Page 59 of The Wedding Pact
‘I’m sorry I got a little carried away,’ she admitted.
‘Don’t be, I think we just both needed it, you know, for what it was – a one-time thing.’
‘That’s true,’ agreed August, wondering if there was a hint of him attempting to sound more convincing than he felt, or whether she imagined it. For her, she was a helium balloon, drifting downwards from the clouds she’d touched for a while.
But while Flynn was under the impression she’d been acting when she kissed him, to August, it was only now that she was acting her heart out.
Chapter 40
August
August booked an emergency dental appointment with Bel the next day.
‘You can’t keep booking emergency appointments with me just to bypass the system,’ Bel said, on closing her examination room door. ‘There’s nothing wrong with your teeth.’
‘Hi, Kenny,’ August said, hopping up on the reclining chair.
‘Hi, sweets. How’s the husband?’
‘Well, I don’t know about my teeth, but my mouth feels a little overworked,’ she hooted to Bel, and fanned herself, her voice portraying quite the golden era starlet.
Bel gasped and Kenny sent a dental probe clattering to the ground. ‘Did you kiss?’ Kenny practically shouted down at her.
‘Kenny, shhh,’ said Bel. ‘Did you kiss? Did you kiss your fake husband but very real flatmate?’
‘It was all just in the name of research.’
‘Researching what, exactly?’
August sat up and took a sip out of the plastic cup of mouthwash beside her, swilled it around in her mouth while she thought, and spat it into the tiny sink.
Bel put her hands on her hips. ‘You know, this isn’t a bar. The mouthwash is for actual patients.’
‘I am a patient; I still have to pay for this appointment so I’m going to make full use of the facilities. Kenny, could you pass me some of those big sunglasses? I fancy lying back under this lovely warm lamp.’
‘Fine, I might as well give you a check while you’re here, then.’
‘Ooh, how about a little dose of that teeth whitening instead?’
‘Now you’re pushing it. Lie back and tell me what the hell happened.’
August snuggled down on the seat, the huge plastic protective glasses on her face. ‘We decided it would be a really good idea to try kissing each other on our own terms, in our own flat, in case the situation ever occurred that we needed to put on a kissing display. Then we’d be able to do it, no big deal, rather than it being this weird, awkward thing we’d never done before.’
‘Wedecided?’ said Bel, standing in front of August, holding one of those tiny mirrors on a stainless-steel rod. ‘That sounds like a classic “August” decision to me.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ August challenged. ‘Actually, that’s probably fair. And it was me who suggested it.’
‘When would you ever “have” to put on a kissing display?’ Kenny piped up, coming into August’s eyeline.
‘Sounds like an excuse to snog your hot flatmate,’ said Bel.
‘And I don’t blame you for a second.’ Kenny agreed.
‘It was not that at all, it was purely part of the act. An extra scene that needed writing, that’s all.’
Bel brought her mask up to her cover her mouth and nose, and said through it, ‘So what was it like?’
‘It wasgood, he’s a good kisser. Whoever dates him is a lucky girl.’
