Page 75 of A Wonderland Wish on Ever After Street
‘Always time for tea.’ I can’t resist the opportunity to make use of his favourite quote.
He’s about to go and start making it when I clamp a hand on his shoulder and push him downwards because the circles under his eyes are so dark that it looks like he’s still wearing eyeliner, even though he isn’t. ‘Sit down. You look exhausted and you’ve been making me tea since the moment I met you. Let me.’
I boil the kettle and throw a teabag into two glitter-sprinkled mugs as quickly as possible, and then carry the tray over and set it on the table between us.
‘Cake?’ He looks at me expectantly, like serving tea without cake is one of the most scandalous crimes a person can commit.
‘I don’t have any. I didn’t make anything last night because I was too scared of it being “inspected” and I couldn’t very well let him inspect supermarket-bought cakes.’
‘Ah, but I do. I always come prepared.’
‘Prepared for situations where you might need cake at a moment’s notice?’
‘Exactly.’ He flashes the Mad Hatter grin at me and beckons me to sit forward and leans closer so he can reach a hand across the table and his fingers hover in my peripheral vision.
‘Bram, if you’re about to pull a cake out from behind my ear, I won’t be responsible for my actions!’
He laughs, but instead of a cake, he pulls a card out from behind my ear and hands it to me. The Ace of Hearts. I can’t help smiling as I turn it over between my fingers and watch as he gets a cardboard cake box out of his bag.
He opens it out on the table and inside are two cupcakes in the shape of teapots, covered with lemon-coloured fondant icing and decorative green piping, with a fondant handle formed on the side. ‘They need better decoration, which is where you come in, but I thought they’d be really fun and Wonderland-ish in the display case. And I was trying to be productive while I couldn’t sleep last night. Thought I might have to bribe you to talk to me, and cake was my best bet.’
I go to grab us two plates and he lifts the cupcakes from the box and passes one over. I pop a bit in my mouth and can’t hide the noise of pleasure at the sweet lemon-and-lime taste, and he sips his tea, and it’s blatantly obvious that we’re both putting off the actual talking part of this conversation, but neither of us seem willing to face it head-on.
‘He hasn’t got away with it,’ Bram says eventually, without needing to clarify who he’s talking about. ‘Plenty of his colleagues were at the wedding – they heard everything you said and were far from impressed to hear he’s been using his position to bully employees. He’s got questions to answer for an internal investigation and he’s been “relieved” of some duties, and Mrs Willetts has been appointed as co-councillor for the Ever After Street area to ensure everything is handled fairly in the future.’
‘That’s good. Almost as good as this cupcake.’ I eat another piece and take a deep breath. ‘Bram…’
‘I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you about the tearoom,’he blurts out before I get any further. ‘It wasn’t meant to get as messy as it did. Yeah, I was going to take this place on, and yeah, I didn’t expect someone else to come along at the last minute, but I believe things happen for a reason, and I was okay with that. At first, it was irrelevant, I didn’t expect to get close to you, and I didn’t think you needed to know. And then my father used it as blackmail material, and the sabotage incidents started, and suddenly it became a big deal, and I was right in the middle of it, and I didn’t know what to do. And then the other day, when it came out, I froze up. I could feel you slipping away and I didn’t know how to stop it happening. I was exposed and vulnerable and I didn’t have my usual shields up, and in front of so many people… My shutters came down and I turned defensive. I could feel everyone in that room turning against me, and I panicked. It was like my father’s shadow had crept in and eclipsed yet another part of my life.’
‘I was wrong to doubt you.’
‘I lied to you, Cleo. You weren’t wrong to doubt me.’
‘I was wrong to doubt you in front of so many people, then. By the time I realised that it reallywasa conversation we should’ve had in private, it was too late. It was just… I didn’t expect to hear that, and the shock took over all logical thought.’
His hand is lying on the table, and I reach over and give it a squeeze, deciding to voice something I’ve figured out in the last few days. ‘Itwasyou who persuaded your father to look at my application, wasn’t it?’
His eyes flick up to mine like he didn’t expect me to know that and then flick back down to our joined hands and he nods.
‘Even though you knew what might happen? You knew there was a chance he’d go with my idea?’
‘Yeah. I meant what I said about wanting the best for Ever After Street. I know the council have to go with the best option, and Iknewthat was you – you were so much more of a better fit than I ever would’ve been.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me that the other day? It would’ve made a difference.’
‘I didn’t want you to know.’ He sighs and shrugs at the same time. ‘I have a thing about people liking me – you know that. If you liked me, I wanted it to be because you liked me, not because you thought you owed me something. The other day, I wanted you to know I was telling the truth because you trusted me, not because I suddenly pulled an ace from my sleeve.’ He looks up and winks at me. ‘And I’m weird, sometimes that’s the only explanation you need.’
‘And I love every single weird thing about you.’
He lets out a loud laugh and smiles like he couldn’t stop himself if he wanted to and pushes his chair back to stand up. ‘Okay, you don’t get to say things like that without letting me kiss you. May I?’
‘If you think you need to ask permission every time you kiss me, we’ve got a probl?—’
Before I’ve finished the sentence, he’s pulled my chair out, turned it to face him, and crouched down in front of me. One hand is on my thigh and the other slides upwards to cup my head and he crushes our lips together.
I let out a happy sigh and one leg hooks around him to keep him close as our mouths meet. The force of the kiss has knocked his baseball cap off and his mouth is hot and he tastes of tea and the sweetness of the cake. His hands are everywhere, and mine are all over him, clawing at him, unable to pull him closeenough, like the emotions of missing him so much in the past few days finally break loose.
I can feel the glitter on our lips from the mugs, and this has got to be the sparkliest kiss ever, which is somehow really fitting for someone who’s made my life sparkle since the moment I met him.
