I shook my head and groaned. “Not really, no.” I let her drag me into the reception.
“What’s wrong?” She sat me down on her chair and I leant back on it, the hinges squeaking in protest.
“Work is the last place I want to be today.” I paused for a second, ensuring we were alone before continuing. “Ikissedhim, Bec,” I hissed.
“Kissed who?” Her eyes widened. “Not—”
I nodded. “Take that to the grave with you.”
“Well, shit,” Becca sighed. “How did that come about?”
“Too much to drink, that’s for certain. I’m a fucking idiot. I’ll have to see how it is working with him today and if it’s weird I’ll have to resign or something.” I finished simply.
“You can’t leave.” Becca wailed, grabbing my shoulders. “I’d miss you.”
“You’d still see me, you tit. I don’t think I’m going to ever shake you off now,” I teased.
“Yeah, you can’t get rid of me that easily.” She smiled, but there was still a hint of sadness in her eyes. “I guess I can understand how you’d feel—”
I heard the front door being opened and my heart suddenly leapt into my mouth. “Fuck.” I jumped up.
Becca glanced at her watch. “It’s a bit early for Rowan to be in.” We both stood completely still, listening to whoever had just come in taking their jacket off. Of course, with my luck, who else was it going to be?
“Oh, hey guys.” Rowan startled, finding Becca and I stood in silence in the reception. “I didn’t think anyone else was here. Why are you in the dark?”
Rowan looked exactly as he did every day. I held my breath. He didn’t avoid looking at me, nor did I find himspecificallylooking at me. There was no hint of anything unusual, be it good or bad. Either he had a masterful poker face, or I had imagined the whole thing. I resisted the urge to press my lips together to feel the slight bruising that still remained from the rough kiss.
Becca flipped the lights on and busied herself with setting up her desk.
“Ready to get started?” Rowan asked me, smiling. I just nodded and followed him out through the door. I caught Becca’s eye as I passed her and she shrugged, clearly just as confused as I was.
“Did you have a good night on Saturday?” Rowan asked without turning. It took me by surprise, how easily he was talking about it. Another rush of doubt hit me.
“Yeah, I mean, I think so.” I faked a wide smile, “I can’t remember much of it.”
Rowan chuckled. “I didn’t think you would.” Finally, a strange expression crossed his face but before I had a chance to determine what it meant, it was gone, replaced by his everyday cheerfulness.
“Thank you for the lift home, by the way,” I mumbled, busying myself with preparing the room for a new day. In my peripheral vision, I saw Rowan turn to look at me.
“Oh, sure. My pleasure. I did offer before, if you remember? Seemed senseless for you to pay for a taxi when we were leaving at the same time anyway.”
“Well thanks.” I replied.
Neither of us spoke for a while, and whilst there was nothing out of the ordinary there – we were comfortable enough with one another now to not feel the need to fill silences like we had when we first met – it was laced with an unusual tension that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
As far as dentistry went, the day had been uneventful; a filling here and crown there – nothing special. The conversation between Rowan and I, our eye contact and our body language had all been normal. Nothing to suggest the kiss on Saturday had even happened. I wondered if he was just as keen to forget and move on as I was.
Throughout the day, little details from the weekend had begun to come back to me. I remembered Rowan’s gaze on me, how our cheeks had touched, and most interestingly of all, that he was in fact the one who had pushed me up against his car.
Pretending to flick through a patient file, I watched Rowan across the room. He was glancing between two stacks of paper, a frown creasing his forehead as he concentrated. Suddenly, as if he’d sensed my gaze on him, he glanced up at me. Our eyes met for a brief second before we both turned away sharply.
I only managed to hold off for five minutes before I turned my attention to Rowan again. He startled as I caught him looking and quickly turned away to busy himself with hunting through a drawer.
We hadn’t spoken much all day and yet I felt like I’d had a whole conversation with Rowan through my eyes that afternoon.
Chapter Four
“Alright dude?” Oliver greeted me as I let myself into the flat and dumped my bag by the door.
