It Started With A Kiss (3 page)

“
It’s me,” Georgie said,
hoping that if she stared straight into Nate’s eyes he’d remember.
It was either that or run. If she did that, his only memory would
be of the kooky chick that’d stopped him on the bike track thinking
they knew each other. She’d be an amusing story to recall at dinner
parties.

Nate looked again. Then visibly, his face
began to soften. It was a small glimmering hint of recognition and
he was trying to hide it but Georgie saw it. She’d always been good
at reading his expressions.

“
Georgie?”

Georgie almost collapsed with relief.
“Yes.”

Nate’s face burst into the grin she
remembered so well. He flicked his sunglasses to the top of his
head and rubbed his hand over his face in disbelief. Mischief
wrestled in his eyes, just as it had when they were young. Apart
from the more angular jaw, he hadn’t changed at all. He still
looked the larrikin.

“
I can’t believe it. Jesus,
how long’s it been?”

Georgie could see him mentally calculating
the time.

“
Twelve years.”

If you rounded off the three months, five
days and oh, two hours.

Nate’s grin broadened, as he looked her up
and down, taking in her soggy, ripped leggings, sweaty tank top and
missing shoe.

“
You’re still a fashion
plate, then?”

“
Don’t be smart. I stepped
in dog poop.”

“
I wondered what that smell
was. I, sort of, remember your perfume being a heap nicer than
that.”

“
Sorry. I was trying to get
rid of that when I saw you.”

“
By taking a dip in the
river? I gather that’s how you got so wet or do you sweat a lot
when you run?”

Georgie glared at him, remembering how he’d
always had an answer for everything. Once upon a time it used to be
endearing, funny even. Now, it was plain annoying. Sort of. God,
Nate was here. Here. This was unbelievable.

Georgie dangled the
offending accessory in front of Nate’s nose. “I was
trying
to wash my
shoe.”

“
Enough said.”

A moment of shared memories exploded between
them. When Nate and Georgie had been friends, she’d always been
getting into scrapes and he’d always saved her. It was how things
had worked. Funny that the intervening years had made her forget
the reliance she’d had on him. She’d become quite independent
without him.

“
Do you want to walk?” Nate
asked, stretching his arm out in the direction of the
city.

“
Sure.”

Technically, Georgie was meant to be getting
ready for a river cruise later that evening but with her run being
cut short by a dip in the river, she had the time. What harm would
a couple of minutes with Nate do? It had been so long, the pain
he’d left after they split was healed. All she felt now was
excitement, and a bit of a heart flutter, at seeing her old beau
again.

After Georgie squished her foot into the
other shoe, they began to walk along the path towards Barrack
Street Jetty. Up in the sky, puffs of cloud moved swiftly, sending
out shadows that stretched and merged onto the path in front of
them. On the river, a group of jet skiers zoomed past, leaving
trails of white water in their wake. The ferry to South Perth
bobbed through the middle of it taking people to the other side.
Georgie was silent. She didn’t feel uncomfortable as she walked
with Nate by her side. She just didn’t know where to begin. It had
been such a long time. How did one go about filling in the missing
pieces?

“
Remember that day we went
to the zoo?” Nate asked. Clearly, the sight of the ferry was
stirring up memories for him, too. “We had our photo taken in the
booth with the green screen. I turned to kiss you …”

“
But in the picture it
looked like you were kissing the hippo.” Georgie let out a laugh.
“I still have that photo.”

“
Do you? I’d love to see
it.”

Was that a hint? Did Nate want to come over,
like in the old days?

“
Maybe. One
day.”

Georgie wouldn’t admit it, but she had a
whole box of stuff from that time. She’d carried it with her all
over Australia, to Melbourne where she went to Uni, to Sydney when
she’d been given her first job as an interior designer. That was
where she’d met her fiancé, Matt. Now the box was under her bed,
back in her old bedroom in West Leederville while she waited for
the sale of her flat to be finalized. She wasn’t happy about having
to live with her parents again, but it was preferable to the
streets. And it wasn’t going to be forever.

They reached the jetty and Nate stopped in
front of a coffee shop. “Got time for a drink?” he asked, pulling
his phone from his pocket and checking the time.

“
As long as you can put up
with the smell of my shoes.”

“
Can’t smell a
thing.”

Georgie leant over to see
the time, too. A waft of cologne, fresh and woody, filled the air
between them. Her pulse started to race as her mind went back to
the other times she’d smelled that smell. When they were seventeen,
though, Nate’s scent hadn’t been quite as expensive. Usually, it
had involved soap and salt, remnants from an afternoon at the
beach, and a shower. Once, she’d bought him a bottle of
Old Spice
from a discount
shop, thinking it was very grown-up. The smell had been closer to
rancid bananas than aftershave but he’d worn it for weeks,
regardless, until she’d finally begged him to throw it in the bin.
Nate had such a soft, gentle interior. It was nothing like his big,
manly body. Georgie closed her eyes trying to block the thought.
She shouldn’t do it. Past loves couldn’t be rekindled. No,
shouldn’t
be rekindled.
Memories were best left as memories. But that didn’t mean that they
couldn’t be friends again, did it?

Georgie followed Nate through the maze of
diners, until he came to a secluded table, under a large patio
umbrella. He pulled out a chair for her and sat opposite, watching
as she arranged her cap, sunglasses and iPod in a neat pile on the
table beside her.

“
So,” he said.

“
So.”

“
Here we are.”

“
Yes. Here we
are.”

A waitress arrived to take their order and
having decided on freshly squeezed juices, they sat and stared at
each other. And stared. Then Nate said, “Is that the ring I gave
you?” His eyes indicated the garnet ring Georgie wore on her middle
finger. She’d had it since they were eleven. When it had gotten too
small, her mother had taken it to the jewelers and had and extra
piece of silver inserted into the back of the band.

