Page 54 of The Day After Christmas
‘Oh, sure. Yes. That’s fine, I’ll be able to sleep no problem. I mean, this lad has just told me something happened between him and my girlfriend, but that’s fine. Any man would be able to sleep in this situation, I’m sure.’
Felicity sat down heavily on the side of the bed, wishing she could just hide under the duvet right about now. ‘I should have told you at the time,’ she said.
‘Told me what, exactly?’ said James, sitting down next to her.
Felicity looked into his clear-blue eyes.
‘It really was nothing, okay? Don’t freak out.’
‘Well, now you’re freaking me out.’
‘I don’t mean to. It was nothing.’
‘Fine, it was nothing, whatever, but can you please tell me?’
Felicity took a deep breath. ‘Charlie has a crush on me, okay? He made me this stupid rabbit toy thing and left it in my locker.’
James let out a long breath. ‘So you’ve got another stalker. Is that all? I thought you two had…’
‘Oh, God no,’ said Felicity. ‘But…’
‘But what?’
‘But he did try and seduce me. I mean, that’s what I think he was doing. He’s just a kid, James, honestly.’
James’s jaw was clenching now. Felicity put a hand on his arm.
‘When you say he tried to seduce you…?’
‘Well, it was just me and him on shift.’
‘And?’
‘And he was in Andrea’s office…’
‘And?’
‘And he was in just his boxers.’
‘What the hell?’ James stood up and started marching up and down the room.
‘Calm down.’
‘How am I meant to calm down?’
‘Nothing happened, okay? I told him to put his clothes back on and that was that.’
‘That was that?’
‘I mean, yes, that was that. He put his clothes back on and I sent him home.’
James rubbed his face with his hands. ‘So if that was that, why didn’t you just tell me?’
Felicity blinked at him. ‘I honestly don’t know. I was meaning to.’
‘Oh, well, that’s fine then.’ James uncrossed his arms. Then recrossed them again. Sweat prickled on the back of Felicity’s neck.
‘I was going to. I meant to. It was really funny, actually. I just didn’t, in the end.’
