Page 41 of A Country Kind Of Love

“Deal.” She drops down from the sofa, bum first.

She’s wearing a dark yellow beanie. She pulls at the top in one swift motion, and her hair falls at either side parting conveniently down the middle. Peyton’s starting to think that Cleo’s hair might be the most intriguing thing she’s ever seen. Especially when she glides her fingersthrough it.

Stop staring.

“You okay?” Cleo raisesher eyebrow.

She really needs to stopdoing that.

“Uh huh.”

They set the chessboard. The first seven turns Peyton moves her pawns; Cleo mirrors herevery move.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Peyton laughs.

“Nope, but I’m learning.”She smirks.

“What have you learnt so far?”

“That all these little things...” She picks up a pawn and shakes it. “Can move forwards.”

“Right.” Peyton chuckles.

Peyton moves her rook to take Cleo’s isolated pawn. It’s a risk, but she doesn’t believe Cleo is well versed enough to spot the opportunity to use her bishop tostrike back.

“I’ll start with a simple question. If your life was a movie, who would you want to play you?”

“Easy,” Cleo says confidently. “Camila Mendes .”

“From Riverdale, right?”Peyton asks.

“Yup.”

“Okay, why?”

“Because she’s super-hot.” Cleo laughs. “And I think she’d play a good lesbian.”

“Fair enough.”

Cleo makes her move. Nothing. Peyton takes another pawn with the same rook.

“What was your first impression of me?”

“Sad.”

Peyton sulks.

“But...” She pauses. Peyton waits for Cleo to redeem herself. “There was this glimmer of hope behind the sadness, and that intrigued me. Literally, and probably metaphorically, you’d spent the whole day having doors slammed in your face, but your aura still gave off this joyful energy. Youwere...”

Intoxicating? Beautiful? Gorgeous?

Peyton looks away breaking eye contact to compose herself. Their initial meeting was far from a sparks flying Disney encounter, but she hopes Cleo felt something.

“Breath-taking.”

Peyton gulps. She reaches for the remote to apply some background noise because she can hear her own heart thumping in her chest.

“Erm... okay... that’s nice.”