“
Yes.”

“
I can’t believe you still
have it.”

“
I wear it every day. Not
because of you, though. I’m not, like, living in the past or
anything,” she clarified. “I just think it’s pretty.”

Nate was silent for a moment. “Remember that
time at the movies when you thought you’d lost it?”

How could she forget? She’d made him crawl
around on the floor in the dark, looking for it. He’d banged his
head on the metal of the seat during the search and ended up with
an eggshaped lump near his hairline. Then, they’d almost got kicked
out when he stuck his hand under the seat in front and
inadvertently felt up the woman’s foot who was sitting there. She
accused him of being a pervert.

“
That lady screamed blue
murder,” Georgie giggled. “She thought you had one of those
foot-sniffing fetishes.”

“
All I had was a lump on my
head and a bruised ego. I was trying so hard to impress you with my
search and rescue skills.”

“
And it was in the cuff of
my shorts, the whole time. God knows how it got there.” Georgie
remembered the incident well. She also remembered another day at
the movies with Nate. Did he remember that?

The waitress returned with their drinks,
placing them down on the table. Georgie swizzled her straw and
looked out at the river. Nate concentrated on the people getting
off the ferry at the end of the dock.

“
When’d you dye your
hair?”

At school, Georgie’s hair had been a long
golden brown sheath that had hung down her back. Dirty blonde her
mother used to call it. Nate used to call her his ‘Little
Mermaid’.

“
A long time now. I changed
the color when I lived in Sydney. I guess it stuck.”

“
I like it. But you don’t
look like you. When I saw you back there on the path, I didn’t
recognize you, not until you took off your sunnies.”

Thank God, that was all it had been.

“
I was worried you’d
actually forgotten me, like, blocked me from your mind. Not that it
would matter if you had,” she rushed on, “but, well, you
know.”

Nate gazed across the table at her. Then he
reached into his wallet and pulled out a photo, placing it on the
table between them. It was faded and worn around the edges but
Georgie could clearly see the younger version of them, sitting
together on the beach at Cottosloe, his arm slung easily around her
shoulder. Georgie’s hair was blowing across her face and her lips,
purple with cold, were on Nate’s cheek. He looked happy as he
laughed into the lens. So did she. In the corner of the photo, a
yellowing piece of sticky tape held a lock of hair that was
obviously hers from many years ago.

Georgie stared at the picture for some time
and when she raised her head, she noticed the expression on Nate’s
face had changed.

“
You think I could ever
forget you, Georgie? You were my first love.”

So, it had been real.

Chapter 4

For the remainder of Primary School, Georgie
and Nate were inseparable. They went everywhere together, did
everything together. If Georgie was having a slumber party, Nate
was invited, even though the rest of the participants were girls.
He’d sit stoically for hours while they braided his hair into
cornrows or threaded beads into bracelets, which they made him wear
around the house. He drew the line at nail polish, though. There
was no way he was letting any girl put that stuff on him. He was a
bloke.

When Nate had friends over, Georgie was
automatically included. She played soccer with them and followed
along as they sped their pushbikes down Oceanic Drive. Nate taught
Georgie how to surf and she tagged along on their early morning
trips to the beach. She could surf way better than any of the guys,
except him. Of course, Georgie could have easily shown him up, if
she wanted to, but Nate was her friend. She didn’t mind putting the
other boys in their places but she wasn’t about to embarrass him
for the sake of being better. When Georgie and Nate surfed
together, she always let him get the best waves.

Then one summer, when they
were both approaching fourteen, Georgie and Nate were invited to a
birthday. Georgie’s friend Tara was having a mixed party at the
movies. Tara’s mother had organized a private screening of
Men in Black
. It was the
first time boys had been included and the girls were frenetic with
excitement. Maggie had even had her hair professionally
straightened for the occasion, at a cost of three hours and more
pocket money than Georgie saw in six months. Georgie couldn’t see
the big deal. Her and Nate had been going to the movies together
since they were nine. Last time they went, he’d eaten all the
popcorn as well as two ice-cream cones. Her mother had to stop the
car on the side of the road on the way home so he could throw up.
And boys and girls going to the movies together wasn’t a good idea.
The boys never liked the same movies the girls did. Still, it would
be fun to see her friends and eat some cake.

When the day of the movie
event arrived, Georgie had to admit she was excited. Her mother had
bought her a new pair of jeans shorts and a blue top with sequins
around the neckline. She was going to wear her favorite red jelly
sandals and the necklace with the ‘G’ that Nate had given her for
Christmas last year. Maybe she’d even try out the lip-gloss she’d
bought at
Diva
.
All her friends wore lip-gloss.

As she stood in front of the bathroom mirror,
admiring her new mascara’d reflection, Georgie wondered briefly
what Nate would think. He probably wouldn’t notice and if did and
he hated the new look, he wouldn’t comment. Nate liked her no
matter what. He told her all the time. He even liked her when she
reeked of garlic, which was often. Georgie’s mum was going through
an Italian cooking phase.

Georgie was the last to arrive at the movie
theatre but she didn’t mind, being first was bad in her book. You
stood around looking like a dufus waiting for a friend and you had
to pretend to be interested in stuff you didn’t give two hoots
about so you looked casual and not nervy. She walked over to where
Tara stood with the rest of the group and gave her the present
she’d bought earlier in the week. Tara loved music. Georgie hoped
she liked the CD she’d picked out.

As they made their way into the theatre, Nate
caught up to her, nudging her arm with his elbow in his usual
greeting style. He was dressed up that day, wearing jeans of all
things. Nate never wore jeans in summer. He liked board shorts.

“
Hi Georgie.”

“
Hi.”

“
You’re late
today.”