Page 70 of The Wedding Game

‘That’s better,’ she says, sitting back. ‘Why. Are. You. Frowning?’ she pleads.

I tell her and when I’ve finished my rant – because it is a rant – I’m fuming. She looks confused.

‘And this is the guy from the wedding where you met Josh? The same guy who got you the job?’

I nod.

‘Chris, who worked in the Union bar with Grey, before I worked there? The perfect guy?’

I nod and then add quickly, ‘No. Josh is the perfect guy.’

‘Josh was thesecondguy,’ she says. ‘You told me you’d met someone who was perfect, but that it couldn’t go any further. I remember that. Then you met Josh, all hell broke loose and you snogged his face off.’

‘It doesn’t matter who I said was perfect at the time.’

‘But Chris thinks you’ll fall in love with him if you go anywhere near him?’

‘I … I think I’m phrasing this badly. He didn’t actually say that. He just sort of pointed out it wasn’t worth the risk.’

‘Oh,’ Scarlet says as she sips her ginger-and-turmeric shot. ‘Well, that’s kind of … nice of him.’

I make a face. ‘Is it, though?’

‘Yes. It is. He doesn’t want you to get hurt. He doesn’t want to get hurt, and he doesn’t want anybody else involved to get hurt, either. So you’re now simply work colleagues. Chris obviously thinks that’s a good thing and – I’ll be honest – so do I.’

‘Oh,’ I say, deflating.

‘I feel,’ Scarlet starts up again, ‘that you would like to keep seeing Chris and keep talking to him,’ she analyses. ‘And that would mean you’re open to the – hopefully very faint – possibility of it ending in disaster and a few people getting hurt.’

I swallow.

‘And as much as I love you, that’s dangerous and probably not very nice. For anyone,’ she says diplomatically.

‘You think I’m a bad person?’

‘That’s not what I said. I just think Chris has thought it through, and you haven’t. And remember what I said about men and women being friends.’

‘Chris said that too,’ I point out and I curse myself for helping along his argument.

‘The problem is, you sound as if you had a real connection in a short amount of time. You both felt it, but that moment has passed. And now you’re trying to make it work with other people.’

‘I’m nottryingto make it work with Josh,’ I say. ‘Itisworking with Josh.’

‘OK, then that’s great. Case closed. And, Lexie,’ Scarlet sounds exasperated now, ‘I don’t think you’re a bad person. But if, after being warned off by Chris and me, you go and open that door with him again … then I do think you have the potential to be a bad person.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

April

‘He told you he loves you?’ Scarlet squeals.

‘Yes,’ I squeal equally excitably, when I return to our flat after another lovely weekend spent with Josh. This has become our routine over the past couple of months. I work from home midweek, because I’m in and out of the city so often. Then, on Friday nights, I head to Josh’s. It’s like living two different lives. I relish being so busy in my job and I love the time off I get with Josh from Friday to Sunday night. It was one of those gorgeous warm weekends when we could sit out and have lunch in his garden, surrounded by tulips and daffodils. It felt a shame to return to London this time.

Scarlet springs up from the sofa, where she’s cradling her phone in one hand and the TV control in the other. We both jump up and down with excitement, hugging each other as if one of us has won the Lottery. I feel as if Ihave. I am in a relationship and it is going well. I tell myself this a lot.

‘You didn’t text me and tell me!’ she exclaims.

‘There wasn’t time, what with all the telling one anotherwe love each other all weekend. Josh also mentioned me moving in with him.’

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