‘I’m not sure yet. A hotel somewhere.’
‘Why don’t you stay here?’ Now that he’d started having guests, why not? It seemed a little ridiculous having two en-suite spare rooms that never got used.
‘Oh, no, I didn’t mean for you to invite me.’
‘I know you didn’t. But it would make sense, wouldn’t it? You know your way around London from here. You know your way around the flat itself. It’s central. I’d be very happy to have you. And no pressure to spend the entire weekend with me. I mean, just use it as your base as you did when you were living here, and if you have any spare time we can just hang out a little? And the neighbours would love to see you. If you have a spare evening we could ask them if they’re free for dinner?’
‘Okay. Well, that’s a lovely and generous offer and I’d love to.’
James felt himself smile. He was already looking forward to seeing her.
Twenty-Two
Cassie
Woah. Cassie pressed the red button on her phone and tried hard to stop grinning. So she was going to stay with James while she was in London.Woah. If she was honest – which she wasn’t going to be with anyone except herself –how exciting. And unnerving, because, again being honest – and again only secretly – shereallyliked him.
Like she hadn’tlikedanyone for a really long time.
Since Simon.
In fact, she liked James a lot more than she’d ever liked Simon. She and James had great, lengthy, satisfying conversations. They werefriends.
She needed to do some serious online shopping immediately – it was a good job that the Wi-Fi worked now. She needed some good nightwear. If there was even the smallest possibility of bumping into James at night – and, yes, all his bedrooms had en-suites, but what if there was a fire – she needed to be wearing something a lot better than small pyjama shorts and a hugeFriendsT-shirt.
* * *
‘How’s Amy doing at college?’ Cassie leaned back so that she could see the stars better above the trees surrounding Dina’s garden, and took another sip of her coffee. ‘And how are you coping now she’s been gone a few weeks?’
‘I’ve got to be honest, it’s hard. I know that you live alone and you’re cool with that, but I never saw myself alone, you know? And she’s just great company. But you don’t want to hold your kids back. She’s having the best time. And I’m just going to go and visit alot, you know, “Hi, honey, I just happened to be passing, because you’re only a ferry ride and a seven-hour car journey away. Why don’t I take you out for dinner? And if you’re willing to speak to me, I will do all your laundry and buy you alotof food.” You know, your typical stalker mom.’
‘I can imagine that it must be sohard.’ Cassie pulled their blanket closer round them – it was seriously chilly this evening – and hugged Dina.
‘Thank you.’ Dina squeezed her back. ‘And, since I’m sharing, I’m kind of feeling lonely on the man front too. It felt like now might be a good time to meet someone, now that Amy’s hit eighteen. I spent far too much of the summer trying to chase James. I offered myself on a plate. And he really wasn’t interested. And really, he isn’t exactly right for me. I mean, he’s great. He’s gorgeous, obviously. He’s a nice person. He’s funny. But there wasn’t really a spark. There’d be other people each of us would gel with more.’ Yup. Cassie and James definitely gelled. ‘For whatever reason, I can’t really imagine sleeping with him. So I need to move on and find someone else. That doesnotmean, obviously, that when James turns up here on holiday next year with a gorgeous blonde in tow I won’t hate her.’
Cassie nodded. She was pretty sure that she’d hate any gorgeous girlfriend of James’s – blonde or not – too.
But sheesh. Two things. One, was it awkward to mention to Dina that she’d agreed to go and see James when she was in London? Not just agreed, she was looking forward to seeing him. And she was going to bestayingwith him. Definitely awkward. Especially since she hadn’t mentioned their daily evening phone chats. And two, what if Jamesalreadyhad a new partner and introduced Cassie to her? No, he probably didn’t have a girlfriend yet, because if he did it would be a bit odd to be inviting another relatively new female friend to stay.
That thought should not be making her feelthisrelieved.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Dina asked. It clearly wasn’t a secret that Cassie was going to stay with James, but it felt like it would be better to mention it another time.
‘Just about the constellations,’ Cassie told her. ‘I love Orion.’ That was the only one she could reliably spot. Funny how James had much better knowledge about constellations than she had, even though he’d spent his entire life living in London.
* * *
‘Good morning.’ Henry was double-taking like nobody’s business, with some serious side-to-side eye action. ‘I think I just saw Mr Grey this morning?’
‘Yep. I’m just in London for the weekend. I’m staying with him.’
‘Oh, okay.’ Henry bent down and picked one of her cases up. ‘Makes sense. For some reason I thought you wouldn’t be here at the same time.’
‘No, we’re friends,’ Cassie said. They were. It was nice. She indicated the case. ‘Thank you so much but I think James is on his way down so we can probably manage the cases between us in one go.’
And the door to the lift pinged open and James stepped out.
Gorgeous, gorgeous,gorgeous.
