Page 20 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

‘Sounds pretty simple to me,’ Amelia said. ‘But in all honesty, I think you should date other people because then you will see that no one will ever compare to what you have with Bear. I’ll give it a week before you realise the perfect man has been right here under your nose the whole time.’

Meadow knew she didn’t need a week to realise that, actually, she had been in love with Bear her entire life.

CHAPTERTWELVE

Bear had just got back from helping Star place food around the wood ready for their webcams experiment. He just hoped that the food would be eaten by something, otherwise Star would be bitterly disappointed.

He logged on to his online dating profile. He needed to find a date for tonight so he could support Meadow on her first ever proper date. He couldn’t help thinking her first ever proper date should be with him but clearly she didn’t agree. He’d read Josh’s profile, the man she was meeting tonight, and he seemed nice, well… normal enough. And while if Meadow was going to fall in love with someone who wasn’t him, he’d prefer someone amazing for her, he knew this night was a box-ticking exercise for her. They’d chatted earlier and she’d said she was nervous about her first date and really wanted it to go well, not because she had any illusions of findingthe oneon her first ever date but just so she could pat herself on the back and consider it done. The first one was always going to be the worst, the others would come easier. While he couldn’t sit with her and hold her hand, as much as he’d have liked to, he could be there for moral support and to help her if the bloke turned out to be a weirdo.

There was a group chat forum on Connected Hearts where people would sometimes go rather than talking to people individually and privately. Sometimes people would be looking for a date just to accompany them on a works do or some other event where they felt they needed a plus one, and sometimes people were in a certain area and just wanted a date for that night. Those people were generally just looking for sex, which Bear had no problem with – he’d had many a casual arrangement with various women – but it wasn’t what he was looking for any more.

He clicked into the forum and scanned through some of the comments and posts. His eyes widened in surprise. There was a woman called Claudia who wanted a date tonight, specifically at the exact same restaurant that Meadow was meeting Josh but half hour before. That felt like a bit of a convenient coincidence to him but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He’d dated a few food critics over the years, those sent to do anonymous reviews of restaurants and who needed a date just so they didn’t look suspicious sitting in the restaurant alone. This could be one of those things.

He quickly replied.I can meet you at that time in Joseph’s.

Her reply came instantly.Good, wear something smart.

His eyebrows shot up at the blunt request but he’d play along. He wasn’t in this to find everlasting love and it didn’t seem Claudia was, either.

He agreed to her terms and then logged out of the forum.

He spotted that he had another message from Twilight Rose and that made him smile. He clicked into it to see what she said.

Hello, I promised you a good one so here it is. I have cities but no houses, mountains but no trees, water but no fish, what am I?

He smiled because he actually knew the answer to that one. He quickly wrote his reply.

I was thinking about you today and I admit to going online to find some really hard riddles to stump the self-proclaimed riddling queen. And while this one is good and clever, I did see it on a website so I’m afraid I already know the answer. It is a map. But I do have one for you. A bucket of water weighed 22lbs, someone put something in the bucket and it now weighs 10lbs, what did they put in it?

He waited a few moments to see if she replied and then he saw the three little dots to show she was typing.

Damn it, I thought the map one would stump you for sure. I don’t know whether to be flattered that you were thinking of me enough to spend time looking up riddles or annoyed that you have all the answers. I can however answer yours. When I was at Brownies I had to sing a song dressed as a farmer as part of some kind of talent show. If we ever date and get married, I may even show you the video evidence of this. The answer is, there’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole.

He laughed, loudly, and then wrote his reply, adding some crying laughing emojis.

I’m going to need to see that video.

She replied.Not a chance. I can’t sing.

Still need to see it.

And see you running for the hills? I’m quite enjoying our little chats, I don’t want to scare you off.

OK, promise me you’ll show me if we get married.

Maybe on our tenth anniversary, then you’re kind of committed and unlikely to run away.

Bear smiled.I promise never to judge you on the things you’ve done in the past.

There was no reply for a moment and then Twilight started typing.I’ve done some stupid things in my past that I look back on and cringe. Good to know you won’t judge me on it.

He bit his lip as he thought. That sounded like something that was a lot more serious than singing a song dressed as a farmer. He thought for a moment before he sent a reply.

We’ve all done things we regret or in some cases we regret not doing them. But I think we grow because of our actions and decisions, hopefully become better people. I’m more interested in the person you are now than who you were or what you did in the past.

That’s lovely. I like that attitude. I haven’t received too many messages on here so far and certainly nothing as lovely as that. I think I might have put off a few men with my snowman question.

He smiled.Then they are fools.

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