Page 34 of You, As You Are

As soon as they stepped through doors the colour of washed-up seaweed, Ted shook himself off and Iain pulled down his hood. They were late, thanks to Ted’s refusal to step outside in the rain, so he expected to see the seats of one of the larger rustic tables already filled with the hiking group.

But there was only Maisie. By herself and scrolling through her phone. Ted, the traitor, went straight for her, which didn’t give Iain a chance to prepare the right words for being face to face with her alone so soon, since he was dragged along on the end of the lead without choice. His dog stuck his nose into her lap which made Maisie squeak.

“Hello you!” Her hands dove for Ted’s neck and scratched behind his ears while he lapped up the attention.

It was just Iain in the metaphorical doghouse, then. He cleared his throat, and Maisie took another minute to fuss over his dog before easing her gaze up like she knew she was owed an apology.

“Hi.”

“Hello.” Her greeting was bland. It didn’t match the vibrancy in the curls arranged on top of her head with a bow on some kind of headband, or the peach colour on her lips. The pair of oversized rain clouds dangling from her ears that Iain was sure she’d made herself, on the other hand…

“Where are the others?” he asked, getting the feeling that this interaction would be like pulling teeth.

“You tell me.”

“It’s ten-fifteen.”

“I know,” Maisie said, giving Ted one final scratch before sitting back against the padded bench. “I’ve been here for half an hour.”

“Why?” Iain would’ve left already if he were her, because clearly no one else was coming.

“I like being punctual.”

Brimming with doubt, he pulled his phone from his pocket to check the group chat he’d seen Maisie had been added to last week.

“This is whereNainsaid to meet.” According to the group chat, Maisie was right about that. Only messages of thumbs-up emojis and a few short acknowledgements had come through after the arrangement was made. “And you’re fifteen minutes late,” she said pointedly.

“Take it up with Ted,” Iain grumbled and slid his phone back into his jeans pocket. The café’s cosy playlist taunted the tone of their conversation with cheery notes. “We should move.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re two people at a twelve-person table. Are you alright?” Iain got that in quickly. Apart from the scowl that Maisie directed at him – which did little to scare him off when he’d grown up the way he had – she looked generally uncomfortable.

“Peachy.” Maisie grabbed her purse and rose slowly from the bench. “I could get us some muffins? But if you’re notinterestedthen I’ll just get another coffee.”

Any doubt Iain might’ve had that she’d heard the words that came out of his idiot mouth in the pub was obliterated.

“Maisie, sit down.” She gawped at his firmness, but it was obvious that they were doing this now before either of them said something stupid. Iain gestured at a more appropriately unoccupied two-person table in the back corner where fewer people could hear how he’d royally mucked up, softening his tone by force. “Please?”

Their gazes held, his remorse to her bitter. This wasn’t the Maisie he was starting to know. This was a Maisie who’d been hit on a nerve, not her bubbly self.

Extroverted people sucked the energy right out of him most of the time. It’s why he liked the elders of the hiking group – theywere both energetic and sedate at the same rate, cheery for the sake of being cheery without any form of agenda. Yet from what he’d seen, Maisie wasn’t all as loud as first glance might seem.

At the corner table, she sat, choosing the wooden chair that looked as though it’d been here for twenty years as opposed to the newer one with armrests. Her long blue skirt hitched to her calves as she crossed her legs. Was there anything she owned thatdidn’thave polka dots?

Iain took the chair opposite while Ted curled up under the table, still grumpy about the rain.

“You’re mad with me,” he said when he was settled and coat removed.

“I’m not mad.” Yet her eyes and folded arms told a different story.

Even if she wasn’t, Maisie deserved an explanation, and Iain wasn’t above giving one. Beating around the bush and pretending as though he didn’t know what he’d done to make her look at him this way wouldn’t be right. He’d learned his lesson on that already.

“I’m sorry for what I said at the pub. If you’d have heard the whole conversation, then you might understand why I said it.”

“Well I didn’t,” she said. “So …”

Time to clear the air.

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