Page 44 of Dreams Come True at the Fairytale Museu
His breathing has sped up because he clearly wasn’t expecting it any more than I was expecting to do it, and it takes a few moments for him to relax and sink into it.
He turns so his head is leaning against mine, his breath coming in sharp pants, making me shiver as it skims across my neck, and I lose track of the minutes ticking by as we stay in that position.
‘What’s this in aid of?’ he whispers against my hair, sounding relaxed and dreamily distant.
I consider it before I answer, because I want to be honest, and at the same time, I don’t want to make it any weirder or more awkward than it already is. I swallow and force my tongue to wet my suddenly dry lips before answering. ‘Being you.’
He makes that choked-off noise of surprise again and I hear the gulp as he swallows hard. He turns further into me, so his mouth is against the skin of my neck. ‘If you said what I think you just said, it’s really unfair to try to make me cry in the middle of a working day.’
I laugh and hold him tighter, and he shifts closer, his stubble catching in the lengths of my hair with every movement.
‘No one’s ever said anything like that to me. I’m not someone who makes people feel like that.’
It sounds like something he didn’t intend to say, and he seems curiously starved for affection, because he holds onto my arms tightly, his fingers curling deeply into my skin like he’s clinging on and silently asking me not to let go yet, and he holds them around his chest long after my back is protesting the bent-over awkward angle and the chair is digging into my collarbone.
It makes me long for a proper hug without the physical barrier between us, but nothing is more important than this connection that I’m not ready to break yet.
He doesn’t say a word even though his hands gradually slide down my arms as his grip starts to loosen, until eventually his fingers wrap around my fingers and tangle our hands together, and then his chest arches as he stretches with a groan and starts to lift my arms from around him. I’d happily stay here for longer, but?—
‘Excuse me, dears?’
We’re interrupted by an elderly lady with a granddaughter in tow. I let out a squeak at their sudden appearance, and I feel Warren physically jolt in surprise at the unexpected ending to… whatever that was.
We dive apart so quickly that he barely misses running over my toes with the wheels of his computer chair. I’d forgotten we were at the front desk and could be interrupted at any moment. For a minute there, I’d totally forgotten abouteverything.
Warren’s leapt up and is leaning on the desk, breathless from the shock of the interruption, or possibly wondering what spell I cast to get him to allow physical contact like that, and I’m trying not to think about when it was that I started feeling this much affection for him.
I smooth my hair down and try to compose myself, feeling as embarrassed as I might do if a visitor had found us in an intimately compromising position, and not just two friends hugging because one did something nice for the other one. That’s all it was, right? I glance at him. A thank you hug, nothing more.
‘I just wanted to say that you’ve got such a lovely place here.’ The woman is leaning on a walking stick with one hand and clutching the little girl’s hand in the other. ‘I’d never heard of it before but I saw something about the escaped exhibits online and my husband and I decided to bring our granddaughter, and it’s been one of the best days out any of us can remember, hasn’t it?’
She jiggles her granddaughter’s hand until the little girl confidently declares, ‘It has!’
‘It’s made me feel like a child again.’ Her watery eyes flit between me and Warren. ‘Walking around here has been like watching the years slip away. My own mum has been gone for decades now, but there’s something about being here that makes me feel likeI’ma little girl again, standing at her side and holding her hand, and looking at something magical. I can’t describe how special it is to feel like that at my age.’
And I can’t help but smile becausethisis exactly what I’ve always hoped my visitors would feel, no matter their age. ‘No one is ever too old to reconnect with their inner child. In fact, I happen to think it getsmoreimportant as we get older. It’s all too easy to forget what it’s like to be young and to find wonder in anything.’ I glance at Warren again. ‘The world is good at snuffing that out, and if I can do anything to help people get that back, then that’s the best thing I could ever hear. Thank you.’
She smiles too and I love the sense of connecting with someone who truly gets what I wanted to do here.
‘Those naughty exhibits escaping just adds another layer to the magic too. I don’t know how you’re doing it, but very well done, both of you.’
Until now, Warren has been frozen to the spot, utterly transfixed by her words, but at this, he stands upright, looking surprised that she’s included him as well.
‘I want to knoooow!’ The granddaughter looks up at us, sucking a thumb shyly.
‘No, no, we mustn’t spoil the magic,’ her grandmother says.
‘You really want to know?’ Warren steps out from behind the counter and crouches down to talk to the little girl, and when she nods enthusiastically, he carries on. ‘The exhibits aremagic! They’re real and they only come to life at night when no one’s watching them. Lissa and I stayed here one night and we hid from them and do you know what we saw?’
She looks so excited that she might burst before he reaches the end of his tale.
‘We saw Aladdin’s Magic Carpet flying around all by itself!’ He waves his hands through the air, depicting the movement a flying carpet might make.
‘No, you never!’
‘We did, scout’s honour.’ He does the scout salute and the little girl giggles in delight.
He holds his hand up for a high five and she smacks it much harder than he was expecting, and he falls onto his bum, pretending that the force of her hand knocked him over, making her laugh even harder, but it makes something inside me melt.
