Right Now | Rafe Cameron

37: zip me up.

THIRTY SEVEN

zip me up.

"Sarah, I swear, I know I'm a handful but if these bridesmaid's dresses are ugly then I might not show..." Billie warned as she put her glass of champagne down. She hadn't even taken a sip. She was off the booze for the time being. She was trying to not be a mess.

"In the wedding between your big brother and your best friend? You would bail because of a dress?" Sarah asked sceptically with her arms crossed.

"Are they ugly?" Billie tried again. She could see a world in which Sarah would've chosen the ugliest dresses for Kie, Billie and Wheezie to wear. Just so she could look better. But Sarah always looked better. If Billie was in couture and Sarah was in a trash bag, Sarah would be the one to get a Vogue-article written about her.

"How even dare you, of course they're not ugly. They are perfect, now go," Sarah shooed Billie into the dressing room.

"Hey Sarah," Billie yelled after a while. She'd slipped the silky fabric over her hips and so far so good. But she couldn't reach the zip. "Sarah?" No response. "Can you zip me up?"

"She's gone to meet Wheez," a dark voice said through the curtain. Billie's stomach dropped. She caught her eyes in the mirror in panic, she was flushed and her hair looked a mess. She quickly brushed her hair out of her face and drew her ring fingers under her eyes. Deep breaths.

"Can you zip me up, then?" Billie asked quietly. Looking into the full length mirror, she saw Rafe's ring-clad fingers slide the curtain to the side. Their eyes met in the mirror. She'd avoided him, barely looked at him since she came back.

Fuck, I forgot how hot he is. Billie gulped as her blood rushed to her cheeks.

They didn't say anything as Rafe slipped into the dressing room and stood behind Billie. She could feel his hot breath on her bare shoulders and neck. She looked at him as he focused on the zip of the dress. When his hands brushed along her spine, Billie let out a shaky exhale and he clenched his jaw trying to control himself. She was so beautiful, so warm. He couldn't believe how he'd been able to stand almost two months without her. Idiot, echoed through his head.

Rafe paused for a second once he'd done the zip up, wondering if he should just do it, tell her now, let her break his heart before it drove him mad. But she spoke first.

"Did Sarah force you to come?" she asked.

"She mentioned it, asked if I wanted to come."

"I heard you're the one giving her away."

"Yeah, but that's not why I came here," Rafe shook his head, like he had a thought he couldn't let go off, and he would forget it if they kept talking about other things. He furrowed his brows as he tried to find the words.

"So why did you?" Billie bit her lip.

"I've missed you." His voice was thin, raspy, and almost unintelligible. But Billie's eyes shot up in an instant, drifting over the shape of his mouth, the somber light that twinkled in his eyes, the tense muscles of his jaw that shone through his soft light skin.

When he finally met her gaze she could almost feel the vertigo, the desperate wish to get lost in them. She felt the tears crawling up her throat that suffocated her, and the familiar wave of acidic guilt that she'd run out on him. She'd promised to not do that again. But she'd done it anyway. And then she'd stayed away. And he'd been left on his own.

Billie let out another shaky breath and was just about to tell him all she'd kept inside for months but with a violent searing noise from the metal rings that held up the curtain, it was ripped to the side. On the other side stood Sarah, hand on her hip, staring them down with a knowing sneer.