Page 56 of Wish You Knew
Her blue eyes clouded over. “What do you mean? I thought you wanted this?”
“I thought I did too, but…” My voice trailed off. What could I tell her? That I was in love with someone who I’d pushed away because Iwasthat arrogant, full of himself, confident prick Amy had described? I was too scared to even admit it to myself, let alone anyone else.
“Fine. Whatever.” Her tone changed, harsher now. She extricated herself from our position and grabbed her bag. “I thought you were going to be different. Guess you’re like all the rest.” Without saying another word, she slammed out of the flat leaving me alone.
I reached for my phone and fired up the picture Rosie posted earlier. She looked happy. @andy_b_morse57_ looked like the kind of guy who wouldn’t fuck around with her feelings, like I had.
28
Rosie
When my phone rang with an unknown number, I almost didn’t answer it. I hadn’t been involved in an accident, PPI claims were a thing of the past and all my insurances were up to date. Mentally preparing myself for a conversation with a cold caller, I accepted the call. “Hello?”
“Rosie? It’s Vivian Woods.”
The last person I’d expected to get a call from was Scott’s aunt. “Vivian, hi, how are you?”
“I hope you don’t mind me contacting you, my dear. I got your number from Sebastian. Although I still can’t get used to seeing him all over the internet in just his pants.” She chuckled. “And you look lovely in those pictures too, such a healthy role model.”
“Thank you, and of course I don’t mind.” I muted the television, giving Vivian my full attention.
“I wondered if you might be free to meet for afternoon tea later today.”
My schedule yawned with the emptiness of it. I was waiting to hear back on a lot of castings and possible interviews, but I was certainly available that afternoon. “I’d love to, where do you want to meet?”
She gave me the name of a French cafe, which specialised in patisserie, on Kensington High Street.
“Sounds perfect. I’ll see you there at three?”
“Splendid. I look forward to seeing you later.”
My face wrinkled with curiosity after we said our goodbyes. Now what could Vivian Woods possibly want?
I tapped my phone against my chin, then called Bas.
“Why does your mum want to have afternoon tea with me?” I demanded the minute he answered.
“Hi Bas, how are you doing? I’m good thanks, Rosie. How are you?”
“Sorry,” I sighed. “It seemed a bit suspicious, that’s all.”
“Since you were at the house, she’s barely talked about anyone else. I think she’s worried about you.”
His words stopped me in my tracks. The last thing I’d expected was for Vivian to care about me. After all, we’d spent less than a couple of days together and I’d probably left attractive snot marks on one of her best outfits.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. It’s almost as if she wants to adopt you or something. Then I can carry on being the black sheep of the family.” He laughed. “She really loves ourSFUcampaign, though.”
The images had gone viral and blown up in a big way. Both Ellie and I were grateful to Bas for stepping in. Funny how things turned out.
“Although not so keen on seeing you in your pants, apparently.” I paused and gnawed on the edge of my thumb nail. “So you think this afternoon tea is more of a getting to know you thing?”
“Yep, definitely. Takes the heat off of me. You two have fun now. I want to hear all about it when we next meet.”
We made some vague plans to catch up and then ended the call.
I changed my outfit around three times before settling on something which I thought would be appropriate. It was almost worse than getting ready for a first date.
