Page 75 of Dreams Come True at the Fairytale Museu
‘Once. It started this September when I arrived here. It was a nice feeling and I wasn’t ready to give it up. Berrington Developments is not the company my father wanted to start. It’s the company that got all twisted up with my mother’s bitterness and grief and her single-minded dedication to ensuring no one ever felt anything deeply enough to get their heart broken again. Nothing has ever been more soul-destroying than going back to that office after being here, and knowing what they’d done with that video. My father wanted to make the world better by bringing new builds to areas that would benefit from them – not by destroying beautiful places that bring charm and magic and light to everyone they touch, and I hadn’t realised how caught up I’d got in all that until I came here and saw the real-life impact of what my company wanted to do. I’ve known I was going to leave for weeks now, but I had to make sure I could take this with me.’ He points to the envelope on the table and takes a step towards me. ‘I know I messed up, Liss. I should have taken that camera down – or never put it up in the first place – and I definitely should have triple-checked who had access to the footage. I shouldn’t have lied about the most likely outcome for the museum and what my job really was. I’m so sorry. There’s no excuse and there’s no way of truly making up for it.’
‘It’s not about making up for it. It’s about… proving you were who I thought you were.’ I tilt my head and try to catch his eyes. ‘Itwasyou who wrote that first post, wasn’t it? The one that mentioned finding meaning in life again?’
His eyes meet mine across the garden. ‘So youdidread my wish after all…’
‘Yeah. Sorry, it was so personal that it wasn’t easy to tell you. If I’d known it was going to be something like that, I would have left it well alone.’
‘You made it come true, you know. Being with you, seeing everything you do, it showed me what had been missing from my life. Reading those wishes, having the privilege of granting some of them… it made me feel alive again. I meant what I said the other day – I’ve never been happier than when I was crouching behind a pile of binbags with you. I want to spend the rest of my days hiding behind bins with you, helping people believe in magic and goodness and hope. I know you didn’t intend it that way, but your magical wishing well granted the wish I made to appease you, back when I thought this was just another job, that it wouldn’t have any impact on me or change my life in any way. I don’t deserve it, but can you forgive me?’
I glance at the envelope on the table and then at the windows of the castle, where I can see the silhouettes of multiple shadows, trying not to twitch the curtains and look out. Even my friends must have forgiven him because they’ve gone to all this trouble to throw us together.
And I missed him. So, so much. Seeing him tonight wasn’t just a shock – it was arelief. Since he left the other day, all I’ve wanted is to see him again. I know that I could say no and he’d leave, and I really would never have to see him again, but the thought of letting him go makes my hands start shaking and my stomach turns over and feels like there’s a swarm of irate bees buzzing angrily inside it.
I push myself up, walk over on unsteady legs, and wrap my arms around him.
It takes a few seconds for him to react and then his arms slide around me too, uncertainly like he’s still reserving judgement on whether this hug is a good thing or a bad thing.
‘This seems like a good sign,’ he murmurs into my neck, and it makes me let go of all pretences and cling onto him. My hands slide into his hair and grasp at his arms, desperately inhale his aftershave, and he holds me so close that it’s only possible to take shallow breaths, and that’s all we do. For long minutes, we just clutch onto each other and breathe, and when he eventually pulls back without taking his arms from around me, I reach up and cup his face.
‘Are you okay? You look like you haven’t slept since last month.’ I rub my thumb over his cheek and look into his emotional blue eyes.
‘Yeah, it’s pretty hard to sleep when you’ve lost the best thing that’s ever happened to you and you’ve only got yourself to blame. But I will be… I have a hospital appointment in January to getthisre-fitted and see if there’s anything else I can do to improve it.’ He points to his hearing aid and I reach up until I can rub my thumb over his earlobe and he shivers in my arms in a way that’s not connected to the cold.
His eyes slowly drift shut. ‘Never in a million years did I think I’d let anyone see that, get that close, and just…trustthem not to treat me differently because of it.’
