Suddenly he became very still. ‘What?’ he whispered.
‘You and me, I mean. Not – not me and…’ She trailed off as his face was completely transformed. She was taken aback by how angry he looked.
‘Fuck buddies?’ he snarled. ‘You want me to be yourfuck buddy?’
‘Well… yeah. I thought?—’
‘Because that’s all I’m good for, right?’ He banged his glass down on the table. ‘Just a meaningless fuck!’
‘No, of course not! But?—’
‘Just while you wait for the next Mr Right to come along, of course,’ he fumed. ‘And then what? I’m supposed to melt into the background? Stand by and watch the girl I love walk off into the sunset with?—’
‘What?’ Her voice came out as a stunned whisper, barely audible. ‘The girl you?—’
‘Love. To bits,’ he said, with a look of such helpless yearning Claire thought her heart might burst.
‘Oh.’ Tears stung the backs of her eyes.
‘Yeah. So I’ll pass on the whole fuck-buddy thing, if you don’t mind. Look, I think you should?—’
She cut him short by launching herself at him so that she knocked the breath out of him and he was forced tocatch her in his arms as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
‘Claire, get off me!’ he said irritably, trying to detach her, but she clung on tighter.
‘Oh, Luca! I love you too,’ she said, kissing his face. ‘So much.’
He became very still. ‘What?’ he breathed. He lifted her off him, planting her on the floor. ‘Say that again.’
‘I love you. To bits.’
‘You do?’ He looked at her wonderingly, and then his whole face lit up like he was having an epiphany.
‘I do.’ She reached up and touched the side of his face, his stubble rough against her fingers.
‘How come you’ve never said?’
‘Because I didn’t want to freak you out. I knew you didn’t want me ever to fall for you?—’
‘What on earth gave you that idea?’ he said crossly.
‘Er… you did. You told me I wasn’t to get hung up on you, remember? It was your number-one rule.’
‘Oh. Yeah.’ He laughed ruefully. ‘So I did. You’re not the only one who’s full of shit.’
‘Well, I broke your stupid rule anyway.’
‘Good. Itwasa stupid rule. I don’t know what I was thinking.’
‘Why didn’tyousay something?’
‘Because you were with Mark. I thought he was what you wanted. And then I almost told you that night in the caravan,’ he said. ‘But the next day I saw your blog…’
‘I didn’t write it that morning,’ she said. ‘I’d written it way before that and I was just looking at it because I needed to change it.’
‘Anyway, I thought Mark was The One. So I was trying to do the decent thing and walk away from the girl I love –even though it was killing me.’ He shrugged. ‘I was being all noble and stuff.’
She tilted her head to the side. ‘Well, you can do that, if you like. Or you could be the one who gets the girl. It’s up to you.’
