Page 23 of The Wedding Game

‘But as if I could turn you down. Especially as you paid for the drinks.’

He smiles and looks thoughtful. ‘I’d forgotten about that.’

By the time we reach our main courses we’ve drunk most of the bottle of wine and have agreed to order a second.

‘You don’t have to drive then?’ Josh asks me as two plates of roast beef and all the trimmings are placed in front of us. There’s so much food, but I’m starving, and I haven’t lined my stomach enough for the amount of wine I’m drinking. I’m having a really nice time. Josh is so easy to talk to; he’s kind of sweet too, sort of unsure of himself, but handsome enough to carry it off.

‘Drive? In central London?’ I ask. ‘Of course not. Do you?’

‘No, but I’ve got to get up stupid early in the morning.’

‘Well, yeah, it is Monday tomorrow,’ I say. ‘How early is stupid early?’

‘Five-thirty a.m.’

‘Ugh! Why?’

‘Work,’ he replies and then asks me, ‘What do you do?’

I tell him I’m temping while I work my way towards something better, although I’m not really sure what thatbetteractually is. I tell him I want to be an interior designer one day, and then I wait for the inevitable advice to be dispensed, but Josh doesn’t offer any, simply saying, ‘Great. I’ve no idea how office jobs work. Is it an easy leap from temping on reception to interior design?’

‘Of course not,’ I say. ‘Oh, wait, you’re taking the piss.’

‘A little bit,’ he replies and leans forward to top up both our glasses. ‘Do you … have a plan as to how you can become an interior designer? Can you temp and study for it at the same time?’

‘The thought of doing another degree fills me with dread, but now that I know I really do want to be a designer, I’ve started thinking about courses that won’t suck three years of my life out of me.’

‘Can you do an online one or an evening one, or … I dunno how it works.’

‘I suppose I’m having so much trouble actually finding anormaljob that it didn’t seem realistic to take my fantasies about mydreamjob any further right now. I’ve been focusing on working on my portfolio and hoping an internship in a design company might crop up.’

Josh nods, but looks unconvinced. I’m sure I do too. ‘I might have another little look at courses when I get home later,’ I tell him. And I will, although I need to get a proper job in order to fund a course. I shudder inwardly.

I direct my gaze fully at him, noticing again those little flecks of grey within his blue eyes, a little frown line runningvertically in between his eyebrows. He looks a little rough around the edges, kind of rugged, not too perfect.

He looks back at me and there’s a quiet moment between us until I think we both realise we’re looking at each other for far too long. I take a mouthful of the delicious roast beef in order to avert my gaze. I still haven’t started on the cauliflower cheese yet, but I fully intend to. I might not eat this well again for months.

‘How’s your food?’ he asks, gesturing to my plate.

‘It’s incredible,’ I say. ‘I think it’s the best beef I’ve ever had. I regret drowning it in so much gravy now. It’s like butter, does that make sense? Like if silk was a food.’ I start on the cauliflower cheese.

He laughs. ‘If silk was a food,’ he echoes thoughtfully.

‘Where do you live?’ I ask, putting my knife and fork down for a bit. I want to look polite and not as if I’m eating for survival – which I am.

‘Somerset,’ he says.

I frown. ‘Which bit of London is that?’

He laughs. ‘It’s not,’ he replies. ‘It’s just at the bottom of the Cotswolds.’

‘Oh,’ I say, and I’m sure my mouth has dropped open. ‘You live inthe Cotswolds?’

‘Yeah.’

I sit back, stare at him. ‘Really?’

It’s his turn to frown, to stare back at me. ‘Yeah.’

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