I lean up and press my lips to his cheek, and the noise he makes is nothing louder than a shivery, shuddery breath, but it’s a sound that speaks so many volumes about how much he’s struggled, and how different life can be with the right support.
‘What will you do now? For work, I mean.’ I pull back until I can cup his face again, and I love how reluctant he is to open his eyes and let reality back in to this dreamy closeness.
‘I’m actually going cap in hand around all the fairytale museums in the area, looking for a job and a girlfriend…’
I laugh out loud. ‘Any specific job?’
His mouth contorts as he gives it some serious thought. ‘Museum marketing manager? Gift shop overseer? Chief beanstalk builder?’
‘I think one of those could be arranged. Full disclosure though, it does not come with a company car and fancy suits are prohibited. Deal?’
His grin is so wide that his jaw must be aching as he leans down to kiss my cheek. ‘Best deal I’ve ever made.’
‘Any specific girlfriend?’ I can’t stop smiling either as he stands back up again, his arms still around me.
‘No, any will do, I’m not fussed.’ He laughs when I smack his shoulder. ‘Yes, one very, very specific girlfriend, Liss. The woman who got under my skin from day one, with her bright colourful hair and matching attitude, who makes magic and wishes and fairies seem real, and makes me feel like I’mdancingin fairydust and floating above the clouds.’
His fingers twist in my hair as he tucks it back and dips his head until his nose can rub against mine, which is either a romantic gesture or an attempt to warm up because both our noses are like ice, and we end up giggling against each other’s mouths and losing track of the conversation.
My fingers stroke his hair back as he touches his lips tentatively to mine, soft at first, careful and caring, his fingers running all over me, like he’s trying to convince himself that this isn’t a dream, and I’m lost in that distant, otherworldly feeling too, still convinced someone’s going to wake me up any second and I really am going to be out here alone, having an imaginary-chair-induced fantasy.
The thought makes me grasp at him harder, because if this is some sort of daydream, I want to make the absolute most of it, and he’s definitely thinking the same thing because the kiss turns harder and hotter. His stubble grazes across my skin and I gasp against his mouth, nip at his lips, and the noise he makes is a guttural groan crossed with a whimper, and the only thing that stops me from tearing his clothes off right this second is how flipping freezing it is out here, and the vague memory of an audience watching from behind the nearest window.
I force us both to pull back before this gets any more frenzied. Somehow I’ve ended up sitting on the table again with him pressed against me, and now he leans on the glass surface, gasping for breath, and I rest my forehead against his shoulder and try to remember how to breathe, and we’re both shaky, giggly, and completely unable to take our hands off each other, because this still might be a very,veryvivid dream.
‘I come with an investor, by the way,’ he murmurs as his fingers run up and down my arm. ‘The one who pulled out because his son loved the escaped exhibits so much. I reached out, told him what I was going to do, and he wanted to come on board. He loved the idea of a cinematic room. Told me I was a fool in love when I started talking about you.’
I want to ask if he was right, but he answers before I’ve plucked up the courage. ‘He wasn’t wrong. I’ve been head over heels for you for weeks now,monthsmaybe. I didn’t mean for it to happen, never even entertained the idea that itcouldhappen for me, but then you filled my every thought and I couldn’t wait to get to work to see you, and I had this butterfly-ish feeling and found myself with this daft, soppy smile every time I thought about you, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you so I couldn’t stop smiling, and…’ He runs out of words and leans down to kiss me again instead.
‘The moment I realised what your secret was and immediately wanted to murder anyone who’d ever said an unkind word to you.’ I let my fingers brush over his left ear again when the kiss breaks. ‘It made me realise how much of a front you really put on, and how much you’d let me see behind it. That, and when you admitted you’d started watching Disney movies.’
He laughs and kisses me again, and this time, a cheer goes up from the castle and the patio doors slide open, and I blink in the darkness to see that our audience has grown since we last saw them, and we’re now joined by all our Ever After Street colleagues and half of Sadie and Witt’s extended families, friends, and people we’ve never met before.
