Page 36 of The Wedding Game

‘Shall we make tikka masala from scratch?’ he suggests, eyeing up the contents of his fridge.

‘I don’t know how to do that,’ I confess. ‘I’m very good at ordering from Deliveroo, though.’

He casts me a look. ‘City girl.’

‘I think I could easily learn not to be a city girl,’ I say absently as I watch him open cupboard doors, pulling fresh meat wrapped in paper from the fridge. He nestles some jarred spices among the bundle in his arms, and I go to retrieve a few of the glass jars before they fall.

‘Could you?’ he asks. ‘Really?’

I’m distracted by the fresh produce, which looks like it’s come from a swanky farm shop rather than a supermarket. ‘Could I what?’

‘Learn not to be a city girl?’

I’m not sure exactly what Josh is asking, so I don’t probe further, just in case. ‘I guess so, yeah.’

‘Do you have to go back to London tomorrow night, as planned?’ he asks.

‘Er, yeah, obviously, because …’ My sentence trails off as I think. ‘No,’ I say slowly. ‘No, I don’t. Why do you ask?’

‘Stay here a little bit longer?’

I lean back against the counter and look at Josh intently. ‘How much longer?’

He shrugs. ‘Couple of days? Maybe more?’

‘Um …’

Come with me. Come with me to New York.I blink Chris’s words away. I said no to that. I can’t say no to Josh too. I can’t keep saying no to every offer that comes my way. What will happen to my life if I never say yes to anything? I feel torn, but remind myself it’s only a couple of days. My confidence was knocked when Simon cheated on me. I’ve gone from feeling so low, to terrible dates. And now it’s going so well with Josh. If it was going badly, it would be an easyno.And what else do I have going on?

‘It’s not like you’ve not brought enough clothes,’ he teases, which makes me laugh.

‘Are you sure?’ I question. ‘Haven’t you got enough going on without me crowding your space?’

‘I’ll be on the farm all day, and you can come down and feed the calves or help out a bit if you want; and if you don’t want … you can chill out here or walk into the village, or whatever.’

‘I brought my laptop for the train journey, but I’ve not even opened it. So I can work on my portfolio a bit maybe and apply for jobs while you’re working,’ I tell him.

Josh nods and begins unwrapping the chicken, his attention seemingly diverted by this. ‘I’d really love to see your portfolio,’ he says.

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ I say shyly. ‘It’s not ready, but in the peace and quiet here for a few days I could probably get myhead down and get on with finally tidying it up, editing some photos, working on my thought process – you know.’

He looks back at the chicken he’s dicing and then back at me. ‘So … is that a yes?’ he asks, and it’s his turn to look shy.

‘OK,’ I reply. And then because I’m not the kind of girl who subscribes to the ‘treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen’ philosophy, I move over to him, take his face in mine and kiss him. ‘Josh, I really like you.’

He looks at me after we’ve finished kissing. ‘I really like you too.’

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The next day our decadent lazy Sunday morning in bed is ruined by the heavy sound of the front door slamming closed, even though neither Josh nor I is anywhere near it.

Josh doesn’t look too concerned, but I flick a glance towards him.

‘Have you got a ghost?’

‘What? No.’

‘What’s that noise then?’

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