Page 22 of Only Ever You

The nightly breeze whirred through the street, and Bash was even more aware of how they stood in the dimly lit alcove where a yellow light that should’ve been replaced ten years ago hummed above them.

“It’s alright,” he hushed and gently tried to step forwards with Faye still in his arms. “Let’s go inside, yeah?”

Bash coaxed her back into the warmth and, because he knew she needed the assurance, double checked the lock of the communal front door behind him. He glanced up the dark staircase towards her upstairs neighbours too before following Faye inside her flat.

The two windows in the living area were both closed off with heavy drapes and Bash spotted her safety keyring on the coffee table next to her phone. More and more every day he was glad he’d bought that keyring laden with self-defence items for her as a gift last Christmas, after she thought she’d been followed home. He drew in a slow breath at the vivid memory of why he’d bought her that thing at all.

The television mounted above a concerning number of houseplants played an old sitcom silently in a set up Bash realised was Faye’s attempt to make her flat seem as if someone was home.Silentso she could listen out for every tiny noise.

She trundled across the room to pick up the remote and as he watched her go, his gaze snagged on her pyjamas. All over the long red bottoms were cartoon pugs wearing Santa hats and a bouncy font reading ‘merry pugmas’. On top, she’d only worn a vest, and allthat the rational half of his brain wanted to do was swaddle her in layers.

The TV went black and their eyes met, though Faye’s fell away beneath a pained brow down the length of his body. “Why are you wearing clothes?”

“What?” Bash half huffed a laugh from his throat. Would she rather hewasn’twearing anything?

“You look … nice.” Faye’s features fell. “You looknice.” She repeated herself with more realisation. “You were out, weren’t you? God I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright.” He was across the room in two strides before her puffy face could fall fully into her hands. Bash rubbed at her arms and then her shoulders as he said, “It was just a pint with Freddy and the guys. Not a date … or anything.” A very important detail to slide in there.

“I’m sorry,” she uttered.

“It’s okay. What happened?”

Sniffling, Faye drew upright. Her gaze had barely lifted from the carpet and her eyes were more red and exhausted than Bash had seen in a long time.

“Some noise outside woke me up,” she said. “I saw a shadow against my bedroom window, and I swear that there was someone outside. I tried to calm myself, but …”

She couldn’t.Exhaling relief that the reason she called wasn’t something worse, Bash hugged her against him, her hands going straight underneath his coat and scrunching in his hoodie.

“Okay,” he said slowly in his most soothing voice. “It’s fine. There was no one outside when I got here and your windows and front door looked untampered with.”

“I know it’s just in my mind. I shouldn’t have called.”

That fist around Bash’s heart, the one which she held there, squeezed and squeezed until he wasn’t sure it would ever relent.

“You can always call me, Peanut,” he promised as he let hismouth drift to her hairline, pressing his lips to her forehead. “I’ll always answer.”

He was glad when Faye didn’t put up a protest. Didn’t tell him that he shouldn’t feel obligated to her like that. But she wasn’t an obligation at all. She was his friend, and one who had needed him tonight.

Faye’s sniffling into his chest eventually stopped and they didn’t let go of one another for a minute. Bash guessed she was tired now more than frightened. There wasn’t much point in him leaving, not for the time it would take him to get home – for which he would actually call a taxi this time – or for the restlessness he would feel worrying about Faye until morning.

It was an hour after midnight and they both needed sleep.

“Listen,” he began as he smoothed his palm up and down her back, “I’m going to stay here tonight. I have a late meeting in the morning so it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I want to.” It was for Faye’s peace of mind but also his own that he’d stay, and the least that he could do. She didn’t argue with him; Bash didn’t think she had the energy to do so.

“Thank you, Sébastien.”

Hearing his full name which she didn’t use too often unless she was serious, in her dulcet tones, made Bash feel like a cheesecake left out in the warm. “You’re welcome, Peanut.”

Faye pulled back out of his embrace and gasped as she finally took a close-up look at him. “What happened to your face?”

Ah. He’d forgotten about that in the last hour, which explained why a few strangers had looked at him cautiously whilst he’d been running through the streets.

“It’s nothing.” The fresh graze was just a graze but had stung like hell – as he’d learned – when shampoo suds rolled into it.

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