Page 35 of Weekends with You

“You see,” he explained, “it’s the juxtaposition of you and the flowers and the industrial studio that makes this work. On their own, the flowers are beautiful but cliché, and on its own, the studio is cold and inhuman. But with you in the shot...” He stopped talking, replacing his words with the shutter of the camera.

“So you did plan on teaching me something after all.”

“Lucy, I am a man of my word.” He dropped the camera around his neck, looking at me straight on now instead of through the viewfinder.

“I wish I could say the same for myself.”

He stepped into the space between my legs, testing the waters. I knew this was wrong. I knew I’d had more to drink than usual and this would likely hurt worse than the hangover in the morning. But I also knew I wanted nothing more than Henry in this moment, so I surrendered.

I pulled his camera from around his neck and replaced it with my arms, savoring the way he leaned into my body. He pressed his lips to mine, and I let the flowers fall to the floor. Unlike our first kiss, this one started hungry.

I laced my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, and he wrapped a strong arm around my back, pulling me into him. The sound of our breathing overwhelmed the distant thump of the bass, and the party ceased to exist at all. As far as I was concerned, we were the only two people in the warehouse. In fact, we might as well have been the only two people in the city.

“Lu, are you in here?”

Raja.Bloody hell.I uncurled my legs from Henry’s body, and he braced his hands on either side of me on the bench, turning the veins in his forearms to ropes.

“Yeah, in the studio, just a second, Raj.” I scrambled to gathermyself and Henry ran a frustrated hand through his hair, which wasn’t helping my case. I brought a finger to my lips, fearful he’d blow our cover, but instead of listening he grabbed me by the jaw and kissed me hard where my finger had been.

I stumbled from the studio, dropping the curtain back in the doorway before Henry had a chance to leave behind me.

“What are you doing up here?” Raja asked, looking around the apartment.

“Er, I left my phone in here while I was working earlier. Came up to grab it.”

“You’re obviously lying, but I’ll care about that later. We need to get Liv back upstairs. She’s three sheets to the wind, and I think she swung at Finn when he suggested she stop drinking and go to bed. And you know it’s bad if Finn is trying to cut someone off.”

I laughed at the thought of Liv swinging at anyone, and I thought Henry might have done the same from behind the curtain.

“Well, then, let’s go get her.”

“Oh, did you see Henry while you were in here? I thought Liv said he came in to upload photos, but that might have been rubbish. But he’s a good voice of reason, so might be helpful to have him around.”

“Hey, Raj,” he said from behind us, with no evidence that he’d been in my studio. “Liv was right, actually. Had to quick purge the memory card. But it sounds like you two could use a hand, so let’s crack on, then.”

“You two are both liars, and you’re lucky our friend is in need, otherwise I’d be asking a ton of questions.”

“Quite lucky, indeed.” Henry smiled.

“Don’t think it isn’t coming,” Raja threatened, and he raised his hands in surrender. “We just have to deal with this first.”

“Roger that.” Hen saluted, and we headed back into the party with a very different mission than we’d been working on a few minutes ago. Probably for the best, although it felt like nothing could have been worse.

By the time we’d coerced Liv into bed with a large glass of water and a few Tylenol, a sad glance between me and Henry over Raja’s head confirmed what we both already knew: This, like everything else, would have to wait.

As if getting out of bed the morning after a party wasn’t difficult enough, it was raining buckets and freezing cold. If I hadn’t promised Liv and Cal I’d help with breakfast, I might have stayed in bed forever.

By the time I got to the kitchen, those two were in full swing. I didn’t know Cal could cook, which wasn’t surprising, since I didn’t know much of anything about Cal in the first place. But with a towel over his shoulder and an apron around his waist, he looked like the real deal.

“How can I help?” I meant to ask at a normal volume, but since those were my first words of the day, they came out as more of a squeak.

“Luce, glad you’re here,” Liv said. “You’re creative and artistic. We need that. Do you mind putting the table together? I want it to feel special.”

“I nicked some of the flowers off the tables at the end of the night, so we can reuse those if you want. Save ye some time,” Cal said, gesturing to the counter beside the fridge where he’d set the arrangements from the party.

“They’re beautiful, and they look like mistletoe,” Liv said, which made me laugh. Then it made me depressed, because the last thing I wanted to think about this morning was kissing.

“On it,” I said.

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