Page 72 of The Night Before Christmas
‘How on earth am I meant to know what the opposite of a hedge fund manager is when I don’t know what a hedge fund manager is?’
‘It’s a conundrum that’s for sure. Why don’t you stop guessing and just kiss me instead?’
And with that James somehow managed to extricate his arm from hers and sweep her in front of him in one motion. It was smooth and took her so by surprise that a ripple like static rolled down her back and into her legs and made her knees feel suddenly completely unreliable.
‘Um, isn’t this against your code?’ she managed to squeak as she looked up at him.
‘Oh, for sure. One hundred per cent,’ he replied, with a grin.
And in that moment when James the Penguin Man wrapped his arms around her and looked deep into her eyes, Felicity felt like she never wanted to be anywhere else again.
As he bent to kiss her, she almost swooned. It was that good.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
They went backto her place, obviously. Did he even have a place? Was he even real? Perhaps he was just a fabrication of her mind that she had created to pass the time. Assuming he was, in fact, real, Felicity made a mental note to ask him about his place later. She didn’t want to ruin the excitement of the moment with silly things like details.
And if she was completely honest, at that point Felicity didn’t care at all where he lived or what he did for a living or any of that other stuff. She didn’t even care if she’d just made him up. Whether he was real or imaginary, she just wanted to be held by him, like she had never wanted to be held by anyone before. As they walked arm in arm towards her flat through the fog, the tension between them felt thick and charged with electricity. Surely, she felt, it must be visible to the naked eye. Maybe even from space. The thought made her chuckle to herself as they walked. Or was that just the nerves?
As they reached her building and began to walk up the stairs to her flat, Felicity was slightly in front of James and she could feel his closeness, feel him just behind her. She was longing for him to touch her, tingling all over with the anticipation of it. It was thrilling.
The moment was ruined, however, when she arrived at the flat door to find the pale blue Tiffany box sitting on the doormat along with an enormous bunch of incredible yellow roses. Enormous, perfect yellow roses. Mind-blowingly beautiful and filling the entire vestibule with their heady scent. It usually smelled of far less savoury things.
They stared at the vision before them for a long, interminably long, excruciating time. Side by side. Neither saying a word.
‘So, there’s that,’ said James, eventually.
‘Yup,’ said Felicity and she could feel her vision narrowing as if she was on the verge of a panic attack.Stay calm.
‘Let’s go in, shall we? No point standing around out here,’ she said, briskly. There had been a profound shift in the atmosphere and she couldn’t think how to pull it back. James nodded, not looking at her. Felicity unlocked the door, and then picked up the ring as if it was a bomb, holding it at arm’s length as she navigated the threshold and then placed it carefully on the kitchen worktop. She decided to leave the flowers, there was no way to carry in such an enormous and beautiful bunch of flowers without looking a tiny bit pleased.
James hovered in the doorway, his face like thunder.
‘Come in, if you’re coming,’ said Felicity over her shoulder, in a much breezier tone than she felt. She took her coat off and flicked the kettle on and sent up a silent prayer.Please let him come in, please let him come in, over and over like a chant. She’d had time to make two coffees and right-angle-tidy the lounge before he finally emerged from the hallway.
‘Have a seat,’ she said.
He sat, coat and shoes still on, face fixed in a combination of confusion and anger.
Finally, he spoke the question he had clearly been formulating since they got back to the flat. ‘What does it mean?’
‘I have no idea.’
He glanced at her, finally.
‘Honestly, James, I had no idea he even still had it, he must have taken it when we went to the pub.’
‘You two went to the pub? When, exactly?’
Backtrack, backtrack.
‘Oh, er, way back before my holiday. We just, um, had a catch up, that’s all.’
James looked like he was trying to calculate a complicated maths problem. Felicity, meanwhile, could hear a strange roaring noise in her ears. Another mild dose of panic on its way, presumably.
‘And you needed to take the ring with you, did you? To this catch up?’
This conversation was getting worse by the minute.
