Page 38 of Doc Hollywood

“Sort of. The parties are incredible. I’ve been to some amazing places. The thing is, it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit down with a bunch of strangers and do something fun without everyone looking at me like I’m something special,” he confided in Clara, picking up his beer with his free hand and taking a sip. “This,” he gestured around the table with his pint, “This is real life, not the bubble I’ve lived in for the last few years.”

“The bubble must be pretty nice though?”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining; I’m amazingly privileged. But you do lose something too, and now that everyone has smartphones, you don’t know when a picture of you will appear online.” He sighed and brushed his thumb over the outside of her knuckles.

Clara used her spare hand to pull her phone out of her bag and brandished it, declaring, “Right, I have access to Google. What’s the dodgiest photo? I need to know. For science.”

“For science?” Taylor chuckled, grinning down at her.

“Yup, for science,” Clara confirmed.

“Someone took a picture of me at a urinal,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Clara sputtered, flushing bright red, and she dropped her phone onto the table, muttering, “Nope. I am not googling that.”

Taylor threw his head back and laughed.

She gave him a sidelong look. “Actually,” she drew the word out and picked her phone up again, opening Google. “I guess I could have a quick peek.”

“Nope.” Taylor guffawed and snatched her phone off her. “But,” he opened up the camera app, “we do need a selfie to immortalise the face ferret.” He held the phone out in front of their faces and leaned in until his bearded cheek touched hers.

Clara couldn’t do anything except grin broadly as his thigh pressed against hers and the skin of his palm warmed her hand.

Taylor took the photo and handed it back, whispering, “And if I see this photo on TMZ, I’ll know where it comes from.”

“How long have you two been dating?” Hel asked, nudging Clara’s shoulder.

Clara froze, having forgotten for a few minutes that she wasn’t sitting alone with Taylor; she was, in fact, at a table with people she worked with.

“Oh, no. Um, we’re not dating.” Clara forced out, her voice high-pitched.

“Hmm,” Hel commented but didn’t say anything else. Instead, her gaze travelled down to their still-linked hands.

Clara flushed when she realised that while they were chatting, they had somehow gone from him squeezing the outside of her hand to their fingers being entwined.

She pulled her hand away and busied herself with putting her phone back into her bag, not looking up to meet Taylor’s eyes, even though she could feel his gaze on her, burning into the side of her. She leaned slightly away from him so her thigh no longer pressed into his. Then berated herself for getting carried away and getting stupid ideas about a man who, even if he wasn’t famous, was way out of her league.

Luckily for her, Ron began speaking again. “I have the results for round one.”

The whole table listened intently, and a cheer went up from all of them when their score of ten out of ten was read out.

“How did we do?” Sadie asked, throwing herself back into her seat, her cheeks still pink from her choking fit.

“Ten out of ten,” Clara exclaimed.

“Yes,” Sadie hollered, holding her hand up to Taylor, who high-fived her. She then leaned across him for Clara to do the same.

When the questions for the next round started, Clara began to relax and forget about her embarrassment, her enjoyment of the quiz breaking through the awkwardness she felt. She darted a glance over at Taylor, and he looked so comfortable, as if he hung out with her group of friends every Wednesday night at the pub quiz.

CHAPTER 11

The next few rounds passed in a blur, with all of them giving answers to the questions and Taylor only stepping in when they got something obviously wrong or didn’t know.

By the time they reached the final round, they were so far in the lead that no other team could come close to beating them.

“We’re going to win the pub quiz!” Sadie uttered in disbelief.

“This has literally never happened before. Tom, you should come next week,” Hel added.

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