Page 17 of The Night Before Christmas
He looks a bit pale.Tired, maybe, or just older. Still handsome though, the cheeky git.
‘I’ve worked here for a while. I can’t believe it’s taken you that long to hunt me down, Poirot.’
Adam shrugged; his face annoyingly passive.
‘Anyway, why on earth would you need to see me?’ she said, feeling the old familiar mix of anger and desire rise in her chest as he came ever closer. ‘Don’t you remember what I did to you? How I treated you?’
Adam made another dismissive gesture, a wave of the hand as if he was batting away a fly, which Felicity found intensely irritating.
‘It’s all well under the bridge and gone now. That was a long time ago, after all. Don’t worry about it.’
‘How can you say that? You were there. I wasawfulto you. Really awful. I always swore to myself that I would never be like… well, you know. Likehim. And then I did exactly the same thing.’
Adam looked blank for a second. ‘Him?’
‘My dad.’
‘Oh yes, right. What did he do again?’
Felicity felt her jaw clench. Adam had known her since she was a teenager. How could he not remember this?
‘My dad. What he did to my mum. I swore I’d never be like him. Iswore.’ Hot tears prickled behind her eyes and she swallowed.
Adam leaned forward, his brown eyes softening, and took her hand. ‘I forgive you,’ he said. ‘It’s time to forgive yourself.’
She nodded dumbly. His hand felt warm against hers and the contact had a strangely numbing effect on her senses.
‘I got you something,’ he said. Without breaking eye contact he reached into his jacket pocket, turned her hand over and carefully placed a small box wrapped in pale blue and cream paper into her palm.
Mechanically, and really just so she had something to do with her fingers, she unwrapped it, revealing a beautiful sky-blue box with ‘Tiffany’ written across the top.
Felicity stared at it for a long moment, then lifted her eyes to Adam’s face in astonishment.
‘It’s from Selfridges,’ he said, with a shrug. As if that was no big deal. As if they popped in all the time. He was so close now she could feel his breath on her face. Selfridges. Shop ofLegends. Her very favourite, or, at least, it would be if she could afford to shop there. Her mind raced. She had no idea how to handle this situation.
‘See. You’re forgiven. Now, aren’t you going to open it?’ He smiled, indicating the box.
‘Not yet,’ was all she could manage. ‘Not yet.’
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, she didn’t have to. For, of course, that was the moment that James finally decided to make an appearance.
CHAPTER NINE
‘Sorry I’m la–’came the voice from the doorway, tailing off rapidly as he took in the scene before him.
Felicity thought she might faint.
James walked further into the room, and for the first time in their brief friendship he looked distinctly rattled. He barely glanced at Adam, instead turning questioning eyes on Felicity.
Adam stayed completely cool, of course. He turned casually towards the interloper at the doorway, fixing his Tom Cruise grin to his face, and making no attempt to move away from Felicity, who was trapped in the corner of the room between Adam and the sink. Short of giving him a shove, she knew she couldn’t put any distance between them without it looking too obvious. In fact, she could swear he had moved even closer when James appeared.
James stopped short about ten feet away from them, frowning openly. He was wearing bashed up Levi’s and an extremely well-fitting dark T-shirt under his leather jacket.Strange get-up for a black-tie party, thought Felicity vaguely, trying not to notice the way the shirt stretched even more tightly across his chest as he crossed his arms.
‘All right, mate?’ said Adam, apparently oblivious to such non-verbal cues and greeting him like an old friend. Felicity threw him a glance. Had he been expecting this somehow?
‘All right?’ said James, but he was still looking at Felicity, who was trying valiantly to edge round Adam and make some space between them. She could almost feel Adam’s heart racing next to her, or was that her own? Despite the blood rushing around in her ears, Felicity attempted to take charge of the situation.
‘James, hi, this is, I mean, this Adam was just, I mean this is Adam, he’s an old friend and he was just on his way out,’ she said, casting a meaningful glance in Adam’s direction.
