Island Vibes

8. weapon of choice

"You know, if I were ever single..." Noah said, causing my heart to skitter about in my chest. 

This was incredibly dangerous territory, I thought. He'd said it with a laugh, sure, but there's that thing about how jokes usually have a grain of truth in them.

Noah was already back at work while I was busy worrying about this. He was sweeping up dutifully,  completely unaware of how my insides were flipping around and rearranging themselves because of his stupid words. I couldn't believe he could be that oblivious – to say something so open and dicey, and not even seem to treat it like it was a big deal while I was over here internally freaking out. 

Then I remembered who I was dealing with. He was still that same boy that had – over the course of mere hours – forgotten to pick me up at the airport, charmed me senseless, and then dropped in the fact that he had a girlfriend as a parting gift. 

I was ready to admit I had a Noah Flores problem. 

I also had no response to his bold statement. It took me a long moment to force out a laugh, but once I managed to quit staring at him and move over to the counter, I formed a too-late reply for him. Because even if he were single... 

"I'd still be out of your league?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him. 

He smirked at me, but gave me a little laugh that seemed to say, yeah, right. 

My ego wasn't too badly bruised, because I was kidding in the first place. He was undeniably cute. I couldn't even pretend anymore.

I flexed an arm up at him again, like before. 

"Like, come on," I teased, really exaggerating my words like it was so painfully obvious I was outclassing him entirely. 

He cracked up, his eyes crinkling into crescent moons. He smiled at me a second too long, and my heart started skittering again. 

So, maybe I had a big Noah Flores problem.

After a pause, he changed the topic. 

"Did I tell you about Milo?" 

I hefted the first catalogue open to start looking at hues of paint, and gave him a small frowny shake of the head in response. Milo didn't ring any bells. 

"Please don't try to set me up with one of your friends," I groaned. 

Noah started laughing again, possibly even harder than he had before. I raised an eyebrow at him, then peered through the sunlight, looking for his accomplice, as if he could have been working with this Milo guy to pull some kind of prank on me. I didn't know a lot about Noah yet, but that definitely seemed like the kind of thing he would have done, so I was beyond wary of this potential set-up. 

"Yeah," he said, his laughter only just beginning to taper off. "I'm definitely not setting you up with Milo. He's out of your league," he sassed back at me. 

"Excuse you?" I began, not sure if I was offended or not. "I need to see a picture of this guy right now. There's no way," I said, becoming more sure that I was kidding. I couldn't take him too seriously. It was Noah, after all. 

He chuckled and shrugged, coming nearer and fumbling one-handed to fish his phone out of his pocket. He rested the broom up against the counter, next to me, and sucked in a breath as his fingertips eventually came to a halt over the screen.

"You sure you wanna see this? He's just... so painfully outta your league, really. You're gonna fall in love, and it's gonna break your heart that you can't have him," he said, nodding sadly at me. 

I tutted and snatched his phone away from him, certain that I needed to see this guy and-- 

"Ain't he the cutest?" Noah asked, grinning dumbly at me. 

"You're not funny," I said, looking up from a picture of an unreasonably adorable kitten. "That's Milo?" I asked, my voice a little quieter as I absorbed the photo. I was overcome with the need to meet, cuddle, and kidnap the cute little cat. 

Noah was looking down at the phone now too, stood next to me. "Yeah," he said, a little breathy. When I glanced up at him, he had a dreamy smile on his face like he was looking down at his newborn baby. I had no idea how to deal with the overwhelming amount of cuteness that was currently in front of me. 

"A friend of Brie's has been trying to get the whole litter to good homes," he explained. 

I nudged my elbow lightly into his side. "What're you doing with one of them, then?" I teased.

Noah gave me a very sarcastic single "Ha," and then swiped the screen of his phone, bringing up another picture of the kitten. This time, it was sat atop Noah's chest as he took a selfie of the two of them. Milo looked utterly tiny, and I audibly squeaked. 

Noah laughed at the noise, and then double tapped on Milo's face to dramatically zoom in on it, laughing harder when I practically whined. "This is too much," I protested. "You're killing me with cuteness." 

"My weapon of choice," Noah chuckled, locking his phone. 

As the screen went black, I immediately felt my brain start to regain its normal state of functioning. You know, as normal as it seemed to get on this stupid island around stupid Noah.

"What're you doing Thursday night?" he asked, picking up the broom again. 

I gave a small shrug. How could I have plans? He knew I didn't know anyone here yet. Well, I knew his sister, Brie, but... that wasn't the most promising of friendships. 

"You should drop by my place," he grinned. "You can meet Milo." 

I nodded, returning his grin and wondering if it could just be Thursday night already.