Page 70 of Weekends with You

“You said I was close when I guessed Christmas!”

“Yeah, because I was thinking about mulled wine and biscuits, not trees. Besides, I thought that would be an easy one. It smells just like you.” That last bit slipped out before I had a chance to stop it, and it danced between us like a flame.

“You know what I smell like?”

I blushed, stumbling over my words as I tried to change the subject.

“Luce—”

“Do we like either of these? The eucalyptus or the cinnamon? You said it yourself—if we want to beat the girls, we have to leg it.”

“Both are fine,” he said.

Why did I have to make it weird? Or why did he have to make it weird? Why couldn’t we both keep our big mouths shut and get what we needed without having to let Jan be right?

We wordlessly chose a few more candles, paid, and caught the Tube home. The time we’d spent on the Underground was adding up, and I was beginning to feel claustrophobic.

When we finally got back to the apartment, we were met with silence.

“Mar?” I called. “Liv?” Nothing.

“Holy shit,” Henry said, laughing to himself. “Have we done it?” We peered around the apartment, checking in studios and open bedroom doors, but found nothing.

We turned to each other, arms out, ready to embrace in celebration, then both pulled back at the same time. The last thing we needed was that much physical contact, and I was thankful we were at least on the same page about that.

“Well done, Luce.”

“Cheers,” I said. We unpacked our findings, dancing around each other like live wires. Just moments later, Margot and Liv came crashing through the door, and I could have kissed themboth. I could breathe again now that Hen and I weren’t the only two people in the apartment, and we could gloat a bit about our victory.

“Bloody hell,” Liv said, dropping her bags to the floor. “Are you having a laugh? How long have you been here?”

“Just a few minutes,” I said, helping her with the bags. “But that’s all it takes to win, isn’t it?”

“We were so sure we had it,” Margot said. “Maybe if one of us didn’t have to pet every dog we passed on the way, we would have been faster.”

“It wasn’t quite the dogs so much as the pretty barista at Leadenhall, wasn’t it?”

“I should have left you in the tube station.”

“Losing is tearing you apart, innit?” Henry laughed. They both shoved him out of the room, reunited over a common enemy. We settled into the kitchen, guzzling water and picking at a sleeve of stale crackers while we waited for the others.

They came home in exactly the order Henry had predicted they would: Cal and Jan shortly after Mar and Liv, then Raja and Finn quite a bit later, tattered and arguing.

“We were starting to get a bit worried you two wouldn’t make it home,” Cal said when they arrived. “The sun set, like, half an hour ago.”

“We know that, Callum,” Raja said, still glaring at Finn. “We’re not ready to joke about it yet.”

“Speak for yourself,” Finn said, kicking off his sneakers and sitting on the kitchen table. “It was good craic. You lot should have been there.”

“If we’d been there, we wouldn’t have gotten here first, would we?” Henry asked.

“You jammy bastards,” Finn laughed. “How did you pull it off?”

“Team chemistry,” Henry said, glancing in my direction. I could feel his gaze, but I wasn’t yet ready to meet it. I’d fully lost control of my initial plan to keep my distance, and I needed to regain my footing if I wanted to keep the upper hand. Not that I needed an advantage, because we were just friends, but it felt good to have it anyway.

“So, what are we drinking tonight?” Cal asked. “Jan and I can run across the street to grab the booze if everyone just wants to Venmo, except Hen and Lucy, of course.”

“Pimm’s Cup,” Henry said, and I looked straight at him this time.

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