Page 66 of Fundamentals in Flirting

Again he cut her off, this time with a wave of his hand. He turned to me. “I’m sorry I didn’t ever see any of this for myself before. Is this what she’s always been like with you?”

“Finally, he fucking sees it!” Betsy exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. “Seriously, Teddy, you’ve got the wherewithal of a fruit fly sometimes.”

Teddy huffed a sad little laugh.

“I am so sorry I never saw this before.” Grasping both my hands, he said, “Hannah, you are more beautiful on the outside and on the inside than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

Mandy snorted, but he didn’t even look at her.

“Should we get out of here?”

When I didn’t respond, he gently squeezed my fingers.

“Come on. We can find somewhere quiet and away from everyone.”

“Betsy, you want to come too?” I didn’t want to abandon my wingwoman after she’d saved me so heroically.

“Ah, no, girl. I’m heading home to my wife and a mug of hot chocolate.” Wrapping me in a hug, she whispered in my ear, “You’ve got this. You are so wonderful and beautiful that even this idiot sees it”—she gestured to Teddy, who grinned—“but if all else fails, then there’s always Jamie Dornan. He’s pretty enough that even I could be turned.”

“You’re not going to leave, are you?” Mandy whined, desperation infusing every word. “I was hoping we could all catch up again, like a school reunion. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? Hannah knows I was joking, right, Hannah?”

“I don’t think so, Mandy.”

“Please, Teddy?”

But he had turned away from her and was leading me by the hand towards the side of a large stone building and through an unlit area of the garden.

Pausing, I looked back at Mandy. Her face was mutinous and I said, “Do you know what would be a fun reunion? You trying not to be a total and utter cow every time we run into each other.”

Her expression told me everything I needed to know. “Oh, do fuck off.”

“That’s quite enough from you,” Betsy said, ushering Mandy as far away as possible from me.

* * *

Teddy led the way through a tall gate and into an apple orchard, lit only by the moon and the sprinkling of stars that pierced the night sky.

“Where are we going, Ted?”

“My dad built a treehouse in here when we were kids. It was our favourite place.”

“I’m not sure I can climb a tree in this outfit,” I said, stumbling as my strappy heels dug into the soft grass.

In a sweeping gesture that made me squeak, Teddy turned and picked me up, grinning.

“It’s a great dress, Hannah.”

“You don’t need to carry me! I can walk,” I said petulantly.

But Teddy did not relent, taking me to a large tree that towered over a broken-down stone wall at the far side of the orchard, and as we neared I saw a long rope ladder reaching to the ground.

“But I like carrying you.”

“You’d better not be planning to drop me in a pond again.”

He laughed. “Where’d you get the idea I’d do something like that?”

“You have form, my friend.”

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