Page 61 of A Midnight Kiss on Ever After Street
He’s still got my hand in his and he pulls me closer. His fingers stroke my hair like he did that night and overwhelming love for him surges up so strongly that I might burst.
‘Why would I hate you?’ His tongue wets his lips and his head dips towards mine and that flutter of excitement at finally getting to kiss him again sends sparkles dancing through my veins. The key clatters onto the counter as my hand goes to stroke through his hair and pull him the rest of the way down…
I don’t realise those are famous last words until Ebony interrupts nanoseconds before our lips touch.
‘Wait,hedidn’t know?’ She sounds confused. ‘Are you not in it together? You’re telling me that you did all of thison your own? Even Prince Charming himself wasn’t part of creating this Cinderella story?’
‘It wasn’t… No onecreatedit – it just kind of happened.’
‘Publicity juggernauts like this don’t justhappen. I could have hired the best advertising agency in the world and they wouldn’t have come up with something so inspired and tailor-made to our shop and Ever After Street. Brilliant, Sadie, absolutely top-notch.’
It’s the first time in recent years that I can remember Ebony paying me a compliment – I just wish it wasn’t in relation tothis.
‘Heaven’s me, I didn’t know you had it in you. If I’d known what you were planning to use the ball for, I’d havegivenyou that ticket happily. I’ve been so angry at you for going against my instructions, but all along, you’ve been doing exactly what I told you to.’
It makes me uncomfortable and the hairs at the back of my neck prickle in a bad way. This has taken on a typical Ebony cynicism and she’s made it sound so much more calculated than it was.
‘What?’ Witt was still leaning in, with a softness of that about-to-be-kissed haze, and he instantly stands upright.
‘On the night of the ball, I told you to, didn’t I? I said this shop would be yours the moment you showed me you could do something spectacular on the marketing front, and my God, you’ve succeeded.That’swhy you kept it from me. You’ve been trying to prove a point all along.’
‘Well, yes, but…’ I trail off, unable to find the words to defend myself. She’s made it seem cold and callous when it was never meant to be that way.
Witt’s stiffened and taken a large step away from me, and I suddenly realise how bad this sounds. ‘Witt, this is not what you think. I told her I wanted the shop that night, at midnight, when I got home. She gave nothing but vague brush-offs, excuses, something about being out of my depth and not knowing how to handle the marketing and publicity side of the business…’ I trail off because the dismayed look on his face suggests I’m digging myself in deeper.
‘That’swhy you went to the ball! Did you just get lucky and stumble across him or did you pick out an awkward loner beforehand?’ Ebony glances at him. ‘No offence.’
‘Oh, none taken. I assure you, it takes more than that to offend me.’ His eyes are stone cold when he looks at me. ‘Being used, for example, is something that offends me.’
‘Witt, no. She’s made it sound premeditated and it was never like that. That morning, I was still upset about arguing with her the night before, and then you were there with the shoe. And I was angry at you for not recognising me, and then for downplaying the night we’d spent together – for making it all about business. You wanted to find me because my “whimsical storytelling” would con potential buyers into upping their offers. Every relationship I’ve ever been in has ended because it was all about what the other person wanted from me – and I didn’t want the Prince Charming from the night before to be the same. I was upset at myself for being so forgettable, so unimportant to anyone that the only appealing thing about me was what I knew of the castle. The idea of putting the dress in the window was just an excuse to put something beautiful on show that Ebony wouldn’t be able to argue about. Every time I put a dress I’m proud of on display, she changes it, but this time, she couldn’t. And then Scarlett got involved with the website and the contact forms and the emails, and it all spun out of control. It was never meant to go as far as it has.’
‘But she’s right, isn’t she? From the moment you opened the door that morning, you knew who I was. You knew whoyouwere. You knew the posters and the website stuff made me uncomfortable, and you could have stopped it at any time. I want to believe everything you’ve just said about why you didn’t tell me, but this…Thismakes a heck of a lot more sense. The main, andonly, reason you couldn’t tell me who you were… is because that dress in the window has bought alotof attention to The Cinderella Shop.’
‘And Ever After Street,’ Ebony says cheerfully, not realising the gravitas of this situation. I can feel panic rising at the look in his eyes and the hard set of his jaw. I knew he’d be hurt by this, but I underestimatedhowhurt.
‘It was all for the publicity, wasn’t it? For the tweets and shares and likes and pins and views. You’ve even told me that without telling me. Youtoldme the shop was in trouble. You’ve told me about the need to get customers back. You’ve told me about your opposition to Ebony’s way of doing things and how you wanted to prove that your ideas had merit. Scarlett even said, literally yesterday, that the dress was staying in the window because of how many customers it was bringing in, and I never realised. I knew it was good for your business, but I’d separated the two. I thought the advantage for the shop was just a side effect of us getting to know each other, a secondary benefit of exploring whatever we felt that night at the ball. I’m so stupid.’ He smacks his forehead. ‘I thought you were the one person who was different. I never realised that it wasallabout the business. The sole reason for dragging this out is because if we had “found” you, the website visitors and retweets would have dried up.’ The anger is making him stumble over his words and he keeps having to repeat himself. ‘I was just a means to an end, wasn’t I?’
I don’t know what to say. What todo. It started off being about the publicity, but it quickly became so much more. When he puts it like that, it sounds indefensible. ‘No. God no, of course not. I know how it looks, and yes, at first it was just an opportunity to help the shop, but as soon as I got to know you, Witt, as soon as we started spending time together… the publicity didn’t matter any more. It wasn’t about that.’
‘Did this story fall into your lap at exactly the right moment? Or did you actually set out to orchestrate your own Cinderella story that night? Was the whole thing perfectly planned? From meeting me in the study to our magical evening under the stars to running off at the stroke of midnight? Because it suddenly makes so much sense that that’s exactly what it was. A carefully coordinated storybook moment. All you needed was a stupid,silentPrince Charming.’
I don’t know how to defend myself. I knowhowit sounds. How it looks, and I know what he thinks about love and how this must look to someone who is so fiercely guarded and never lets people get close because people only want to get close if they can use you, and that’s exactly what I’ve done. I didn’t tell him who I was because not telling him ultimately benefited me, and I don’t know how to make him believe that even though it started off as a marketing idea, it didn’t end up as one.
I reach out for his hand and he yanks it back and moves out of my reach so fast that his hip hits the counter, hard enough to jangle the key that’s still lying there. I feel a splash on my chest and realise it’s because tears are dripping off my chin, and for one second, his face softens.
‘I was just going to put the dress in the window. Scarlett came up with the posters and the websitebeforeshe knew—’
‘Oh.’ He lets out a sarcastic bitter laugh. ‘So shedidknow then? You could trust her with this supposedly unsharable secret that you couldn’t bring yourself to tell me. The two of you must’ve cooked this whole thing up together.’
‘No! I hadn’t intended to tell anyone, but she put two and two together because of my reaction when you came in with the—’
‘Don’t tell me, she even helped you get ready for the ball?’
‘Well, yes, but not in that way.’ Oh, God. This is getting worse and I’m digging a bigger hole and I don’t know how to stop it. ‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘She’d seen you in the dress? From the moment she showed me the returned dresses, youbothset this whole thing up.’
‘No, of course not. She’d never seen it. She’d had a client in the afternoon and left before I—’
