No Reservations (A Romantic Comedy)

Chapter 14

1998

Did I sleep in Ryan Thorne's shirt the night of the barbecue? Of course not, don't be ridiculous!

Did I hold the shirt against me and inhale his scent as I drifted off to sleep though? Again, no.

But also, yes.

I debated whether I could get away with keeping it. He might not even notice it was missing. But he'd looked so damn good in it that it felt a shame to deprive him the opportunity to wear it again.

Plus, that devious little voice inside my head reminded me, it would be a great excuse to see him again.

And that, ultimately, was what convinced me to return it. It was the right thing to do.

I was such a good person.

I summoned up my courage. I layered my lashes in mascara. I added a push-up bra (I was already pretty well set in the boobs department, but it was the 90s and Pammy A was our role model back then so it was always a case of the bigger the better. I didn't know if Ryan was a breast man or not but it felt safer to play the odds.) I obviously added other clothes on top; a short top sporting a love heart logo and a pair of Wrangler Roxanne jeans. Very on-trend for the decade, I can assure you.

You wouldn't have believed the weather of yesterday had actually happened. The sunshine had been short lived and the rain was pissing it down as I ran across the road. I was glad I hadn't bothered to straighten my hair after my shower because it was already soaked through.

Lena answered the door. "Iona, hi! To what do we owe the pleasure?" She was just so nice.

I felt awkward all of a sudden. I held the top up. "I just came over to return Ryan's shirt," I mumbled. I felt like I was there under false pretences, and who was to say he was even in anyway.  "Do you mind passing it to him?"

"Come on in!" She exclaimed. "You can return it yourself in person." I'm not entirely sure she didn't have an ulterior motive herself there; there was a strange gleam in her eyes. "Ryan," she called, leading me up the stairs. "You have a visitor."

I felt a little sick with nerves, my mouth suddenly dry. He's your friend, I reminded myself. Just be cool.

Ryan was sitting in the middle of his bed, apparently ignoring the half-unpacked boxes around him while he read a book. He glanced up when we appeared at the open door and when he focused on me that dazzling grin lit his entire face. My heart clenched tightly inside my (slightly inflated) chest. "Hey Iona!"

All I did in response was wave his shirt at him like an absolute fucking moron. "I brought this back," I eventually mumbled in explanation. His smile didn't dim. If anything, it got brighter.

"I'll leave you to it." Lena headed back downstairs while I took a step closer.

"Sorry," I belatedly realised. "I should probably have got it washed before I returned it."

"It's no bother." He stood up and took the shirt from my outstretched hand, lifting it to his nose. "It smells like you now," he observed. And there was that blush edging up his sharp cheekbones once more. How utterly adorable.

It was comments - and reactions - like those, over the course of that year, that would often have me wondering over and over if he did think of me as more than a friend.

"What are you up to?" He asked next. "Do you want to hang out for a bit?"

I glanced around the room. My eyes drifting over the bedside table where his glasses and several other books sat. Scanning the boxes with clothes, and more books, and VHS videos spilling out. "You're not just trying to trick me into helping you unpack, are you?" I asked suspiciously.

He laughed. "I would chance my arm, but I'd be worried you'd end up unpacking my underwear by accident. Oh good lord!" He clapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes bulging in horror. "Please forget I said that."

Suddenly I couldn't stop laughing. Ryan's handsome face was the colour of a tomato by now. I absolutely loved his lack of filter at times.

Although I was now thinking about his underwear, which wasn't ideal. I had another quick glance around the room for a distraction. "Argh, you have a PlayStation?" I asked in delight. Of course that was already set up and good to go, in amongst all the chaos. I loved computer games.

"We can play something if you like?" He said eagerly, moving over to the console and TV and gesturing for me to follow. We chose a game, and settled down on the floor on pillows to metaphorically kick each other's arses.

We must have sat there for at least three or four hours, laughing and joking and competing to see who ultimately was the better player. Eventually Lena called Ryan down for dinner and we reluctantly gave up on our gaming.

"So who won overall?" Ryan asked, rising to his feet and then taking my hand to pull me up too. My hand in his felt so right. I had to remind myself, once again, that he only thought of me as a friend. My palm tingled as he let me go.

"I'm pretty sure it was me," I said decisively.

"You wish," he scoffed, but those bright blue eyes were twinkling with good humour. "There's only thing for it; we'll need to have a re-match."

My heart leapt in joy. He wanted me to come back? "You're on," I said, forcing myself to sound casual. "When?"

"You free tomorrow?" He asked, and I nodded. Play it cool, Iona.

And I guess that's how our friendship truly began. Because from that point we ended up hanging out pretty much every day for the rest of the summer holidays. Then, when we returned to school, we discovered we had several subjects in common even though we didn't share any classes, so it made sense to buddy up and study together too. Occasionally we'd even walk to school together, although Ryan tended to sleep later than me and more often than not had to leave the house in a last minute rush.

I loved the extra time I had with him. I felt like all the other girls saw him as the school stud, but when I was with him in private I got to see the side of him that they didn't. Part of him, at least, was once again my secret. Around me he was still Ryan 1.0.

My Ryan 1.0.

Whenever we hung out, we spoke about pretty much anything and everything.  He confided in me more about his mum and dad and their separation, which was soon to be a divorce. I told him my worries about going to uni and how I was scared I wouldn't fit in, after years of having the same group of friends. We spoke about our hopes and dreams.

The one thing we never talked about?

Our love lives.

Not until the Valentine's weekend house party, anyway.

Felt like another trip back to the nineties was in order!

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