Page 87 of The Cake Fairies
“All of a sudden, everywhere I looked, there was this name: Polly.” At the sound of those five letters, her pulse betrayed her. She rubbed at her fingers in a bid to stay cool. “I’d read a newspaper article. Polly somebody had written it. I’d watch TV. Polly was reporting.Der er endda en tøjbutik– sorry,undskyld… I mean there’s even a designer clothes shop called Pretty Polly at the end of my London street.” In that case she might let him off for gifting her the annoying nickname. “Oh, andPollythe musical just happened to be on in the West End when I started at The Ox; I’d pass those gold and silver light bulb-studded words on my way to work, like they were shouting it out from the rooftops just for me: ‘She’s here! Polly’s in London! And now you finally know why every past relationship was doomed to fail before it started!’”
He gently reached out to tuck a loose strand of Polly’s hair behind her ear, fingertips searing her cheek – in a good way… which meant that earlier shiver down her spine must have been a good shiver…
Too late to even wonder.
His lips were upon hers, the glorious surge of a billion sunrises melting her core. Forget anything a Glastonbury Festival drug could offer Polly was officially twirling in a helix of ecstasy. Putty in his hands. In his utterly capable Scandinavian hands.
New lives could have been born, old lives could have made their transition, multi-dimensional lives – lives such as her own very strange one – could have jumped all over timelines during that thoroughly passionate kiss, and she’d never have known. And countless were the cakes that could have been baked all over the British Isles. Time simply stood still with Alex. She couldn’t explain it if she tried, but it was like the hands of the clock really did cease to tick forward or back. There were no worries about the past. There was no fear of a solitary life of spinsterhood in the future. Alex tethered her to the now; the present moment they shared seemingly stretching out before them into forever. However long forever turned out to be.
Polly broke away and shook her head. This had to be a fantasy. Every last delicious drop of it. “As indescribably good as that was… we don’t go together, Alex. You look like a model. Which doesn’t mean I’m bad looking but on paper we…”
And then she remembered the accolades of Glastonbury Festival, and the way it had led her to promise herself she would never think along those lines again.
“How can you measure our compatibility by looks? How can you rate our chances like that?” Alex looked so wounded. It was too painful to watch. “I’m done with this silent judgement. I’ve had it all my life, Polly. And it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s triggered some very dark spells – never more so than since moving to London, even if there is a little more daylight. Maybe I sound ungrateful, but I wish people would stop branding me this sexy blond caricature. I do have a personality inside! It’s like sometimes, I swear… I just want to go to work in a bin bag… or… or have one of my theatre friend part-timers in the café bring in a prosthetics make-up artist to turn me into something out ofThe Rocky Horror Show. Maybe then I’d be taken seriously?”
Polly really couldn’t imagine that being so delectable could ruin anybody’s life. This was a wake-up call and a half. Poor Alex. It seemed he constantly had to prove that he was deserving of merit, inside and out.
“But you…” He cupped her face in his hands. Her stomach turned to jelly. “You’re so different to any other girl I’ve ever met, at least I thought you were.” Oh, she was,she was. “You know your worth, Polly Williams.” Well, she wouldn’t say that, but she was definitely getting better at it. “You don’t throw yourself at my feet.”Believe me,thought Polly,I want to. “And that makes me feel that you know my worth too.” Oh, she did, she did. “That it’s not just some kind of cheap thrill superficial attraction. You can’t even be swayed by my godawful chat-up lines… the one-liners I hide behind.”
Polly laughed, thankful that he knew just how terrible his attempts at flirtation really were, then thinking better of it when she realised, he was trying to be profound. Shit. She hadn’t even contemplated he’d be battling a crisis of confidence. This was going to take some getting her head around.
“And you’ve never once put on an act, the handful of times that we’ve been together.” Hmm, did he really have to remind her of that bit? “Yet, as short as those times have been,” he put his head in his hands. “Brace yourself for the corny, after all I’ve said, but it feels like we’ve known each other for a lifetime. And I can’t help but get a hunch that I’m supposed to be spending the rest of mine with you.”
“Until someone better comes along.” She scowled at her words, but she was powerless to hold them back. “I’ve spent my life,”actually, make that lives,“being abandoned in one way or another. I’m just not strong enough to do it again.”
“If this is about the looks thing, then I’ve officially run out of words to reassure you… Polly, Polly,Polly: it couldn’t be simpler. You’re the most exquisite example of radiant beauty in the world! I’m nobody special, I swear. Most men in Denmark have my blue eyes. We were Vikings! We still are. That’s why, despite what I said earlier up in the apartment, I refuse to give up without a fight. You’ll see when I take you to Tivoli. Then you’ll probably end up doe-eyed over all the other Vikings and I’ll bawl my sapphire eyes out because fate has backfired on me.” Oh, hell. That would mean going on a plane and totally getting over her fear of heights, much as the idea of zipping off on the horizon anywhere with Alex made her heart soar heavenward. “And then there are men like my older brother. Undeniably good looksandundeniably high IQ”
“I prefer a man with a bit of emotional intelligence.”
“Oh.” Sighed Alex. “He has that, too.”
