Page 59 of Only Ever You

“We can just keep going along,” Bash said. “We’ve got time.”

So they did.

“I bet your brother is happy you said the girls could come with us,” Faye mused a minute later.

Bash glanced at her sideways. “If you ever hear him say I’m not a good brother, then remind him of this.”

Faye picked up her favourite face wash, saw it was half price, and dropped it in the trolley too. “I’m sure he appreciates you giving him an excuse for some …‘alonetime.’” Because of the little ears waddling in front of them, she chose her quietened words carefully, sure that Bash would be thinking the same thing.

Thoughwhatcompelled her to steer the meaning behind this conversation towards somewhere that wasn’t safe for work, let alone a supermarket, she had no idea.

The countryside air must have gotten to her head.

“You really think that’s what they’re doing?” Bash gave her a side-eyed smirk one could class as smouldering.

Faye wouldn’t mind doingthatright about now too; her body had been neglected for far too long.

She shrugged. “I would.”

“Uh huh. In our parents’ house.” The shiver that ran through Bash didn’t like the idea. “It’s just like when we were teenagers again. At least this house is bigger and we aren’t sharing a wall.”

They wheeled the trolley along as though they really did have all of the time in the world.

“Was it awkward? To bring home a girl?” Why Faye asked, she didn’t know. Bash bringing home girls wasn’t exactly a picture she wanted in her mind.

“Not really. Matt was good at being careful. And I wasn’t … ” He cut himself off, a flush creeping up his neck to his ears.

“Spooning?” That nugget of unspoken truth was too amusing to let it slide. Bash gave her a dead glare and Faye had to laugh.

“Active.” He went for, though there was something of embarrassment in his pinkish cheeks. “Not until university anyway.”

“Wait.” Faye grabbed the trolley. “Kierawas your first girlfriend?”

Bash looked across at her again more blankly. “Why’s that surprising?”

She held up her hands. “I was only clarifying.”

Though she remembered with crystal clarity the first time she’d seen him – how attractive his presence and personality had been. It was strange to find out only now that he’d been a bit of a late bloomer like her in the romance department.

In a bid to not lose track of time completely, they marched towards the next aisle; homewares and toys, evidently. Right up Bash’s street. Faye lost him to the decorative vases of fake feathery flowers and vanity mirrors. It happened everywhere they went, as if he didn’t ever stop seeking out inspiration. Often she found herself trying not to ask what he thought of her flat – if her messiness and lack of any kind of design concept made his skin crawl.

She lifted a series of candles and sniffed at them, shoving the ones she likedunder Bash’s nose for his opinion. He didn’t like vanilla.Too sweet.Or anything resembling ‘washed cotton’ or ‘fresh linen’.Too sickly.

“Smells like baby powder,” he said, his face crumpling. Faye agreed the candle was to neither of their tastes – she just wanted to have seen him make that face.

As she replaced the glass on the shelf, she caught the stare of an older woman only a couple of strides away. Now, she had nothing against the elderly, but there was something almost cruel in this woman’s sharp frown that curled an uncomfortable feeling down Faye’s spine.

Her hand travelled to Bash’s coat by his waist and tugged.

A rumbling, “Hm?” was all she received.

“Why are we being watched?” she asked from the corner of her mouth, giving the staring woman her back.

Bash peered around and found what she’d found. “Can I help you?”

“Are these children with you?” The woman who was half Faye’s height flicked a pale hand – so nearly translucent that her veins coloured her skin purple – at Maya and Imara who pushed fingers into stacks of folded blankets down the aisle.

Faye felt Bash’s feathers ruffle with how much they agitated the air.

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