Skye and the City (A Romantic Comedy)

Chapter 10

Oh my god, this was it, wasn't it? Granny Annie's vision was finally coming true!

He settled down beside me, uninvited, but definitely not unwelcome. Because I was already catching the feels, and I didn't even know his name yet!

"Jay." He extended his hand as if reading my mind.

"Hey." I swallowed hard as goosebumps shot up my arm from a simple handshake.

His smile made me giddy. "This would be the part where you tell me your name?" He prompted me. He seemed unable to look away from me, which I completely understood as I felt exactly the same. He had also, I noticed, failed to let go of my hand.

I giggled bashfully. "I'm Skye," I half-whispered. My voice emerged as a croak, like I was channelling a frog, and I hurriedly cleared my throat. Smooth.

"Beautiful name for a beautiful girl," he said softly. Normally, a line like that would have made me cringe, but coming from his perfect pink lips . . . It felt right.

He felt right.

"Can I buy you a drink? More chips? Or how about a burger?" He asked eagerly. "If you're giving up on your Lenten vows, you might as well do it in style, right?"

"Just a drink would be lovely, thanks," I told him gratefully. "I've had a hellish day, and more wine is definitely required."

I immediately regretted saying this. I'd just met the guy, and I was already moaning? And not in the good way? Eddie used to tune out if I had a bad day and tried to tell him about it. I didn't want to scare Jay off immediately. You're meant to present your best self when you've just met your potential soul mate, after all - not the real-life whiny version you try to hide until you've suckered them in!

"Oh no!" He sounded sympathetic, much to my surprise. "What happened?"

He was so nice. So I filled him in on my disastrous day. I actually can't remember everything that went wrong on that particular day - I have a lot of days from hell, if I'm really honest - but it had culminated with me accidentally drowning my mobile phone in the staff toilet.

Jay was sweet and understanding, stroking my arm comfortingly as he listened to my tales of woe. And this morphed, of course, into more flirting.

Sparks flew. Lust raced through my veins. I can barely even recall what we were talking about, but we hardly stopped for breath . . . It's mostly a hazy blur of a memory, apart from the way he made me feel. Like when you just wake up from a dream you know was great, but the detail is already fading fast.

"I need to go soon," he said finally, reluctantly. (My brain dramatically screamed "Noooooooo", with those words.) "I'm actually with a friend, and we're going into Inverness to see a stand-up show."

"Where do you actually stay?" I asked curiously. I actually couldn't believe I hadn't thought to ask sooner. It was obvious he wasn't from around here, after all!

"Glasgow," he replied . . . And, with that response, it seemed that the stars had all finally aligned. Fortune was actually favouring Skye Templeton for possibly the first time in her life!

"Oh wow! I'm actually planning to move to Glasgow soon," I announced. I mean, technically, it was true! I had been talking about doing it for ages, even if I hadn't remotely started to put my plan into action. This was perfect, though!

His eyes lit up. "Really? I was wondering how we were going to make this work, so that's amazing!"

"Make what work?" I asked softly, wondering if I was misunderstanding. Was he really as instantly smitten as I was?