Page 91 of Happily Never After
‘I felt it was my fault. I was kicking myself all the way home. I’d spent so long rehearsing what I was going to say, and then the bloody words failed me at the crucial moment.’ He shudders. ‘It makes me cringe just thinking about it now. And then, I wanted to contact you and say I was sorry and could I make it up to you, but it just felt like I’d ruined everything. Then you got in touch with your teatime idea.’
‘I thought I’d lost you as a friend.’
I swear I see a flash of something that looks like disappointment cross his face, but it’s gone so fast and tonight has been so odd that I’m starting to doubt my own judgement.
‘Anyway. So we could have gone out for something to eat in London, but I felt like dinner here would always be hanging over us. So, I thought we’d come back and try again.’
I’m stunned. Nobody has ever put this much thought into arranging something for me before, and it’s all I can do not to cryas I think about how much planning he must have done. Without hesitation, I reach out, take his face in mine and plant a huge kiss on his lips.
‘What was that for?’ he asks when I finally release him.
‘To say thank you for all of this. To say sorry. But mostly because I wanted to.’
‘I see.’ A smile breaks on his face as I feel his hand gently lifting my chin, and then his lips are on mine again. I close my eyes, just enjoying the sensation. It’s not one of those hungry kisses, where you can feel the other person’s tongue practically trying to force your teeth apart. There isn’t any tongue at all. It’s also not one of those kisses that are so crushingly hard you wonder if your lips are slowly bruising, nor the kind that’s so soft you wonder if it’s actually happening at all. It’s the kind of kiss you want to carry on forever, so you can just lose yourself in it. There’s no doubting the message behind it, and my body is receiving it loud and clear. At least, until a thought comes to me that makes me start to giggle.
‘What?’ Finn looks confused as he breaks the kiss.
‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears,’ I tell him. ‘Your kiss reminded me of that story.’
‘Before you go any further, I need to inform you that you hold my entire masculinity in the palm of your hand right now. If you’re going to tell me that kissing me is like kissing a bear, I might never get over it.’
‘Relax. It was more the beds. One was too hard, one was too soft, and the other… The other was you. Just right.’
‘Really?’
‘I’d need to sample a few more to be sure, but I’m confident.’
‘There are plenty more where that one came from,’ he assures me, before grinning again.
‘What?’
‘I’m changing your nickname. Luggage Laura doesn’t fit any more.’
‘Who am I now then?’
‘Lovely Laura,’ he says simply. ‘I think it’s appropriate, don’t you?’
‘I think I can live with it. Now, I’m starving. Did someone mention dinner?’
33
A YEAR LATER
‘Remind me why we’re doing this?’ Finn asks as he pulls on his jacket. It’s the same jacket he wore for our first date, the one that went so wrong, but that thought barely enters my head before it’s replaced by a much better one; namely how good he looks in it.
‘Because we’re shameless voyeurs. Because I’m never going to have a book launch like it, and because Lynette invited us.’
‘Does Gina know we’re coming?’
‘I sincerely hope not. If we play our cards right, she might never even know we were there.’
‘I’ve booked us dinner at Fortnum & Mason afterwards. I thought we might need a treat to get over it. Meg’s staying with Liv and Donna overnight, so it won’t matter if we get back late.’
Of course he has. One of the things about Finn that I love the most is how he always tries to add something special to everything we do. From surprising me at Margate station so he could recreate our first date the way it should have gone – it was very nice, thank you – to remembering to organise care for Meg when he’s planning another surprise for me like tonight, his attention to detail is immaculate.
Of course, the fact that everyone else around me adores him too also helps. Liv said a few months ago that I looked so happy she was seriously considering building a sex dungeon, kidnapping him and locking him in there until she found out what his secret was. I’m not sure Donna was wildly impressed with that idea, even if Liv was joking. Even my father likes him, despite some dark remarks at the beginning about ‘two creatives with no guaranteed income’ being a recipe for disaster. Honestly, sometimes I think that man would make Eeyore look chirpy. Mum, typically, keeps asking loaded questions about hats and possible wedding venues, but we’re in no rush. It’ll happen when we’re ready.
Despite a lot of extremely nice kisses on the evening that we’d both say marks the start of our ‘proper’ relationship, I’d describe us as more of a slow-burn couple. Finn didn’t stay the night until we’d been together for over a month, by which time my whole body was a screaming mass of tingling nerve endings just waiting for the spark to go off. Put it this way: not only have I had no need to open the boxes that were under my bed since that night, I’m also very glad Liv was staying at Donna’s, although it would certainly have cured her of thinking I was in any way sexually repressed. After nearly eight months and a lot of discussion about whether we should live in London or Margate, we decided Margate was better for Meg and we moved into our house four months ago. Sometimes I still pinch myself when I see it, as it seems incredible that we’re homeowners rather than renters. But I’ve loved putting our mark on the place. There are four bedrooms, which gives us a study each (we quickly worked out that shared working space was not for us), plus our room and a spare that we haven’t managed to invite anyone to stay in yet. Our most frequent visitors are Donna and Liv, and they’re only a ten-minute walk away, so it’s easier for them to go home at the end of an evening.
