"Hannah's already starting to wind me up," Gary groused, as they procured drinks for the girls.
"I think she's a nice girl," Bobby said. It hadn't even been two hours, but he wasn't surprised that Gary was already over it. He was far too grounded in reality for someone fanciful like Hannah.
"She's stunning, to be fair," Gary said. "But what was that shit about this place being like a romance novel?"
Lili had come along with the guys at Ibrahim's request. She scooped up an armful of wine bottles. "She's a sweetheart and a romantic," she said. "Love looks different to everyone and if that's how love looks to her, you can't fault her for that. And anyway, isn't finding love what we're all here for?"
"I don't blame her for wanting that stuff." Gary scrubbed a hand through his blonde hair. "I guess I'm just more real world about it. Love ain't all rose petals. It's about..." He stared off in the distance. "It's about finding someone who makes you toast when you're sad."
She nodded. "That's the reality of love. But Hannah's quite young, you know. Eventually she may decide that toast is better than rose petals, but for now, she dreams of romance. And she doesn't need someone cruelly squashing that dream. The world will try to do that soon enough, don't you think?"
Gary seemed taken aback by that. "Yeah, I suppose."
"Toast?" Rocco looked from Gary to Lili. "You can't win love with toast, my friends." Rocco landed his green smolder on Lili and blarggled on about love making you write poetry even if you aren't good at it.
"So love is like my old English teacher?" Noah asked, surprising them all. Bobby didn't think he actually knew what jokes were, let alone how to make them. Lili snickered and Noah smiled warmly at her.
Hmm. He didn't like that at all. "I think you know you like someone when you check to see if they laugh at your jokes." He peeked at Lili, who seemed to be considering that.
"But like she said, we all think love is something different." Ibrahim's warm brown eyes melted all over Lili like liquid chocolate and Bobby had to stop his own eyes from rolling right out of his skull. "So the real question is, what does love look like to you, Lili?"
Gary picked up the box of plastic champagne flutes. "It's down to earth."
"And real," Noah said with a nod.
"I think it's more about romance, you know?" Ibrahim said. "When you can imagine the future together. It's exciting."
"No," Bobby said. "It's fun. Having a laugh."
She worried her lower lip with her teeth as she contemplated the question. "The romance and butterflies eventually wear off, don't they? Being down to earth is good—toast is good—but life isn't always sensible and a fistful of whimsy goes a long way." She shifted the bottles. "Being a person is mostly just annoyances and bills and pain, but if you've got shared humor you can get through anything together. And that's what love is really about. For me anyway. Finding that person who wants to go through all that ordinary frustrating stuff with you, and have a laugh about it together. Because you make it better for them and they make it better for you."
She caught his eye and gave one of her wide cheerleader smiles. Warmth spread through his chest. With that, she shrugged and walked away with her arms full of wine bottles.
"Well that does it, lads," Bobby said softly, in the silence. "I'm going to marry that girl."
Ibrahim stared at him, his eyes worried, but his smile in place. "She picked me, man."
"Yeah," Gary said. "And have you seen this guy?" He patted Ibrahim's abs. Then Gary's face screwed up, as if he regretted saying that. "Not that you're not fit as you are, Bobs."
"Uh, we were supposed to get the drinks and Lili just carried all the bottles off by herself," Noah said. He turned and jogged in Lili's direction.
They all followed. Noah had to wrestle some of the bottles from Lili. She was a strong and stubborn lass. Ibrahim took the rest. She threw her empty arms out in frustration.
Bobby ran to catch up with her. "Letting the boys do all the work for you?" He handed her a packet of crisps and grinned. "Here, make yourself useful, ya lazy coo."
The lads froze. They stared at him in shock. Right. Sometimes his sense of humor was too much. Most times. And it was the kind of fond thing he'd have said to his sister. Or to any of his mates. And they would have laughed and gone about their lives because they knew he wasn't a total bellend. But she wasn't one of his mates. She was the gorgeous girl he'd just met and desperately wanted. And he'd just called her a cow. A lazy one.
Death. He wished for sweet death.
Lili's snort of laughter could likely have been heard a kilometer away. She socked him hard in the arm, very hard, and then snatched all the crisp packets from him. "You make yourself useful, ya limp knob."
Gary giggled and then the silence was broken. Everyone unclenched their arseholes and started walking again. Bobby kept in step with Lili. "How'd you know my middle name is Limp Knob?"
"Lucky guess," she said with a smile.