27 - "To three weeks in Hell."

128K 4.9K 920
                                    

Chapter 27 - "To three weeks in Hell."

The day I'd been dreading had arrived. Well, maybe dreading was too strong a word, but I certainly wasn't looking forward to spending three weeks without Nathan. I was used to seeing him every day and, when you're used to seeing someone every day, three weeks suddenly seems like a really long period of time.  

"It's nothing if you think about it," Jess was saying over lunch.  

Nathan had football practice. He'd originally said he was going to skip it so he could spend more time with me—we'd been almost inseparable these last few days—but I'd insisted that one lunch wouldn't make a difference. I didn't want to be one of those clingy girlfriends who stopped her boyfriend from doing the things he enjoyed.  

"It's still three weeks," I replied to Jess. "I'm used to seeing him every day." 

"Well, you won't be seeing him every day when you're at university," she pointed out.  

I sighed. "Well, yeah, I know...but..." 

"But what?" 

"Uni is months away. We'll probably be sick of spending so much time around each other by then." 

"I'm surprised he didn't ask you to go with him." 

I laughed slightly, stirring my soup and shaking my head simultaneously. "He wouldn't have done that." 

"Why not?" 

"Too short notice. Meeting the parents is one thing...going abroad to meet the parents? That's a huge deal. Plus it'd mean dragging me away from my own family at Christmas. Maybe if we'd been going out for longer...but not now, not yet." 

"It'll make you stronger," she told me. "You're seeing him tonight, I assume?" 

"Yeah. We're having dinner at his. He's cooking." 

"That sounds nice. What's he cooking?" 

"Not sure. But it'll be something Italian. He only ever cooks Italian things." 

"Do you reckon you're going to sleep together?" she asked bluntly, raising her eyebrows in curiosity. For someone so polite, Jess didn't tend to have qualms when it came to sexual discussions.  

I shrugged. "Doubt it. I just want to spend a quality evening with him. If it happens then it happens...but I'm not going to risk ruining the evening due to my poor seduction attempts." 

Jess laughed at that. "I'm sure the evening will be perfect." 

-  

I really wanted the evening to be perfect, which is why I spent ages agonising over what to wear. We were staying in, but I still wanted to look good for Nathan so that he had a decent memory of me while in Italy. He was making the effort to cook a meal for us, so I wanted to make the effort to look nice.  

I settled on a black dress, which had a relatively low-cut neckline and flowed to mid-thigh. I wore ballet pumps with it, though, so I didn't look too dressy. After all, this was an evening in, not an expedition to a fancy restaurant.  

Mum, apparently, didn't share the same opinion about my level of dressiness.  

"I thought you were eating at Nathan's?" she asked when I headed downstairs.  

"I am."  

She scanned my outfit. "So why are you dressed like you're going out?" 

"I felt like making an effort. This is the last time Nathan's going to see me for three weeks. I wanted to look good for him." 

Getting Over MattWhere stories live. Discover now