Page 40 of Wish You Knew
Without truly realising it, I’d been comparing everyone to Rosie.
And no-one measured up.
How was I going to approach it with her? We’d never really had a proper heart to heart about our relationship. Hell, neither of us had ever even classed what we had as a relationship.
The closest we’d come had been last night, when we’d fallen asleep together.
I wished Vivian and Bas weren’t around, and it was still just Rosie and I here.
But I had to work with the parameters I had.
Perhaps I could persuade them to go out tonight, and I could cook.
I actually laughed out loud, my chuckle reverberating around the room.
I’d never cooked for anyone; I rarely even did for myself.
Giving Rosie food poisoning would be one way of finding out how she felt about me, as I held her hair while she was being sick.
I needed to talk to her before I drove myself bat shit crazy with not knowing.
If she didn’t feel the same, I didn’t know what I was going to do.
20
Rosie
Ifound Vivian Woods absolutely fascinating.
When she’d suggested afternoon tea, I hesitated, almost feeling guilty leaving Scott. As he’d been kind enough to invite me to the house, I sensed I should spend time with him.
Hell, I wanted to spend time with him. After last night, I’d woken up with a confusion of feelings clouding my chest. The sex was, as ever, amazing. For two people who hooked up occasionally, we knew each other well, knowing the movements which gave the other the most pleasure. There had been a different level of intimacy though, not just the usual frenzied lust which came from wanting each other so badly, something more, something deeper. Something which connected on an emotional as well as a physical level. It surprised me. I’d spent so long trying to deny my actual feelings, I didn’t know what to feel any more.
I wanted to talk to Scott, try to find out how he saw things.
But right now, I was stuck in a tea shop with his aunt.
Vivian seemed almost a minor celebrity around the village. Every shop assistant greeted her like a long-lost friend. She’d been given freebies, discounts, you name it. A cluster of carrier bags around her feet provided the evidence.
“How long have you and Scott been seeing each other?” Vivian clearly didn’t believe in beating around the bush. She sipped her tea from a delicate china cup, her eyes scanning the sandwiches and cakes as she decided what to have.
“Oh, we’re not,” I muttered, chewing on one of the tiny salmon and cucumber sandwiches. “We’re friends.”
She raised her eyebrows. “So you walking around his kitchen half naked, until he turns up with morning glory is what you kids are classing as friendship these days?”
I almost choked on my mouthful. I hadn’t expected those words to slip from Vivian’s prim lips. Coughing, I reached for my water glass and took a sip, trying to stop my eyes from watering. “We, um, have benefits to that friendship.”
“As I can see.”
It was hard to tell whether she disapproved or not. I didn’t know her well enough to know whether she was joking with me. If it were me and my mother, she would definitely have been taking the piss out of the situation, more than likely making some lewd comment about Scott’s girth. Vivian Woods didn’t possess that kind of gutter humour.
“There’s something between the two of you though, isn’t there?”
Was there? If even someone who had only seen the two of us together for the briefest of moments could see it, why couldn’t we? Or at least, why couldn’t we acknowledge it?
I let out a sigh, the macaroons crying out to me. “We enjoy each other’s company,” I said instead.
“It’s more than that, though, Rosie. I can see how he looks at you. You know he’s never brought a girl back to the house before.” Vivian poured herself another cup of tea. “In all the time we’ve had it.”
