Her eyes met mine and whatever Orla was saying to Julia faded into the back of my mind. How long was it since I last saw her properly? Her expression was unreadable, indecipherable, until she turned to Jim and he bent his head for a drawn-out, lingering kiss. I looked away quickly, my heart skipping a sudden beat. I saw them kiss at parties in the long-forgotten past before, of course, and I knew they slept together then too, on more than one occasion. It was different now. Now, he was her boyfriend. I knew that, of course I did—but to see him just casually kiss her like that, like that was part of the norm, surprised me more than I thought it would. I frowned down at my shoes.
This boy can give her all the things I can’t, I reminded myself, and it pierced me, even now.