Page 96 of The Bad Wedding Date

Funny how the smallest amount of time could make the biggest of changes to your life. How things you used to love quickly felt lifeless and cold once you’d been introduced to something different. Something new. Something you hadn’t even realised you wanted.

Turning off my nightlight, I rolled over and closed my eyes, trying for what felt like a lifetime to go to sleep, but my thoughts lingered around him, reminding me that for now, life had something better to offer than any dream could muster.

With a sigh of frustration, I turned onto my back and reached for my phone at the exact same time that it beeped with a text.

Fraser: I shouldn’t be thinking about you, but here I am...

I smiled at his words, reading them over and over, the little butterflies in my stomach swarming around.

Me: Good thoughts or bad?

Fraser: Only good.

Me: You little romantic.

Fraser: Can I see you tomorrow?

Just like that, my heart filled with hope again. He wanted to see me. I had to use every ounce of strength within me to avoid telling him to come over tonight.

“One night, Charlotte. Just give yourself one night,” I whispered to myself.

Me: Like a date?

Fraser: Yeah.

Me: I’d like that

I bit down on my lip to stop my grin from exploding. My mind was at war with my heart, one battling for me to tell him to come over now, while the other begged for a moment of calm to let usthink. I was overrun with emotions—some born from excitement while others were born from fear. It was easier to keep myself isolated and alone. No one could hurt me there. But putting myself out there for someone—showing interest, intrigue, and lust… those were risky moves to make. They made a person vulnerable. They opened the steel walls around my heart and allowed people to peek inside and see where the weak spots were and use them to their advantage.

At least that’s the way the people around me had always been.

But Fraser wasn’t any of those people. He wasn’t like anyone I had ever met.

With him, I could be real.

Me: I can’t decide if you’re going to be the stroke of good luck I’ve always been waiting for, or the one regret I’ve been trying to avoid my whole life.

Fraser: I’d never intentionally hurt you

I believed him, too.

And just like that…

I was at peace.

32

Fraser

She walked towards me in her floaty camisole and cut off denim shorts like she didn’t hold the attention of the entire city. Charlotte was the picture of summery perfection. Her long legs were smooth and tanned. Her arms no doubt covered in that coconut lotion that drove me crazy.

My sunglasses hid the lust in my eyes as the sunshine beat down on another hot day in London.

The moment she spotted me, a lazy smile crept on her face. Even though we both hid behind our sunglasses, I could feel the connection of our gazes locked in, and as she drew closer, I thought I saw her swallow down before she licked her lips and pulled out the chair opposite mine, outside the coffee shop we’d arrange to meet at.

A steel band played in the middle of Covent Garden, welcoming the tourists to a reggae mix ofJust the Two of Usthat seemed to put everyone around me in the perfect summer mood. Especially Charlotte, whose face had lit up like a flushed Christmas tree as she reached for the glass of iced water I’d already ordered on her behalf, while I raised my coffee to my lips and took a sip, never breaking eye contact.

Eventually, we both put our drinks down, and she fell back in her seat.

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