Written in the Stars

Chapter Two

~ Vanessa ~  

Almost an hour after I'd settled in at Mum and Dad's place I had a glass of juice in my hand and I was telling my mother and Ida about my latest date. It wasn't all that recent, but it had been a while since I'd been able to catch up with them both, so it was the first time I could indulge their love of hearing my horror stories.

"So, he insisted on picking me up. I knew why as soon as I got downstairs. He had a nice, shiny red BMW. Convertible too," I added with a smile.

"Did you propose to him?" My mother asked excitedly. I chuckled and Ida rolled her eyes.

"No, and it was lucky too..." I said with a smirk, making both mothers lean in a little closer. "So, I get in the car, it is lovely and all, but then he decides that instead of going to the restaurant we had agreed to on Tinder, he wanted to go to Newtown and 'take a look around'. So, being a Friday night, I was trying to talk him out of it. It was far too busy, but he insisted," I said with a shrug as I took a sip of my juice. I went on to explain how we spent half an hour driving looking for parking, and then when we found one it was a tight squeeze between two other cars. The guy spent five minutes trying to reverse park and failing and then went to drive away, but I jokingly offered to do it for him. He got really cranky and stopped the car, getting out and almost throwing the keys at me. I managed to get in in one shot. So, naturally, were both in a shit mood by the time we made it to the pub that his mates had told him about.

"We finally settle in and get our food, and we start talking about work and life in general. He was really short with me though, I don't know whether it was his obvious fail at parking, but he was not the nice guy I'd been talking to on Tinder. We were just about half-way through our meal - and I would have left early if I hadn't forgotten my cardigan in his car- but then he looks at my plate, where I had left my chips-"

"Got to save the best for last," Mum chuckled. I nodded; she understood my strategy well.

"And so, I was-"

I stopped talking when I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye.

There he was.

Nathan. Tall, still lanky, but with that same bashful grin he'd had ever since high school. He raised a single finger to his lip, clearly wanting me to pretend I didn't see him, as he crept up behind his mother. As much as I wanted to leap up and hug my oldest and closest friend, I didn't want to ruin his arrival, so I continued talking as if I hadn't seen him.

"And so, I was sitting there with the chips on my plate and he just reaches over and starts eating them. When I looked up at him he shrugged and said- get this- he said 'you don't really need them anyway, too many carbs for your figure'!"

My mother and Ida gasped and were just about to launch into a tirade when Nathan struck. He launched forward and wrapped his arms around his mother in bone-crushing hug. Everyone in the yard turned when Ida let out an ear-piercing scream. The moment they realised what had happened the yard erupted with laughter. Ida's face reddened with embarrassment and when Nate let her go she got to her feet and turned to face him.