Page 96 of Loving Wild

Gabe:It’s s’posed to get a bit cold tonight x

Gabe:Maybe wear a hoodie and some trackies x

Gabe:You know, baggy stuff, not tight. But warm stuff x

Gabe:Or don’t even go out x

Gabe:Yeah, that sounds like a better idea. Stay home x

Gabe:Stay home and drink tea x

Gabe: In your PJ’s x

Gabe:With me x

I’m smiling into my phone when Jo appears at my side.

“Far out, woman. Just go jump in a taxi and go put the bloke and yourself out of your self-induced misery, would ya. You’re standing there staring into your phone like a lovesick thirteen-year-old.”

“Did you all plan this intervention in the kitchen while I was still getting ready tonight? Coz it sounds like you’re all reading from the same script.”

I look up at her, still smiling, then notice the bloke she was talking to earlier is standing right beside her.

And I know him.

“Nate,” I state loudly. “Hey, how are you?”

“Hey, Lauren, how you going?” he smiles and asks in return, right before leaning in and kissing my cheek.

“You know each other?” Jo asks with a frown.

“Yeah,” Nate says.

“Nate’s a mate of Sonny’s,” I explain.

“Oh,” Jo says on an exhale. “Well, this isn’t at all awkward,” she states while staring at me wide-eyed.

Still holding my drink, I hold my hands up in a surrender pose. “Don’t let us knowing each other stop you, we’re all adults here,” I say while looking between them. “How are your mum and dad?” I add with a wink. “And your sister? I heard she got married.”

Nate grins.

“Bitch,” Jo snarls—in a friendly kind of way—into my ear.

I blow her a kiss.

My mood instantly lifted, I decide right there and then that I’m going home to Gabe tonight. What’s the point of one more night alone, when I could be having drunk, make-up sex withallthatisGabriel Wild?

“Right, shots. My round, who’s in?” I feel the need to shout this for some reason.

The girls return from the dance floor as the band plays something a lot quieter, just as our drinks are lined up along the bar. We each take one.

“To friends and floors,” Jo holds up her glass and states. Despite probably not getting our toast, Jess, Sam, Dani, and Nate—who’s still attached to Jo’s side—join us in repeating it.

We knock them back, and as if right on cue, the band starts to play, ‘Better Be Home Soon’.

We don’t even make it to the dance floor. Arms thrown around each other’s shoulders, Lou, Jem, Jo, and me, sing along to the Crowded House classic. Jess, Sam, and Dani join us, and as usual, I find an empty beer bottle to sing into.

The hollowness now gone, I’m filled by a feeling of contentment.