cheek.
‘I’m the cousin,’ she declared, before producing two glasses of wine as if from nowhere. ‘And the fun one,’ she whispered with a wink, pressing them into mine and Jacob’s hands.
‘A girl after my own heart,’ Jacob whooped with delight, raising the glass to his lips and taking a long sip. ‘I like this one, Jenny, we can keep her.’
Jasmine hooted with laughter, several men in the immediate vicinity shamelessly ogling her, not that she noticed. She flicked her long, black hair over one shoulder and gestured for us to sit.
‘I read your article about the community centre the other day,’ Jasmine said, her kohl-lined eyes closing briefly before flashing open with that same intensity that I recognised in Luca.
‘You clearly have a talent for writing, Jenny, just like my cousin.’ She turned and nodded in the direction of the stage.
I followed her gaze, my stomach doing a little somersault when I realised that the music I’d been tapping my foot along to was Luca’s.
He was stood in the middle of the stage, guitar slung over one shoulder on a worn leather strap, the smile of someone doing what they were born to do stretched wide across his face.
‘You seem to make a great team, you and Luca,’ Jasmine commented, her eyes creasing in a way that made me wonder whether Luca had told her about Joe.
‘Don’t they just,’ Jacob agreed, batting his eyelashes innocently at me across the table. I crossed my ankles, taking a sip of my wine to resist the urge to kick him under the table. If his jeans weren’t dry clean only, he might not have been so lucky.
The evening passed in a rosé-filled blur, the sun dipping further and further behind the horizon before it disappeared altogether.
I slowly found myself relaxing, laughter bubbling freely out of me as though it had been contained for too long and was finally spilling over.
It was so natural that I couldn’t help but think how different I felt, sat on that uneven wooden bench with a folded-up coaster wedged under one leg.
I felt light and almost whole, not weighed down or ripped apart like I had for most of this year.
‘This final song’s for anyone out there who’s ever had their heart broken,’ Luca breathed into the microphone, his fingers picking lightly across the strings of his guitar as he spotted me in the crowd.
He blinked, a look of surprise flashing across his face for the briefest of seconds before softening into a smile that made my insides fizz.
He held my gaze as he started to sing and I found I couldn’t look away, everything and everyone around me seeming to fade.
You promised we’d stick it out through thick and thin,
But then the walls came down, my world’s tumbling in,
And I’m left picking up the pieces of this mess you made,
You left my heart all broken and frayed.
The hum of the crowd had quietened, heads turning towards the stage, shoulders swaying as they listened to the words that hit so deep inside me it was as though Luca had seen inside my very soul.
When I smell your perfume on a stranger in the street,
My heart breaks in two, it forgets to beat,
I thought all love ever did was break and end,
But on the Monday when I met you .?.?.
Luca’s breath echoed down the microphone as he paused, just long enough for his eyes – heavy with too many emotions to name – found mine once more.
.?.?. I watched it begin again.
Luca’s fingers strummed with finality across the strings, everyone around me jumping to their feet as the crowd broke out into rapturous applause.
But I couldn’t move. My heart was thumping in my chest as if I’d just run a marathon, my fingers gripping the edge of the table as my brain whirred into rewind, a rush of speeded-up colours and memories as I flicked back to that day.
The day I’d first met Luca. I was on my way to work so it had to be a weekday.
But was it a Monday ? Even if it was, it didn’t mean it was that Monday.
The one Luca was talking about. Statistically, in fact, it was highly unlikely.
‘You OK?’ Jacob mouthed at me when he saw I was the only one still seated.
I nodded with a smile, jumping to my feet before he could put two and two together. I reached for my wine glass, downing its contents in one, but I’d misjudged quite how much was left and a trickle of wine escaped out the corner of my mouth, running down my chin.
‘Hi,’ came a familiar voice behind me.
I swallowed audibly, quickly wiping my chin on the neckline of my t-shirt before spinning around.
Only I forgot I was still stood in the gap between the table and the connecting bench, the wood slamming into my shins as my top half buckled over.
My cheek landed hard against Luca’s chest, his hands gripping the bare skin of my arms to cushion my fall.
‘Woah, easy there. People might think you’re falling for me, Thompson,’ Luca teased, the left side of his mouth curling upwards.
I straightened up, but not before I felt his heart thumping against my ear, beating double time in tandem with my own.
I suddenly didn’t know where to look, faffing about with tucking my hair behind my ear even though it was already there.
Luca dipped his mouth closer to me so I could hear him better over the crowd.
‘I’m glad you came.’ His voice was low. Husky.
‘Me too.’
‘What did you think of the set?’
I nodded enthusiastically, giving a dorky thumbs up which instantly made my cheeks warm with regret.
But I didn’t know how to articulate it. That feeling of having witnessed someone perfectly express how I’d been feeling for so long.
Luca opened his mouth as if to say something else, but another band had already taken to the stage, the sound of an electric guitar playing the opening bars of Kings of Leon’s ‘Sex on Fire’ sending everyone flocking onto the dance floor.
‘Ohmygod, I love this song!’ Jacob squealed with delight, grabbing my hand and dragging me along after him.
I looked back helplessly and saw that Jasmine had done the same to Luca, whose protests she either couldn’t hear or was choosing to ignore as she pushed him after us.
We found a small circle of space among the throng of bodies, Jacob jumping on the spot in time with the beat.
As the chorus kicked in, he grabbed both my wrists, raising them skywards as he sang up at the stars like they were paid spectators at his own concert.
He dropped to one knee, performing some sort of air guitar solo, much to the delight of the surrounding crowd.
I giggled, feeling any remaining tension melt away, my hips loosening as they started to sway in time with the music.
At first Luca and I were on opposite sides of the tiny circle that our group had formed, but the space between us got smaller and smaller with each new song and it wasn’t long before my hips were bumping against his, skin sparking against skin as our arms touched.
I stumbled slightly as someone tried to push their way past, but Luca steadied me, his hand against my hipbone.
And suddenly, we were no longer just dancing.
We were dancing together , his hand still on my hip, mine finding its way to his shoulder.
It felt right, natural even, our bodies moving as one as if we didn’t even have to think about it.
It was becoming harder to concentrate on what song was playing, where Jacob was, anything that wasn’t the feeling of Luca’s hand against the dimples at the base of my spine.
A gentle yet firm pressure that made me want to press my body even closer against his, to take his little finger – which was brushing against the bare skin above the waistband of my skirt – between my teeth and see if he tasted like he smelt. Warm and spicy, like aged leather.
People started to drift apart around us, limbs stilling by their sides, and I realised with a surge of disappointment that the song was over.
Luca took a small step back, his hand falling from my hip as he swept his curls out of his face.
But then his mouth was against the sensitive bit of skin behind my ear, his breath sending shivers down my spine.
‘Do you want to get some air?’