‘Yes, I’m good,’ he said, then bent down and silenced me with a kiss that left me breathless.
‘You know…’ I said, pulling away, suddenly brazen. Maybe it was me becoming an adult, or maybe it was the early spring air that edged the breeze tonight, but for the first time in a long time, another part of me surged back to life. ‘I’m eighteen now – legal age for…certain activities.’
Ezra’s skin flushed in the dying light.
I ran my finger down the side of his face. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve gone all shy on me.’
For weeks, we’d taken it further and further, but stopped each time – something preventing us from making the final physical commitment to each other.
‘Is that what you want?’ he asked quietly, his eyes blazing.
Until that moment, I hadn’t been sure when I would be ready. Jet was still in the periphery of my life, my feelings for him coming to the surface at the most inappropriate times. But right then, in that moment, under a new moon, in a new season, there was only me and Ezra and needs that had grown beyond both of us.
‘That’s what I want. I want you – tonight,’ I said.
Ezra swallowed and before I knew it, his lips were on mine, telling me how he felt.
‘After dinner, come back to the boat,’ he said, pulling away.
Anticipation that had been simmering away bubbled to the surface.
‘Besides, I have a present for you,’ he said, little creases filling up the corners of his eyes.
‘Do you now?’ I stood back from him and straightened my clothes. ‘Even after I said “no presents.”’
‘Especially after you said “no presents.” Anyhow, you’ll have to wait and see.’ He raised an eyebrow and took my hand.
Together we walked down the path to my house and up the stairs.
‘It’s very quiet,’ I said, putting my key in the door.
‘Maybe they’re hiding,’ said Ezra.
I giggled, pushed the door open and stepped inside – where a roomful of friends and family jumped from hiding places and screamed, ‘SURPRISE!’
I turned, wide-eyed, to Ezra, who kissed my cheek. ‘Happy birthday, sweetheart!’
‘You should have seen the look on your face,’ said Elijah, mimicking what I must have looked like when I walked through the front door not long before.
‘Well, what did you expect?’ I said, sending my brother the hardest stare I could muster, which he copied. We both laughed. ‘And anyhow, I’d like to know how you got out of it?’
‘Good question,’ said Anna, who stood behind me attempting to pull my just-washed-and-dried hair into something respectable before we joined the party that was in full swing downstairs.
‘It was hard enough getting you out of the picture for a few hours,’ said Elijah, his face shining with a happiness I’d never seen before. ‘I mean, thank goodness for that boyfriend of yours, taking you sailing.’
‘Knock, knock,’ said Ezra. He pushed open the door, champagne bottle and glasses in his hands. ‘Did someone mention me?’
‘Yes they did,’ I said.
I turned around to take in Ezra. He’d changed into dark pants and a pale blue button-up shirt. With his sandy-blond hair tousled from sailing and his green eyes sparkling, he looked ridiculously hot. Before I could stop myself, I imagined myself unbuttoning his shirt.
‘Earth to Eva,’ said Anna from behind me. I glanced at her in the mirror in front of me. My lovely friend looked stunning in her strapless black dress.
‘Sorry, what?’
Anna laughed. ‘I said, I think my work here is done.’
‘Huh,’ I said, glancing in the mirror, blinking quickly at the reflection of the woman before me.
Anna kissed the top of my head. ‘Yes, that’s you, my beautiful soon-to-be sister.’
I placed my hand on top of hers. ‘I can’t wait to become your sis.’
‘That makes two of us,’ she said, her gaze finding my brother, who was already ogling his fiancée.
‘This calls for a toast,’ said Ezra. He placed the champagne on my dressing table and poured four glasses.
‘To Eva and Elijah,’ he said, raising his glass. ‘Every day I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to have met you both – and to be your boyfriend, Eva. Happy birthday! And congratulations again, Elijah and Anna – I’m so happy for you both.’
‘Cheers,’ we cried, clinking our glasses together and then sipping our champagne. As Anna and Elijah became embarrassingly lost in each other, Ezra slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him.
‘Happy birthday, darling,’ he said before lowering his lips to mine, sending sparks of electricity through me.
Time lost its ceaseless march forward. It took my brother’s voice to bring me back into the room.
‘We’ll see you downstairs sometime soon, hey,’ he said, before he and Anna made their way outside and downstairs to where the party was pumping.
‘I suppose we’d better make an appearance,’ I said, walking over and checking my make-up, which did nothing to cover my blazing skin.
‘Before we go down…’ said Ezra. He paused to clear his throat.
Something in his tone made me swing back around.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, my mind skipping through the numerous possibilities.
Ezra stepped towards me, took my hands.
‘Eva, there’s something I need to ask you.’
Oh no!
‘Ezra…’
‘Please, hear me out,’ he said, so sincerely that I became quiet, watchful, terrified. ‘We both know there are certain expectations of what might happen today.’ Small beads of sweat appeared on Ezra’s forehead, but he didn’t wipe them away. ‘But you need to know that those expectations play no part in what I’m about to ask you.’
My sure, steady breath deserted me, leaving me gulping air that was faint and insubstantial.
‘The thing is, Eva, I love you – and not in a first-crush kind of way, but in a forever kind of way. From the moment I met you, I started falling for you. And now…I am so deeply in love with you that even though we’re living in a crazy world where nothing else makes any sense, you make sense, you and I – we make sense.
