Page 25 of Weekends with You

We pulled the sausages from the fire and blew out the remaining flames, breathing in the scent. My hair and clotheswould smell like a bonfire for days, but at least I’d be reminded of tonight. In which case, I needed it to be a night worth remembering.

“Are we about ready to head to the pub, then?” Jan asked, glancing around at each of us.

“Race Against Time’s about to start, so now’s as good a time as any.” Finn chugged the rest of his beer and spun a finger in the air, signaling to the group that it was time to go. “Let’s crack on.”

We followed suit, downing our drinks and signaling to the neighbors that we were headed out in case a few wanted to tag along. I snagged Henry by the arm as we left the garden, and we fell to the back of the pack.

“Race Against Time?” I asked.

“Oi, I forgot you’ve not done a Race Against Time at the Bag yet,” he laughed. “You’re in for quite a ride. Basically, draft beers start at twenty-five p, and every hour they go up until they reach a pound. By which point we’re all expected to be proper smashed.”

“Bloody hell,” I said. “And we’re expected to make it to midnight like that?”

“Well, we’re not expected to make it to midnight sober, so it’s not so bad.” He smiled, and I realized how much I’d missed that smile in the past month. “Besides, the fireworks are worth the wait.”

I tried to ignore any intrusive thoughts, as I had another Race Against Time to focus on.

The Bag was more crowded than I’d ever seen it, clad in cheap decorations and armed with two additional bartenders. “Why don’t you lot go see if you can find us a table?” Henry said, gesturing toward the back of the pub. “Cal, fancy comingto the bar to grab drinks?” Cal nodded, and the boys disappeared into the crowd.

By the time they returned, we had crammed ourselves into a booth between a coatrack and an exceptionally loud live band.

“Let the games begin,” Cal said, handing us all cheap ale in plastic cups. We toasted, and from then on everything turned into a blur of sloshing drinks, uncontrollable laughter, loud, aggressive banter, and unbearable heat between me and Henry.

We were sitting far closer than we needed to be in the booth, and I could feel his eyes boring holes in my head every time I spoke. It was almost too much to turn and meet his gaze. When I did steal a glance at him, his lips were parted in a way that made me imagine what they’d feel like on my body, and I had to drown my thoughts with another cheap beer for fear of what might happen if I didn’t.

“Who’s going for a midnight snog tonight?” Jan slurred, checking his watch.

“It’s not New Year’s, you git,” Raja said. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“No one gave me the memo that New Year’s was the only time you can kiss at midnight,” Finn said. “Sorry then, Liv. Not gonna be able to snog ya after all.”

“Gross,” Liv said. “What about you two?”

“Us?” Henry asked, gesturing at the two of us while I turned to stone beside him.

“No, Jan and Margot,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Yes, you two. We all know something’s going on. So will it be a midnight kiss or what?” She leaned back and twirled a piece of her hair.

“Didn’t we just establish that Guy Fawkes isn’t a midnight-kissing occasion?” Henry said, coupled with what sounded likea forced laugh. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this much resistance.

“But didn’t we also just establish it totally could be?” I could tell Jan was only asking because he was eyeing that guy in 2C who had convinced his friends to come with us to The Bag, but I was glad it helped my case.

“I mean, I suppose any night could be,” Henry said. “Did you guys get nosier since I was last home?”

“Darling, we’ve always been this way,” Raja said. “You know that. It’s what you signed up for when you moved into the warehouse.”

“I’ll have to revisit my contract,” he said, his laugh a bit more natural this time. I forced an exhale, trying to recover my resolve.

The rest of our roommates booed him and moved on to the next topic of interest, but I wasn’t yet ready to do the same. Had I read this totally wrong?

Maybe he was just one of those private guys who kept his mouth closed about his personal life. Though he did tell me quite a bit about his job and his life that night on the roof, so I wasn’t sure the theory held up. The lingering bonfire smell was becoming more threatening by the minute.

Liv gasped, then immediately hiccupped. “We never did the two-sentence update! Are we too drunk to do it now?”

“Depends,” Henry said. “Does anyone have anything major to share?”

We looked around at each other, mostly in silence.

“Nothing at all?” Henry prompted.

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