Page 55 of Enemies to Lovers

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We must have fallen asleep, because I wake up as the sun starts to peek through the blinds, opening my eyes to see Jamie looking at me.

‘Sorry to stare,’ he says sleepily. ‘I was just trying to decide how to get up without waking you.’

‘I’m awake,’ I yawn. ‘I fell asleep in your bed, sorry.’

He shakes his head. ‘Don’t worry. I’m glad you slept. How are you feeling this morning?’

I stretch, inadvertently pushing myself into his chiselled body. ‘Okay,’ I yawn again, making a mental note of the firmness of him.

‘I meant about what happened with Adonis?’ he clarifies.

‘Oh,’ I reply. I run through last night’s events in my head, searching my brain and body for evidence of how it’s left me. ‘Honestly?’ I settle on. ‘It was fucking awful, but you came at exactly the right time, and at least now I know what a pig he is, you know? I’m okay. At least I let myself loose a little bit, even if it was with totally the wrong person. I’m proud of myself for that. I knowthere’s a bit of weird rationalising going on, but … yeah. I’m grateful it wasn’t any worse.’

‘You have trouble letting loose?’ Jamie asks.

And there’s no reason why anybody would be coming upstairs to our bedroom, especially not as early as this, but I suddenly wonder what it would look like if they did – if Mum ‘caught’ us in bed together, or Laurie.

‘You know I do,’ I say, with another stretch, and then I climb out of his bed. ‘That’s why Holiday Flo was invented. Anyway, thanks for the help, again,’ I tell him. ‘And for the flight to the moon.’

Jamie smiles. ‘You’re welcome any time,’ he replies, and we look at each other for so long after he says that, it’s like we’ve slipped into screensaver mode. ‘You’re cute when you’ve just woken up,’ he observes. ‘All puffy-eyed and red-cheeked.’

I stick my tongue out at him and go to the bathroom.

‘Morning,’ Jamie says, as he joins us all at the breakfast table.

‘Oi, oi,’ Laurie responds, reaching out a fist to bump Jamie’s. ‘I thought you’d slept elsewhere last night! Were you here all night?’

Jamie’s eyes flicker towards me and I look down at the table. I assumed I didn’t have to brief him on not letting my family know what happened last night, but I suddenly get a stab of angst that I should have made him swear he wouldn’t.

‘I wasn’t back too late,’ Jamie says. ‘Had two drinks and then left everybody to it.’

‘Oh,’ says Laurie, sounding disappointed. ‘I thought you and Jasmine were …’

He makes a circle with the forefinger and thumb of one hand, and then sticks the forefinger of his other hand into it.

Dad coughs. ‘Let the boy be, Laurence.’

‘What?’ Laurie squeaks. ‘Why is Florence allowed to hook up with Adonis, but we’re not allowed to talk about Jamie and Jasmine?’

‘Whoever is railing who is none of your business, young man – and certainly not at the breakfast table. Let people have their mystery, would you? Focus on your own … rails.’

We all burst out laughing. Dad has totally misused that term on purpose, to give us something else to talk about.

‘I’m envious they even have their rails asked about,’ Alex offers, buttering some toast. ‘Nobody asks me about my mystery.’

‘That would involve you actually having some,’ Kate says.

And Alex looks at her in surprise and shrieks, ‘Kate! You bitch! I’ll take you off my Christmas-card list.’

‘You don’t send Christmas cards,’ she shoots back.

‘Well, no,’ agrees Alex. ‘I don’t. Anyone I’d want to give a folded-over piece of paper to – a folded-overpiece of paper they’ll throw away in two weeks – I see every day at work anyway.’

I put on my ‘doing an impression of Alex’ voice. ‘What’s the point of hacking down trees to say “Merry Christmas” to each other when we can all do it in person? Not to mention the price of stamps now. I could teach a family to fish, with the cost of a first-class book of stamps these days.’

Dad chuckles. ‘You really are old before your time sometimes, Al,’ he comments. ‘You’re far too young to be so grumpy.’

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