Page 38 of The Night Before Christmas
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Felicity: quickly turns phone off before this gets out of hand.
Felicity: lies back on the bed and wonders how she got herself into such a pickle… and also can’t wait for next week.What did he mean by ‘properly’? That was a proper kiss, wasn’t it? Oh God, what if he didn’t think that was a proper kiss?
Felicity: turns phone back on to check if he’s replied again. He hasn’t.
Felicity: realises she still doesn’t know his last name so she can’t practise her newly married signature in the back of her exercise book like she used to at school.
Felicity: realises she needs to sleep quite badly.
Felicity: sleeps and dreams she’s in a labyrinth with red velvet walls and handsome men round every corner and she doesn’t really want to find her way out.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Coffee with Adam.
It sounded straightforward but turned out to be a logistical nightmare. Who arranges coffee on a busy Saturday morning in town during the January sales? What kind of sociopath thinks they can just drive in and find a parking space five minutes before the allotted meeting time?Me, that’s who, thought Felicity grimly, as she circled the car park for the third or possibly billionth time. Finally, an elderly lady with a purple Mini Clubman and what looked like a fuchsia pink top hat on her head let Felicity take her (freakishly tiny) space and she edged her battered old Toyota Yaris into the gap and squeezed out of the door trying not to scratch the much nicer car next to her.
‘You’re late,’ came an amused-sounding voice.
‘You’re meant to be at Costa,’ she replied, as she extracted herself awkwardly from the tiny gap between the two cars and looked up at Adam, who was blinking at her in the sunshine.
‘I saw you drive in. Besides, it’s rammed. Do you want to try somewhere else?’
Felicity wailed. ‘But… caramel latte…?’
‘Okay fine,’ said Adam, miming rolling up his sleeves. ‘Let’s do this.’
Twenty minutes later, they were successfully huddled in the corner of Costa next to the window, lattes in hand, flushed from their triumphant foraging expedition and only slightly battered and bruised from the experience. Felicity gave him a sideways glance. He looked back at her and they giggled like a pair of teenagers. She had forgotten how much fun they had together.
Adam was dressed for success as always, today in a pair of cream chinos and sky-blue shirt which set off his brown skin and big brown eyes beautifully. He looked rather pale, she thought, but that may have been the cream jacket he had on which wasn’t really appropriate for the season but looked bloody expensive. She glanced down at her go-to jeans and hoodie combo and wondered vaguely if she should have made more of an effort.
‘So,’ he said.
‘So…?’
‘So, I’ve been wanting to talk to you.’
‘I’m not sure what exactly we have to talk about, Adam, but I’m here, and I have caramel-flavoured coffee, so it’s as good a time as any. Go for it.’
‘Okay,’ he said, but didn’t continue. Instead, he seemed to be collecting his thoughts. ‘Okay.’
Felicity was tempted to say something facetious, but she kept quiet, sipping her sweet, sweet coffee, just waiting.
‘The thing is,’ he said, ‘I miss you.’
‘You already told me that. When you turned up at my work out of the blue. Remember that?’ She shifted on the uncomfortable café stool.
‘Yes, I know, I know, but then that blond titan turned up and I got distracted.’
Felicity tried to keep her features neutral.
‘Who is that guy anyway?’ he added, as if the question had just occurred to him.
