Ursula to Carly—“you can play with her.”
Carls tosses it back. “I don’t play with dolls.”
“You sure ‘bout that?” Alexis drawls.
Carly glares at her friend of thirty-plus years. Alexis just winks.
Chuckling at the both of them, I leave them to their devices and focus back on the movie. “Ooh, ooh!” I nudge Charlotte. “I love this bit!”
“Me too!” She picks up a fork that’s lying among her toys.
“A dinglehopper!” we both say at the same time Scuttle—the eccentric seagull—says it in the movie.
Charlotte threads the fork into her hair and starts combing it. I laugh, and she hands it to me before running off and returning moments later with another fork.
“Now you have a dinglehopper, and I have one.”
“Why thank you, Charlotte.”
“My friends call me Charli. You’re my friend now, so you can call me Charli too.”
“My friends call me Libby.”
She hugs me. “I like you, Libby.”
“Naww, I like you too, Charli.”
We sit there, enthralled, combing our hair with dinglehoppers until Ariel—and Charlotte—start singing “Part of Your World.”
“This is one of my favourite songs,” she says, eyes alight.
“Mine too!”
She frowns. “Then why aren’t you singing?”
“Oh.” I shake my head. “I can’t sing.”
“Sure you can. You just open your mouth and say the words in your best voice.”
Gah! My heart! What a sweetie.
I scrunch my face. “My best voice isn’t very good.”
She pouts, and it tugs perfectly on my guilt strings.
“Okay. I’ll sing it with you, but you have to promise not to laugh.”
“I’d never do that.” Charlotte holds up her little finger. “Pinkie swear.”
We lock pinkies then sing the rest of the song, joining in with Ariel as she sings about wanting to be a part of the human world, and it strikes me that, even in an innocent kids’ Disney movie, we tend to want what we don’t or can’t have. We create an ideal of the perfect life and strive to achieve it, all the while forgetting true perfection is what we make of it. It’s human nature, I guess. Well… in Ariel’s case, it’s mermaid nature.
Giggling when the song ends and Sebastian the crab crashes into the scene, I almost jump a mile when Will whispers into my ear, “Why do you have a fork in your hair?”
“Jeeesusss.” I cover my heart with my hand and turn to find him sitting on the sofa behind me. “You scared the crap out of me.”
His eyes are dreamy, his smile even dreamier.
“What?” I have to move away; he’s too damn sexy.
Grasping the handle of the fork, I comb my hair and add, “It’s not a fork.”
“Looks like a fork to me.”
“It’s a dinglehopper, Will,” Charlotte says.
“A what?”
“A dingle— Never mind.” I slide it out of my hair then glance around, noticing Alexis and Carly are no longer in the room. “Where is everyone?”
“In the studio.”
“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t realise. I was just watching—”
“The Little Mermaid?”
My cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Yeah.”
He licks his lips, gives me his sex-eyes, then takes a swig of his beer. “Cute.”
“Don’t,” I say, pointing at him as I stand up. “I know what you’re doing.”
Will chuckles then scruffs Charlotte’s hair. “Thanks for looking after Libby while I was gone.”
“Anytime. I like her. We’re friends.”
Biting back my laughter, I hand her the fork. “Thank you for lending me your dinglehopper.”
She stands up and gives me a hug. “Keep it. Mum won’t mind.”
“Really?” I’m not about to take their cutlery home, so I go along with her beautiful gesture so that I don’t offend or upset her. “I’ve always wanted one of my own. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” She fiddles with her fingers and twists her body from side to side, seemingly proud of herself. And so she should be—she’s such a delightful child.
“Bye, Charli.”
I wave as Will takes my hand in his and leads me into the studio, a room filled with instruments and lined with soundproof, carpeted panels, much like Will’s music room only bigger. There’s even a pool table, barstools, and sofas.
“Wow! This is impressive,” I say.
“Believe it or not, Bryce had one double the size before the fire,” he murmurs. “Shame it burnt down.”
“This is certainly nothing to sneeze at. The villa is stunning.”
“Oh, we know,” Alexis says. “The design and building team at City Towers are exceptional. They’ve pulled out all stops to make this villa seem like home while the penthouse is being rebuilt.”
“So did the entire penthouse burn down?”
“No.” Alexis hands me my glass of wine. “Structurally, the place is sound, thank God! But, internally, it’s completely destroyed. The walls,