Page 43 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

‘Hello you.’ Heather leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. ‘I knew I had a reaction to you, I mean look at you, I bet every woman in the room had a reaction to you. But I didn’t think you had a reaction to me. I’m so flattered.’

‘I, erm…’ Bear said, because he had nothing else he could say.

‘I never get matched with anyone at these kinds of events, I think it’s my height, men don’t like women who are taller than them, but you’re one of the few men I’ve met who is taller than me. And you were attracted to me. I’m so happy right now, I can’t even tell you,’ Heather went on.

He watched Meadow discreetly slip away, leaving them alone, and though Heather was grinning at him inanely, he couldn’t have felt more miserable.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

Meadow took off her smart watch and handed it back to Imogen while everyone else was still milling around chatting to people or getting matched.

‘Did you have fun?’ Imogen asked.

‘It was nice to meet so many different people,’ Meadow said, tactfully.

Imogen checked the number on the badge Meadow was wearing. ‘Ah, number seventeen, your chemistry with number twenty-five was off the charts.’

‘Yes well, I wanted to talk to you about that. Me and Bear, number twenty-five, we’re friends. I mean, he’s my best friend, I’ve known him all my life. So that would have skewed the results, right?’

Imogen frowned and shook her head. ‘No, these monitors don’t pick up that kind of connection. We have trialled these on family members, friends, even enemies, and while hate or anger or friendship can provoke a chemical reaction, it doesn’t have the same results as a physical attraction.’ She paused for a moment while she consulted her tablet, bringing up both Meadow and Bear’s charts for the time they had their date.

Imogen looked around to make sure no one could hear. ‘You love him, don’t you? You felt a strong affection for him, that I can see, and desire and passion too, but these kinds of results are only ever present when someone is head over heels in love with someone else. Your history explains it, because you would never feel this kind of love for someone you’ve just met no matter how much you were attracted to them. And based on his readings he has the same feelings for you. I have been doing this matchmaking for five years now and studied it and researched it for many more years before that and I’ve never seen this kind of love before, not even in couples who have been married for years. I have no idea why you two aren’t together, whether there are other complications in your life that are keeping you apart, but trust me when I say: you two belong together.’

Meadow stared at her, feeling like she had been punched in the gut with that news. Bear loved her? Surely not.

She turned round to look at him to see he was happily chatting to Heather. How could he love her and be matched to someone else?

‘Ah yes, he also matched with someone else,’ Imogen said and Meadow turned round to look at her. ‘Number eighteen. That’s… interesting. And more than a bit weird.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Let me get up his chart for the whole evening,’ Imogen said. She studied it for a moment. ‘Ah, the wonders of technology, it’s amazing until it cocks up.’ She turned the tablet round to show Meadow. ‘These red lines are connected to the bell, the start and stop times of each date. And a tiny gap in between each date while people are moving around. You can see here that throughout the evening his heart rate remained steady for every date apart from here, number seventeen, when it suddenly gets a lot higher. The bell rang here to end your date and then it spikes exponentially in this tiny gap between the dates. Although he was with number eighteen from this point onwards his heart rate is still recovering from what happened here, at this spike. What happened at the very end of your date, after the bell rang?’

‘He, umm… he bought me a book, something really personal to me, and I hugged him to say thank you and then… there was a moment where I thought we were going to kiss.’

‘That’s what caused this massive spike, he clearly thought you were going to kiss, too. Then his date with number eighteen started here but his heart is still recovering from that near kiss. This is why the program matched him with number eighteen as well, it doesn’t take into account what happened prior to his date with number eighteen starting, it just recognises that his heart rate was elevated during their date. And hers was too, not surprising, he’s a good-looking lad. But I certainly wouldn’t get too upset about him matching with someone else. If I were you, I’d go over there and kiss him, lay claim on him once and for all.’

Meadow laughed and turned to look at him again. ‘I think we need to talk about all this first, before we jump ahead to any kisses. This, us, just wasn’t on my radar because I never realised he felt the same way I did. I’m guessing he never realised how I feel either.’

‘Well, it’s certainly something you need to talk about sooner rather than later,’ Imogen said as they watched Heather put her hand on Bear’s arm and Bear laugh loudly at something she said. ‘Before it’s too late.’

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

Meadow sat down opposite Bear at breakfast the next day as he was working away on his laptop. Star was busy chatting happily to Alex and Lucien at the counter and Meadow was hoping to talk to Bear, although she knew her time was short. He had still been speaking to Heather when she’d left the dating event the night before so they hadn’t had a chance to talk about them matching.

He looked up and closed his laptop, pushing it to one side. ‘You OK? You left early last night.’

‘Well, there didn’t seem any point in hanging around. I only matched with you and I certainly didn’t want to be in the way of you and Heather getting to know each other.’

She hoped she didn’t sound jealous, she wanted Bear to be happy, but she couldn’t help feeling confused that he had matched with her because he supposedly loved her but had spent over half an hour talking to someone else. It felt like they really needed to discuss this, unless Imogen and her amazing computer program was wrong and it was simply a platonic connection that had been recorded the night before. But if so how did it explain the spike of his heart rate when they nearly kissed?

He frowned. ‘You could never be in the way.’

‘Heather seems nice.’

‘She is… but…’ he trailed off.

Meadow glanced over at Star. They probably had less than a minute before she came over to join them. Nowhere near enough. Now wasn’t the time.

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