Page 70 of Pansies

“Seriously?”

“It wasn’t straight off or anything. Took him to dinner first.”

Greg laughed. “You’re such a romantic.”

“Don’t take the mick, man. I’m not in the mood.”

“I’m not. I’ve always liked the way you just…do stuff sometimes, instead of second-guessing yourself or worrying about what people will think of you.” He was slurring a little, and Alfie wondered if he’d been drinking.

“So you’re saying you admire my commitment to looking like an idiot?”

“I’m pretty sure looking like an idiot is the very definition of romance.”

“I’m pretty sure it isn’t.”

“Put it this way,” said Greg after a moment. “I can’t think of many people I’d be willing to look like an idiot for.”

Alfie found himself staring at his cabbage—the exterior petals had spread, revealing a roselike swirl of dark pink. “He still said no.”

“Because you… Because of your past?”

“Not exactly.”

“What was it, then? Didn’t you click?”

“I wouldn’t have asked him out if we hadn’t clicked. There’s clicking. There’s…lots of clicking. We clicked all over the bonnet of my car.”

“Gosh, you didn’t click me on your car.”

“Greg.”

“Sorry. Sorry. So what happened after you, err, clicked?”

Alfie let out a long breath that sounded more like a groan. “His mam died.”

“Right then?”

“No, no, like over a year ago.”

“Oh phew. I mean, not phew. That’s awful. But less awful than her dying while you were trying to put your dick in her son.”

“That’s not funny, mate. Have some fucking respect.”

He couldn’t see Greg’s face, but somehow he felt him flinch down the line. “I’m sorry. But I don’t see what his mother dying ages ago has to do with you?”

“He’s confused and messed up about it and doesn’t want to take a chance on me on top of everything else. I get it.”

“Awww, sweetheart. Your big romantic gesture came to nothing.”

Well. Yes and no. “It wasn’t really like that,” Alfie admitted. “I kind of wrecked his bathroom and then took him for a curry. That’s not exactly ‘tread softly because you tread on my dreams.’”

Greg gave a lovelorn sigh. “You never quoted Yeats for me either.”

“It was in that Sean Bean movie you made me watch.”

“I bet he’d have wanted you if he knew you were into Yeats.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t help.”

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