Page 58 of Yours, Truly

“Both, but I love it,” she smiled, as I handed her a glass of wine. According to Ivy, Nate always dined out or ordered food, despite the fact he could cook, but chose not to. She jumped down from the stool to look over Nate’s shoulder at the dish he was making.

“Where is my brother and what have you done with him?” She asked, playfully. Nate stepped away from the pan and grabbed his sister, and lifted her high off the ground. She screamed as Jude and I laughed at their playfulness. I handed Jude a bottle of his favourite beer and we clinked our drinks together. They were like two kids.

Once Nate put her down, she came over to me, put her arm around my waist, hugging me close. Nate chuckled as he knew Ivy and me were inseparable, that the tiny gesture made our friendship like it was before, before all the secrets.

As Nate focused on the chicken and mushroom risotto he was making, I handed him a glass of neat whiskey and he planted a delicate kiss on my lips that made Ivy gush, before she teased us, “Get a room.”

Nate put down the glass and grabbed me, bridal style, and began to leave the room.

“If you insist, little sister, you can watch the risotto,” Nate teased, as he attempted to carry me to the bedroom. I laughed so loud and blushed.

“Don’t you dare! I love you both but I don’t need to hear that,” she pretended to gag and covered her ears, traumatised by the thought. Nate popped me on the floor and ran to the stove to rescue the risotto he had left for a minute, worried it was going to be ruined.

Nate served the meal and we took a seat at the candle lit dining table that overlooked the city. We knew this dinner would be all about grilling the shit out of each other.

“So… you tried to set us up huh?” Nate enquired, wasting no time at all. He took a scoop of his food, not taking his eyes off Ivy. She blushed and nodded.

“Well, I love you both and I thought it would be perfect. My suspicion started at the engagement party, I noticed the way Nate looked at you. I thought maybe it was worth trying so, at Christmas, I tried to push you two together as much as possible and it obviously worked,” she chuckled, lifting her glass to Jude’s. My eyes narrowed at him, he was in on it too.

Both Nate and I exchanged a glance and a smirk as we thought about Ivy taking the credit.

“Well about that…” Nate began, Ivy peeked over at us, eyeing us suspiciously.

“Remember the guy in Barcelona?” I said, hinting at Ivy, waiting for her to put two and two together.

“Shut the fuck up!” Ivy’s eyes widened as I watched her brain process. “Youwere the one-night stand in Barcelona?” she pointed at her brother, before throwing her hand to her mouth.

“Yep!” I clarified, grabbing Nate's hand, watching him blush under his sister’s gaze. Nate wasn’t sure how much I had told Ivy about that night.

“The fucking watch? That’s why you were late to the engagement party, Gi had your watch in her apartment. FUCK!” She cursed as she figured out the trivial details, she took a sip of her champagne. “So, I didn’t set you up, you were already together!” We nodded to confirm. “Wait, you actually didn’t know who he was in Barcelona?”

“No, I told you. We didn’t know each other; we didn’t exchange names or anything.” I repeated exactly what I had said the weekend I had confessed to her.

“The first time we met was at Mum’s and Dad’s after you guys trashed the place drinking that night.” Nate teased his sister.

“We didn’t trash the place!” we defended in unison, Nate guffawed.

“Fuck, so you guys have been a secret since then?” Ivy was trying to work all of this out. I could see the calculations buzzing around in her head as she replayed all the interactions we’d with each other, around her, trying to figure out when she really noticed.

“Erm, well at first we were secret friends with benefits and then just after Christmas, Nate realised he had feelings for me after he got jealous and wanted to fight my date.” I grinned backat the memory, knowing it would get a reaction from Nate.

“The date with Zak!” Ivy’s eyes widened.

“Fucking Zak” Nate cursed under his breath. It made me roar with laughter that the name still got under his skin.

“So, does this mean you have finally tamed the wild, cocky ‘London Lawyer’ that is my brother, and made him a one-woman guy?” Ivy teased, talking to me but with her glare fixed on Nate. “Because if you hurt my best friend,” she said, addressing him now, “I will kill you and hide your body in the Thames.”

I reached across and grabbed Ivy’s hand, knowing she was dead serious, it was the same thing I had said to Jude all those years ago. Nate put his arm around me and smiled. “I’m not going anywhere,” Nate confessed, “This is it for me.”

Even though I wished I had told Ivy about us back when things started so she could have shared our journey, I didn’t regret our decision anymore. I was super excited to see what laid ahead in our future. After all the ups and downs we had experienced, this moment was my favourite. Where my best friend knew and my boyfriend was smitten. The whole evening flowed. It felt natural and it was nice that Nate’s affection towards me was still the same as it always was. The hand holding, the stolen kisses and just wanting to be close, no matter if Ivy was in the room or not. It hadn’t changed a thing. We didn’t have to hide anymore.

EPILOGUE

ONE YEAR LATER…

Nate and I had bought a family home just outside the city. We split our time between there and the penthouse. We wanted to escape city life and found a dainty village where cobblestones lined the streets, the cottages neatly in a row and the roads were super quiet. Scrap that, the whole area was quiet!

We had a pub, post office and a handful of local shops, a hairdressers and beauty salon, all located by a beautiful church. Everything was old England style, everywhere we looked there were plenty of rose bushes growing, fields that would burst with sunflowers in summer and hills and woodlands as far as the eye could reach. It was something out of a fairytale.

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