Page 73 of The Wedding Pact
‘Definitely,’ Flynn enthused. ‘Are the Baths themselves ever open to the public to swim in?’
‘No,’ August replied. ‘But the Thermae Bath Spa is worth a visit for its open-air rooftop pool, all warm and minerally, just like these ones.’
‘Hey, that sounds nice, doesn’t it?’ Flynn said to Poppy. She nodded, though if she was a local, or even a long-term resident, August suspected she’d have visited at least once. ‘Anyway, we’ll let you get back to work, but maybe we could all have dinner together next week or something?’
‘Sure!’ answered August.
‘Sure,’ said Poppy.
August watched as Flynn and Poppy walked away, their hands entwined, and his face turned towards her, smiling. August knew the warmth of how it felt to be on the receiving end of that smile, to be holding that hand, to kiss those lips—
August, she scolded herself.
Chapter 51
Flynn
Poppy was coming to dinner. Although Flynn would have preferred the three of them to meet out somewhere, maybe for pizza or a pub dinner, he was keen for August to get to know Poppy properly, and Poppy was quite insistent about coming to their home.
‘How are you feeling about this evening?’ August asked, chopping into a red bell pepper, side by side with Flynn in the kitchen, as if she were reading his mind.
‘Great,’ he answered.
‘Liar,’ August teased. ‘Are you nervous?’
‘A little … ’ They were prepping fajitas together and Flynn had been unusually silent. A thought was niggling at him, the one he’d been getting more and more recently. When was this going to end? He could tell Poppy what was going on but he’d rather get to know her a little more first, show her she can trust him, because right now he couldn’t imagine she’d be happy to know he and August role-played the happy couple on a daily basis. She definitely wouldn’t like that they’d kissed – not that he’d kissed August again since dating Poppy, and he wouldn’t, but that’s why he needed Poppy to trust him first.
August interrupted his thoughts. ‘Is it because I’m going to be here too? Are you nervous about introducing her to friends? I know we’ve already met, but it’ll be different tonight, won’t it – chatting to each other properly. I hope she likes me.’
Friends. Flynn sliced the chicken in front of him into long strips. Poppy had already met a couple of Flynn’s friends from work. August was more than a friend. She was way more than his flatmate. He stole a glance at her. Like it or not, he didn’t have any family left in the UK, so she was the person in the country that he felt closer to than anyone else. Perhaps that would change in time, and Poppy would become his closest confidante. But right now …
‘I hopeyoulikeher,’ he answered.
‘I’m sure I will,’ she waved the knife hazardously in the air. ‘She seemed nice enough when we met the other day. Also, you’re a nice guy, so you wouldn’t go out with an idiot. Do you think things are getting serious?’ August gasped all of a sudden, pointing the knife towards him. ‘Are you going to want to live with her?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘Like I’ve said before, after what happened with Yui, I’m going to take my time moving in with a girlfriend again.’
‘You took your time with Yui, though; you were together for a year, it’s not like you rushed into it. So try not to measure everything against that, this is a completely different relationship. But also,’ August added, ‘take as many years as you need because I don’t want you to move out.’
‘I wouldn’t move out anyway, you’d have to move out,’ he said, with a smirk.
‘Oh here we go,’ she laughed. ‘You’d have no sob story about living in a hotel this time, my dream home story still stands strong.’ August tipped the contents of her chopping board into the wide pan and grabbed a lime to start rolling about on the counter under her hand, releasing all the juices inside. ‘I still have to just stop what I’m doing sometimes and do a happy dance over living here, after all these years of wishing. I’m a lucky girl.’
‘You’re going to be in London so much when you get that starring role in a West End play, that you won’t even need this place,’ replied Flynn.
‘I can’t believe you’d want to piss off my dead grandmother by forcing me to move out of the home that her dying wish was for me to live in.’
‘It wasnother dying wish.’
‘She will haunt you … ’
At that moment the doorbell buzzed, signalling that Poppy had arrived. Flynn put down his own knife and gave his hands a quick wash. ‘I’ll go and get her up here. No talk of ghostly grandmas, okay?’
‘She heard that,’ August retorted. ‘She says you’re already on thin ice and she wouldn’t want to make the dining table move across the room while Poppy is sitting at it.’
Flynn grinned and walked out of the apartment, poking his head back in quickly to add, ‘Seriously though, it’swaytoo early to worry about Poppy and I living together.’
Chapter 52
