Page 51 of Match Point

She shrugs. ‘Other people can write that, Flora. I’m not indispensable.’

‘But you are.’

She gives me a grateful smile. ‘Unfortunately the powers that be don’t always think the same way we do. Anyway, it’s fine. All I can do is keep working my arse off and hopefully they’ll keep me on for a bit longer.’

‘If they let you go, then it’s proof they’re absolute idiots.’

‘They already proved that with you, darling.’ She tips her head back and sighs, adjusting her glasses as she squints into the sun. ‘All this overtime is doing nothing for my love life, though. And I haven’t had time to look for a flat, so I’m stuck with my parents for a bit longer.’

I grimace. ‘How’s that going?’

‘Fucking awful,’ she says bluntly, making me laugh. ‘I hear them fighting all the time and then whenever I enter the room, they go all quiet.’ She hesitates. ‘I think something is going on with them, but they won’t tell me. They treat me like a child still.’

I shrug. ‘Natural for them to want to protect you.’

‘Whatever, I need to move out ASAP. Now, enough about my boring life, let’s talk about you.’ She picks up her cup to take a sip. ‘How is Kieran? Nervous about tomorrow?’

‘I think so, but it’s hard to tell.’ I pause. ‘We almost had sex last night.’

Iris sprays her coffee out all over the table, coughing and spluttering, thudding her chest with her fist. I giggle, passing her a napkin.

‘Flora!’ she cries, dabbing at her mouth with the napkin and then whipping off her sunglasses to stare at me accusingly. ‘What the fuck?!’

‘What?’ I shrug innocently.

She throws her hands up. ‘You let me sit here and talk about WORK and my PARENTS when you and Kieran O’Sullivan almost had sex last night? Why the fuck are we talking about anything else?’

‘Keep your voice down, please,’ I hiss, glancing nervously at the passers-by.

‘How did it happen?’ she asks eagerly, putting her sunglasses back on and leaning across the table towards me. ‘Tell me everything.’

‘I don’t know. We had a glass of wine and then… I don’t know, it got heated.’

‘Oh my God, this is amazing,’ she squeals. ‘Look at your face. You’ve gone all shy! Fuck, Flora, do you like him?’

I bite my lip. It’s one thing admitting to myself that I can’t stop daydreaming about him. A warmth pools in my stomach when I think about him and I love how he makes me feel, somehow shy and confident, excited and terrified, all at the same time. It’s like I’m only scratching at the surface of his character and I’m desperate to know more. I like that he’s started to open up to me. I really like how he kissed me. But to say any of this out loud makes it real. And if it becomes real, then the chance of getting hurt becomes real, too.

‘I don’t know,’ I answer eventually.

Iris leans back in her chair with her arms crossed, a knowing smile spreading across her face. ‘Uh-huh. So what happens now? You live in the same flat. Are you two going to, like, be together?’

‘It was one night,’ I remind her, placing my cup back down in its saucer. ‘And we were interrupted by his coach. We didn’t get the chance to talk about it. Plus, I don’t want him worrying about… stuff like that. He needs to focus on Wimbledon.’

‘That’s true. I hear it could be his last hurrah,’ she remarks, before giving me a hopeful look.

‘You’re not getting anything out of me. Take that journalist hat right off.’

She shoots me a mischievous grin. ‘You know, you’re genuinely glowing. You’ve got to give it to me, Flora, I predicted this. I said this would happen. And there is only one bed in that flat.’

‘I’ve been on the sofa the whole time.’

‘Yeah?’ She snorts as she lifts her cup to her lips. ‘Let’s see how long that lasts.’

*

When Kieran gets back from training that evening, he’s not alone. His whole entourage has accompanied him back to the flat and Neil is talking at him from the moment they step through the front door to when Kieran places his bag down on the floor next to the sofa in the living room. Kieran offers me an apologetic smile as I glance up from the sketch pad resting on my crossed legs on the sofa. Just the sight of him makes me feel giddy.

‘You need to keep focused, Kieran. I don’t know where your head is at today,’ Neil is saying, before he follows Kieran’s eyeline landing on me. ‘Ah.’

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