Page 92 of The Fallback

Mitch looked down at his hands. ‘You seemed so keen, though,’ he said eventually.

‘I am keen!’ she protested. ‘Oh Mitch, you have no idea how keen I am on you!’ She smiled at him, putting her hand out on his chest.

‘No, I meant about our plan.’

‘Oh!’ Rosie exclaimed.

‘Well, I thought you were. I mean, you did agree to it, after all.’

She could hear a note of uncertainty creeping into his voice.

‘Yeees,’ she said hesitantly, ‘I did, but only because I was scared of losing you.’

Mitch looked up at her sharply. ‘What?’

Rosie immediately regretted what she had just said. ‘No, I didn’t mean it like that. I just…’

Mitch frowned at her.

‘It brought up a lot of feelings for me and one of those was the fact I was scared of losing you.’

Mitch looked at her confounded. ‘So you thought you’d say yes to having a baby with me?’

Rosie attempted a laugh, ‘Yeah, it does sound a bit crazy when you put it like that.’

Mitch didn’t laugh in response. ‘It does.’

‘I don’t want to put pressure on us,’ she tried to explain.

‘I didn’t realise I was putting pressure on you.’ A hard tone had entered his voice.

‘I didn’t mean you had!’ Rosie exclaimed, feeling desperately that the situation was running away from her. ‘I just want to take things slowly and enjoy this.’ She grabbed his hand and they both stared at each other, neither of them sure what to say next.

Mitch broke the silence, ‘We should get ready for work.’ He turned and swung his legs out of bed. Rosie wasn’t sure where to look. Was it OK to see your best friend naked the morning after you’d slept together? Was it OK to see them naked when it seemed like you’d just messed the whole thing up?

Apparently not. Mitch pulled on his boxers and a T-shirt over his head and went to take a shower.

* * *

Rosie got off the tube with Mitch at his stop, deciding she’d walk from there to her lab. It might give her time to clear her head, or buy coffee, or maybe some new pants. She looked at her watch and made a mental calculation as to whether Marks & Spencer’s would be open yet and then made a little strangled noise in her throat that she was having these thoughts after havingspent the night with Mitch. Part of her wanted to blush with embarrassment but the bigger part wanted to do a little dance in the street and tell everyone she knew that her and Mitch were together. Or sort of together. Or they would be if she could just find a way through this latest situational quagmire.

The atmosphere had really shifted after their conversation, although Mitch still reached out to hold her hand tightly as they walked towards his work. Rosie suddenly felt shy as if everyone would be staring at them, but nobody seemed to even notice them. She couldn’t believe that her world had shifted so radically on its axis, and yet all around her people were carrying on as if this was just a standard morning rush hour; nothing to see here.

‘Mitch, we do need to talk.’ She said as they reached his building.

‘Yeah, I get it. But I’m late.’ Mitch looked at his watch. ‘And you’ll be late, too.’

Rosie couldn’t shake the feeling that he was trying to get rid of her.

‘I’ll call you later?’ Mitch put his hands on her waist, looking down into her eyes. She didn’t think she’d ever get bored of seeing him in this new light, at this new angle which screamed boyfriend/girlfriend rather than just two friends. Mitch bent to kiss her. And she definitely wasn’t ever going to get bored of what kissing him did to her insides.

‘Mitch?’ she said as they pulled apart. ‘We’ll figure it out, won’t we?’

Mitch gave her a smile, but there was tension around his mouth and his eyes. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Trust me.’

Rosie walked away, pulling her phone from her pocket to work out the closest M&S. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Mitch. Despite his assurances she knew they weren’t on the same wavelength. She desperately wanted to talk to him about everything, to make him understand, because she had a horrible feeling that her happy ever after wasn’t just slipping away but was making a mad dash for the nearest exit.

‘Morning!’ came a loud and irritatingly familiar voice.

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