Feathers

10. The Promise Of Summer

Just after 5pm, Kobie arrived in the business centre car park in her Turquoise Suzuki Vitara. Michael wasn't good with cars. If Kobie hadn't told him all about hers on one of their first dates he wouldn't have been able to pick it's make or model. he would have just seen a blue 4WD.

Kobie told him all about the process of buying it, how she tried out a few different options and settled on the Vitara because it had good torq and "pick up". He didn't really understand, but he liked hearing her talk about it. He liked the fact that she knew about cars, so different to him. She would be the one to get them out of a sticky situation in a zombie apocalypse for sure.

Because of Daylight Savings, it felt weirdly early; the sun was still high in the sky. Michael felt like he'd looked at the clock wrong and stepped out of work in the middle of the day. It was that time of the year in Australia where the weather could transport you to a different season from one day to the next. The cold rain and lashing winds of the weekend had well and truly passed leaving a hot and muggy start to the week that you could be forgiven for thinking was in the middle of summer.

Michael climbed into the front seat of the 4x4 and closed the door behind him, grateful that the air conditioning was pumping. Kobie watched him with a smile on her face. He loved the way she looked at him, with a warm twinkle in her eye. He felt like he hadn't seen her for a week, even though it only been 9 hours. He drank in the sight of her.

She was wearing a pair of stylish ripped black denim high waisted jean shorts, a tucked-in black t-shirt with an eagle print on the front and dangly gold earrings that made a pretty jangling sound when she turned her head. She had light blue eye shadow on and long curled eyelashes. Her shorts and t-shirt combo exposed the smooth skin of her arms and legs, which was decorated with intricate black-ink bird and flower tattoos. A raven was nestled in a wreath of Peonies and chrysanthemums that blossomed up her arm to her shoulder.

He leant across and kissed her. She blushed. "Don't you worry about your co-workers seeing you, making out in the car park?" she asked, running her fingers down the back of his neck.

"Let them see, Spencer's still inside stuck on a call and I don't really care about any of the others"

"Oh, you bad boy," Kobie said and giggled.

"Thanks for picking me up darlin."

"Thank you for agreeing to come to dinner," Kobie said, "I'm sorry for surprising you with it last minute. It wasn't planned like that I promise. I don't want you to think I was trying to trick you by blindsiding you with it."

"I didn't think that at all."

"It's just Grandma's nervous about COVID. She saw on the news that Melbourne's going back into lockdown. She's worried it's going to happen here as well. She wanted to catch up before we couldn't again."

"That's totally understandable, and I really don't mind, I promise. I'm looking forward to meeting your family." He gave her a reassuring smile.

"Are you sure?" Kobie gave him a squinty-eyed look in return, as if she was trying to decide whether he was telling the truth or not, "are you 100% sure? Because I really don't mind if you just want to skip it. I can drop you at home on the way and I promise I won't be mad or disappointed or anything at all."

Michael grabbed her hand, kissed it, and placed it against his chest.

"I, Michael Steadfast, solemnly swear that I genuinely want to come over for dinner and meet your family."

"Okay."

Now it was Michael's turn to narrow his eyes at Kobie, trying to figure something out.

"It almost feels like you're the one who doesn't want me to come along," he said, gently testing her, "are you sure you're not a bit nervous?"