My first instinct is to say no. It’s my flat too. I should be here to help make it look the best it possibly can. But as Seb opens a browser, the page that pops up stops me dead.
He frowns. “Isn’t that the place you stayed for New Year’s?”
I nod, gaze caught on the photo of the pub. It looks different in summer.
“Fuck, sorry,” Seb grumbles and moves the cursor to close the window, but I snap my hand out to stop him.
“Wait.”
I don’t know what it is that’s caught my attention until I peer closer at the screen. The photo is the front of the pub with a familiar bench. I’m smiling before I realise.
Out of all the shittiness that happened there with Dan, that bench reminds me that it wasn’t all bad.
“You should go back there this weekend,” Seb says, startling me.
“What?”
“Well, it obviously holds some good memories, judging from that smile you’re sporting.” He nudges my thigh. “Maybe you’ll run into him again.”
I told Seb about Pete on our way back home on New Year’s Day, in between rants about what an arse Dan was. I should’ve known he’d remember. “I’m not driving four hours just for a...” I wave a hand in the air, not sure how to finish that sentence.
“Hook-up? Booty call?”
“Fuck off. I talked to him for about twenty minutes, tops.”
“And yet clearly he left an impression.”
Yes. He did.
The one bright moment in a fucking awful night.
“The chances of me running into him again over one weekend are slim,” I try.
“Are they, though?” Seb taps the screen. “You said it was a local pub, and he’s a local...”
“Even if I run into him, I doubt he even remembers me after all these months,” I mutter, and Seb grins in triumph.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out then!”
He types in the dates for this weekend, fingers hovering over the keys. “Am I booking it or not?”
I bite my bottom lip, unsure.
Seb sighs. “All joking aside, I think it’d be good for you to get away for a couple of days. Let Dan and the estate agent dealwith the flat. It doesn’t have to be this place.” He taps the screen. “There are plenty of others to choose from.”
The photo on my laptop screen draws me back in. The place looks so fucking welcoming, despite my experience with Dan. I glance at the picnic bench and think of wide shoulders and a warm smile.
Even if I don’t run into him, it’ll be a weekend away in a lovely part of the country.
But then again, I might.
“Yeah, have a look,” I say before I can change my mind again.
Seb hits return on the dates for this weekend. “Shit.”
Fully booked.
Disappointment hits me hard. I hadn’t realised until that moment how much I wanted to go. “It’s fine.” I shrug, swallowing past the sudden lump in my throat, which is ridiculous. Ten minutes ago, the idea didn’t even exist. “It was a long shot anyway.”
