Page 41 of You, As You Are

Maisie looked up at him right as Iain frowned down at her. “Are we late?”

“No,” he said, sounding as suspicious as Maisie appeared to see that the minibus was completely full ahead of schedule.

They skirted towards the open door from the rear, each window they passed containing two pairs of eyes peeking out at them.

None of this was normal. All the eyes were on them, and Iain felt like food on a waiter’s serving tray being brought out to ravished customers after too long a wait.

He gestured for Maisie to take the steps first.

“I don’t think I need you to catch me this time,” she said, throwing a smile over her shoulder.

“I’m here anyway.” She wouldn’t ever need to worry about if he’d be there to catch her or not. The answer was steadily becoming alwaysyes.

Maisie paused for a second, not blinking as their gazes held, before climbing the steps. Iain didn’t have the capacity to decipher what that linger was for just yet. He followed her on up into the bus with Ted without giving another thought to it.

As usual, the air smelled like the upholstery hadn’t been deep cleaned since it was brand new, full of the musty scent of dust that made Iain glad he didn’t have any allergies. Ms Vera stood from her seat next to Ronnie to intercept Maisie with a hug. Iain didn’t entirely listen to their hushed exchange, because something was amiss with this arrangement.

As before, two seats were left spare in the middle of the bus.

Two seats next to one another.

All the pensioners looked far too knowing about the reason why, and as he waited for Maisie to shuffle across to the window seat, the answer clicked in Iain’s mind too.

The bus began to move off the second he was settled. He dropped his backpack between his feet and wedged Ted’s lead under his thigh so that his hands were free.

“Looks like we’re sitting together again,” Maisie noted, a hint of awink-wink, nudge-nudgetone in her voice that Iain was sure was put on. He made a sound of agreement which came off as a grunt – his voice was too deep to do much else.

Sitting together again.

Sitting together like they had been at the café.

Sitting together like when he chauffeured Maisie’s belongings to help her move.

Sitting together like the first time she’d stepped on this bus.

Every single time they’d been in each other’s presence, at least one of these pensioners around them had been involved in some way.

Irene twisted in the row in front of theirs and pushed her lightly make-upped face between the gap in the seats. “What a lovely couple you’d both make.”

Iain’s brows shot up whilst Maisie—was she alright? She coughed like she hacked up a lung, and Iain realised she’d had her water bottle held to her lips.Thatwater bottle. The solid metal thing that’d made his dick feel bruised for an hour. Hecouldn’t stop himself from scowling at it when he should be helping her.

“That’s um ... Yeah—No.” Maisie chuckled quietly to herself. “We’re friends.”

“Diolch,Irene,?*” he said pointedly, and the woman faced herself forwards again, her eyes the last thing to turn away from them both.

Iain shifted his gaze across the bus, and eyes snapped away too late for him to not have noticed their prying. It couldn’t be any more obvious that he and Maisie were, for some reason, the main act of whatever circus performance was going on around them.

With that comment from Irene, it wasn’t too hard to guess that the bus-full of elders considered themselves amateur matchmakers.

Maisie nudged him with her elbow. Her phone was in her hand with something written on a note-taking app.

This was definitely on purpose

With the way she urged the phone into his hands without him moving a muscle, Iain guessed that he was going to get sucked into a covert exchange whether he wanted to or not. He took the phone to respond, his giant thumbs tapping at the screen as he wrote underneath.

I figured.

They passed the phone back and forth between them.

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