Page 37 of Once Upon a Thyme
I heard Zeb snort. He sounded just like Big Pig.
‘No, we just had some things to do. You’re fine getting on without me though, aren’t you?’ I couldn’t help myself, I leaned in to the closeness of his shoulder so I could appreciate the dusky smell of his hair which had hints of bergamot and jasmine.
‘Of course, but I missed your luscious presence.’ Mika led me away from the car park. ‘And Simon wants to talk to you, well, he wants a word with your PR bloke actually.’ He looked over his shoulder; I looked too and saw Zeb leaning against the roof of the car, watching us go. Zeb raised an eyebrow at me and gave a smile that was a bit lopsided for my liking. I didn’t know whether it was weighted with sarcasm or encouragement. ‘In a minute. But I wanted to talk to you too.’
Today Mika was wearing all green. A moss green T-shirt under a washed linen jacket and over green slouchy trousers. He looked as though he had more than a little of the elf about him, particularly with his hair caught up in a beaded tie that glittered like water. I felt my palms start to sweat.
‘What did you want to talk about?’ My voice came out high-pitched and ragged.
‘You remember you were telling me which plants you’ve got in the shaded garden? I wondered if you’d run through it again for me.’
Oh, he wanted to talk about gardening. That was all right then. I could cope with that. My heart steadied.
‘There’s lots of different types of mint, they all do well in shade.’ I led the way along the narrow path that wound up to the shade garden, where the foxgloves were dipping their tall heads wisely. ‘Foxgloves are good too, although they’ll self-seed like mad so you need to keep an eye on them to stop them taking over.’
Mika was nodding beside me. Because of the width of the path, he was tight up against me, watching where he put his feet. He’d still got hold of my elbow. I could feel his fingers curled around the bone in a way that was slightly uncomfortable but you could not have paid me to ask him to let go. This wasMika! He was famous!
‘Mika!’ Will was down at the far side of the garden. ‘We’re going to shoot that final track now, are you coming?’
‘Yeah, there in a minute.’ Mika waved the hand not holding my arm in a dismissive way without turning around. ‘Mint, foxgloves, what else have you got?’
‘Chives do well. I’d normally put parsley in shade but we’ve got a big parsley bed further down so I don’t need more. Coriander and tansy, loveage, the bitter herbs don’t need much sun.’
Mika swivelled around, pivoting around my elbow. ‘That’s fabulous, Tallie, thank you. I’ll get my gardener guy onto those when I get back.’
Disappointment dropped through me like a pebble into the pond. I’d hoped that Mika would ask me to come to London to work on his garden, an excuse or a reason to have me close. Somewhere in the back of my tiny, unacknowledged, romantic soul I’d dreamed that we could have had some kind of future, this glamorous musician and me.
‘Yes. That’s fine.’ I sounded flat. Ifeltflat. As though Mika’s careless mention of his gardener had killed my every hope, which was just plain ridiculous.
He clearly heard and maybe understood. ‘You’ve been great,’ he whispered, pulling my elbow until I was drawn in closer, my chest touching his jacket, which rustled and draped in the way that only very expensive fabric can do. ‘Really, Tallie. Letting us film here, ruining your summer season.’ A finger came under my chin and tilted my face upwards. ‘You’re a star.’
And then Mika was kissing me. Soft lips and a drift of hair, a hand cupping my face and the scent of his skin, the taste of his mouth. I felt my brain go into suspended animation as though it wanted this moment preserved forever, whilst actively trying to suck in as much detail as possible, to keep. Mika. Kissing. Me.
I was brought back to reality by two things – Mika gradually releasing his hold on me and taking a small step back, and another snort from the main path passing the shaded garden, which told me that Zeb had gone by on his way to the cottage and was unimpressed. As my brain gradually took control of my functions again, Mika swirled away in a brush of linen and was gone, cheerily calling to Will and Tessa and I was left standing utterly befuddled.
Mika. Kissed. Me.
I found I was doing the romance-film heroine thing of touching my lips as though I half expected them to be stained or branded in some way. It wasn’t my first kiss by a long way, despite my mother’s seeming intention to keep me a virgin until I was fifty, but it felt as though it was.
I was prodded back to reality by the appearance of Zeb. ‘Come on! Simon wants a word with me and I know you’ll only go off on one if I talk to him without your permission in triplicate.’
I jolted as though he’d made me jump. ‘Oh, yes, I…’
‘I saw.’ Zeb sounded half-amused, half-sad. ‘He’s doing his number on you, isn’t he?’
I couldn’t answer. Even though I thought his statement was wrong on every level, I still couldn’t speak coherently. I just fell into step beside Zeb on the wider path that led down to my cottage, where Simon, Loke and Vinnie were discussing something with much pointing and Genevra was pulling heads off the tansy flowers.
‘Just on the fence,’ Simon said as we arrived. ‘But get them to move the vehicles first. Ah, Tallie and Zeb. Good job.’
Simon had caught the sun during the last couple of days and his good-natured face was pink across the bridge of his nose. The strictness of the ponytail had become a bit less too, and although it was still tied back, his hair had lost some of the ‘I Work In Rock Music’ attitude. Maybe it was just getting to know him, but he now seemed far more of an ordinary man than he had when he’d first walked into the garden. I wondered why that hadn’t come into play for Mika and the others too, whom I still found myself tongue-tied around.
‘Hi, Simon.’ Zeb bounced and then caught my eye. I widened mine, silently pleading with him not to mention what I’d just been doing with Mika. Simon had already warned me off once and I had had enough of lecturing from Mum on her good days. I didn’t need to get it again from a man whose money I was taking.
Zeb winked. ‘Right. Here we are. Let us in, Tallie, and I’ll put the kettle on.’
I hadn’t felt my hands shaking, but they were when I tried to put the key in the lock to open the cottage door. Mika seemed to have removed all my common sense and practicality and replaced it with dangerous levels of ‘Girlie’. It was ridiculous to feel this way, I knew it, and yet here I was.
‘Would you like me to do it?’ Zeb sounded surprisingly kind. ‘You seem to be struggling.’
