‘Why are you wearing a jacket? Are you going out?’ she asked.
Bollocks.
‘No, I er, just popped out for… milk. Yeah, we were running low. Because, you know, er, Josie and Val came in for a coffee.’
‘We did,’ Val told him with a wink. ‘Only, I don’t know what happened to the coffee, because my hands are still empty. How are yours, Josie?’
Josie looked at her lap. ‘It would seem that mine are empty too, since you ask.’
Digby chuckled and took pity on Cammy. ‘Two coffees coming up,’ he said, finishing off whatever he was doing at the till.
Lila, meanwhile, gave Cammy a kiss and then pretended to be pleased to see Josie and Val, who were watching his panicwith barely disguised amusement. Life would be so much easier if Lila’s relationship with everyone else was a bit more amenable. Cammy knew they’d grow on her eventually, and vice versa. No other choice. He was marrying Lila and that was it.
Cammy cleared his throat, desperate to act nonchalant. ‘Didn’t realise you were coming in,’ he told her, thinking how gorgeous she looked. Her hair was messier than usual, almost the way it was when she woke in the morning and she was, in his opinion, at her most beautiful.
She didn’t need the make-up and all the other stuff – she was beautiful just the way she was.
Lila sighed and pulled herself up to sit on the mahogany counter. ‘I wasn’t but I just went in next door and Suze told me someone had been in there to see me and she’d sent them in here. A woman.’
‘Oh, it er… must have been when I was out for the milk.’
‘You know you have staff to do that, don’t you?’ Lila remarked.
Over in the chairs, Josie had a coughing fit.
Cammy knew exactly what she was doing. ‘Slap her back, Val. If she chokes in here, the crime scene team will be here for a week and we’ll lose a fortune,’ he said dryly.
Josie made an instant recovery, just as Digby reappeared clutching two mugs of milky white coffee from the instant machine in the staffroom.
‘Mate, was someone in here looking for Lila?’
Digby nodded. ‘Yeah, forgot to say. Just before you got here…’ He froze… ‘Eh,got backwith the milk.’
Cammy sagged with relief that he hadn’t blown the story.
‘Blonde. Pretty. Said she was a friend and asked for you,’ Digby told Lila, as he handed over the hot drinks to thespectators in the comfy seats. ‘She’ll be on the CCTV if you want to have a look?’
‘Yeah, sure,’ Lila said, then added to Cammy, ‘Baby, will you show me?’
‘Right this way,’ Cammy answered, heading back into the office.
Lila followed him in and waited as he rewound the CCTV footage back to just before he arrived. If she wondered why he came in at the same time as Val and Josie, she didn’t ask.
‘You okay?’ he said, pausing the footage and reaching over to hug her. She returned the gesture, but he could sense something was off. She’d usually have her arms around him by now, be kissing him, and… okay, so yes, they’d had a couple of quickies in the staffroom over the months. There was a lock on the door and they kept the noise down. It was allowed, wasn’t it? He loved that about her – that free, sexy, adventurous side. But today and, actually, over the last few weeks, she’d just seemed a bit… flat.
A thought. Did she know? Had she guessed? That was it. Bugger, he must have left some clue to what was going on and she’d sussed it. Although, if that was the case it was a definite worry that she didn’t sound too excited about it. No. She was probably just tired. Yeah, that must be it. She’d been working way too hard lately and she was just knackered and a bit burnt out. Hopefully, she’d feel a whole lot better after tonight.
After a few seconds wrapped in his arms, she pulled back. ‘I’m fine,’ she assured him. ‘Just tired.’
Okay, so he’d got that right. He kissed the top of her head. ‘Then how about I take this weekend off, and we just chill out and spend two whole days in bed, just me and you?’
Was it his imagination, or did she just flinch when he said that? Imagination. Must be. Jesus, all this engagement subterfuge was making him paranoid and oversensitive.
‘Yeah, babe, maybe. Got a few things I need to do though, so we’ll see.’
Like stay in bed, looking at your engagement ring. Or going out to pick a new one. Or making plans and talking about just how happy they were going to be. A bubble of excitement caught him off guard and he cleared his throat. Enough of the doubt. She was going to be thrilled that they were engaged and they were going to live happily ever after. The end.
He pushed a stray lock of her hair off her face and kissed her, then turned back to the screen, before opening the door a few inches and popping his head out.
