Page 91 of The Fallback

‘Yes, last night? Where did you go after I kissed you? I tried to find you and I tried to call you.’ Her voice went very small. ‘I presumed you weren’t interested.’

She looked up and saw Mitch. He looked like he might be about to cry. ‘Oh, Rosie, I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s OK,’ she replied, meaning of course that it really wasn’t OK and could he now explain why she had spent the last twelve hours believing it was all over between them only to end up sat in his lap in Nadia’s office.

‘No, it’s not,’ Mitch said firmly. ‘I am sorry. I just… To be honest my head was all over the place. Seeing you there with Connor, the way it made me feel…and then you racing after me and kissing me. I didn’t know what to make of it.’ He grimaced. ‘My mates were waiting for me down by the ticket barriers and I was too shocked to do anything but just let them take me on to this club we were supposed to be going to. Which was awful by the way, underground, so I had no reception, too loud to think straight so I couldn’t make sense of what had just happened. But I should have come to find you Rosie. I’m so sorry. I should do better, Iwilldo better I promise?’

Rosie grabbed his face between her hands. ‘Mitch, it’s OK,’ she said firmly. ‘I get it. It’s a lot. But hey, we’ve waited, how many years? I could handle another twelve hours of misery. I’m kidding,’ she protested, seeing the pained look on Mitch's face. ‘But what now?’ she asked.

‘Well, I was thinking we could risk staying here a bit longer? If I remember rightly the cleaners won’t disturb us for a while,’ he grinned suggestively at her.

‘No, Mitch I meant what now as in, what now for us?’ Rosie looked at him earnestly. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying this,’ she said, seeing the look of concern on his face. ‘But I think we should talk.’

Mitch leaned his head back on the wall in frustration. ‘Do we have to?’ he said, ‘I’d much rather we just did this instead.’ Rosie attempted to clamber off him but he pulled her back and held her tight, kissing her again. She gave in and enjoyed the new but familiar sensation of being this close to Mitch. But then she pushed him away and stood up, straightening her clothes as she did so.

‘I’m serious, Mitch. We’ve been friends for a long time, we came up with a crazy plan to have a baby together which resulted in you getting a new girlfriend and us having a massive fight, we haven’t spoken to each other in weeks and now this happens? I think we need to talk about things before we go any further.’

Mitch grinned up at her. ‘Any further?’ he questioned. She felt her stomach drop, that grin, that question.

‘Stop it!’ she said but she laughed. ‘Yes, any further.’

Mitch groaned. ‘OK,’ he relented. ‘Where would you like to do this talking? Your place or mine?’

‘Mitch!’ she exclaimed, ‘That’s a terrible pick up. I’m beginning to think you’re not as charming as I thought you were. Is this how you treat all your girls?’

‘No,’ he said taking her hand, ‘just the ones I really, really like.’

ChapterTwenty-Three

Rosie lay resolutely still, refusing to open her eyes and shatter the dream she had been enjoying. She wriggled one arm free and edged her hand across the sheets which were definitely not her Egyptian cotton, reaching for something to reassure her that ithadn'tall been a dream. And there it was, or more accurately, therehewas. Rosie opened her eyes and looked across the bed to where Mitch lay. He was wide awake and smiling at her.

‘Come here,’ he said and pulled her against him, curling himself around her from behind.

‘Mmm. Not a dream then?’ she asked. Mitch laughed and kissed the back of her neck gently, her toes curled with delight and a sleepy smile spread across her face.

‘I don’t normally do this,’ she said a little anxiously.

‘I should hope not.’ Mitch’s reply was muffled as his lips found the edge of her hairline. ‘I’m hoping you’re not sleeping with any of your other best friends,’ he said jokingly.

‘Mitch!’ she protested lazily. ‘You know what I mean!’

Rosie pushed herself up to sitting, wrapping Mitch’s sheets around her as she did so. Despite everything that had happened last night she was suddenly shy of him seeing her in the morning light. Mitch groaned, ‘Can we not just stay here all morning?’

‘I wish.’ Rosie sighed.

Mitch sat up next to her, running his hand through his hair and yawning. He picked his phone up from by the bed. ‘Sadly, you’re right,’ he said looking at the time. ‘I need to be at morning conference, I’m presenting to the editor so I can’t be late, but…’ He pulled Rosie against him and wrapped his arm tight around her resting his chin on her head. ‘You can have me for precisely half an hour more and then I have to go. Do you think we have time to…’

Rosie sighed. Truthfully, there was nothing she would like more than to pin Mitch back down on the bed and waste the day away with him. But he had to leave, and she had work to do too. And they really needed to discuss some things before this went any further. They’d got a bit distracted when they got back to Mitch’s last night.

‘Mitch,’ she said tentatively, ‘can we talk?’

‘If we’re not going to spend the next thirty minutes doing what I really really want to be doing then yes, OK, we can talk instead,’ he conceded. She twisted round in his arms so she was facing him and could see he was smiling. She pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around them and resting her chin on them.

'This whole baby thing for a start?’ She looked carefully at his face, waiting to see what his reaction might be. ‘I know how important it is to you, I know it’s always been your plan, but for me?’ she hesitated ‘I’m not sure how I feel about it.’

A small frown started to appear on Mitch’s forehead. Rosie panicked, this was meant to be a clear the air chat, not a last-night-was-amazing-but-we’re-totally-incompatible chat. She needed to turn this around quickly.

‘I’m not saying I don’t ever want one, I’m just not sure,’ she gabbled. ‘And also, all of this?’ She gesticulated to the space between them, which seemed to be growing with every word that came out of her mouth. ‘It’s all so new. I think we need some time to figure it out, don’t you think?’

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