Page 54 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

Bear sighed. He was damned sure Meadow’s camera had picked up his attraction to her. He wasn’t sure what his camera was picking up when Meadow was looking so miserable.

He swept a hair from her face. ‘How about we go home?’

She nodded.

He grabbed her bag and jacket and put an arm round her to guide her out. ‘Thanks Oliver.’

Oliver waved them off and then turned his attention back to the leaflet.

Bear escorted Meadow to the table near the entrance and handed back their cameras and wristbands which were still frantically beeping.

Imogen looked at him with a smile. ‘You matched again, how funny,’ she said dryly.

‘I think these are broken,’ Meadow said.

‘Come on,’ Bear said, helping her towards the door, she was a bit wobbly on her feet.

There was a cocky-looking man who oozed overconfidence, standing near to the door with a woman who looked a little worse for wear herself. The man looked at Meadow and let out a guffaw.

‘Oh, look who it is, Miss Judgemental. She told me I was disgusting when I said alcohol was going to make it a lot easier to get laid tonight, and here she is going home with a man.’

‘Shows what you know, you turd, this is my best friend and he would never sleep with me, never,’ Meadow said.

Bear quickly ushered her out.

‘That sounded a lot better in my head,’ Meadow said, quietly, as he draped her jacket round her shoulders.

‘Oh no, you definitely told him. Although what you said wasn’t exactly true. How was your night?’

‘A bit rubbish if I’m honest. Meeting people face to face didn’t really work. One man stopped talking to me and walked away because I didn’t know what a borg was.’

‘The Borg? It’s an alien race fromStar Trek.’

‘Well how am I supposed to know that? I’ve never seen it.’

‘Some of the Trekkies take themselves very seriously. There are whole conventions dedicated to the series and movies, people dress up and everything. Obviously to that man it was very important to him you likedStar Trek. Although I have to admit, that does seem a bit petty.’

‘Would you be turned off by a woman if she didn’t likeStar Warsand Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, or if she didn’t know who Princess Leia was?’

‘I’m impressed you remember those names, since you slept through most of the movies.’

‘Well, I took some of it in. I could see you wanted me to like it, so I tried.’

His heart swelled with love for her. ‘Well no, it doesn’t bother me if you don’t likeStar Wars. Just like it doesn’t bother you that I don’t like twinkling vampires.’

She smiled. ‘You’ll always tease me about that film, won’t you?’

‘Yes, always.’

They carried on walking, his arm round her shoulders, guiding her and keeping her upright.

‘What did you mean when you said it wasn’t true?’ Meadow asked. ‘When I told Isaac you wouldn’t ever sleep with me. You said that wasn’t true.’

‘Maybe that’s a conversation for tomorrow,’ Bear said.

She was silent for a moment. ‘I always imagined what it would be like to sleep with you,’ she said.

He nearly missed his step himself then. ‘You did?’

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