“That’s true,” Charlie said with a nod, a little colour returning to his cheeks. “Thanks. And, er, yeah, maybe I could make an appointment? I think I know when I’m going to ask her. Maybe. Or should I do that afterwards? How much notice do you need?”
I left Charlie talking to the guy and walked back over to the other case to look at the flower set. I was definitely going to get it for Jade. Maybe they’d even gift wrap it for me. It’d save me trying to do it myself. Otherwise it’d look like a toddler had gotten hold of it.
“Excuse me,” I said to another salesperson who walked through the room as soon as I turned to look for someone. “Can I get these, please?”
Twenty minutes later, I left with the set in a nice gift bag and my bank account several grand lighter. But it’d be worth it to remind Jade there were people in the world who cared about her.
Charlie was still muttering about engagement rings, but I’d mostly switched off because he wasn’t really talking to me anyway. I just nodded and added the occasional “yeah” and “sounds good” when I thought it was needed. He hadn’t called me out, so I assumed I was doing an all right job or at least not agreeing to something ridiculous.
My eyes roamed over the people on the streets, casually having a nosy at everyone who walked by. I’d always liked watching people because they always did and said the strangest things out of nowhere, and I liked knowing other people’s secrets or what was going on in their lives. Maybe I got it from my grandad, who was the nosiest man I’d ever met. He knew everything about everyone, even the boring stuff like who’d been to the dentist or what brand of cat food people used.
A man a little further ahead of me caught my eye, and I stumbled slightly as I registered who it was: Ezra, the Knights hot-as-fuck marketing and social media manager. Wait, could I say hot as fuck?
Yeah, I could. That wasn’t gay; that was objective. Ezra was hot. Really hot.
Like, the sort of guy you’d fantasise about hot.
I’d never seen him outside of the club before, though, and I really wanted to know what he was doing, especially since he was wearing a proper shirt… on a Saturday. He had to be going somewhere. He was with two other men too, who were holding hands. But Ezra didn’t seem to be with them, not like romantically anyway. More like he was friends with them.
“Hey, er, I just remembered, I need to get Jade a birthday card,” I said to Charlie without taking my eyes off Ezra, who was heading up towards the bottom of Steep Hill. “And I need some stuff from Boots.”
“Oh, no worries, want me to come with you?”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll see you later.”
“You’re still coming for lunch tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there.” I glanced over my shoulder and shot him a smile, then turned on my heels and began to head up the hill after Ezra.
It was away from where I’d told Charlie I’d be going, but I was too intrigued by the sight of Ezra to care.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ezra
“You know,you didn’t have to come all this way,” I said as Shane handed me a martini, the noise of the packed bar around us ringing in my ears. “I was fine.”
“Don’t argue,” Shane said with a sanguine smile as Eric slid an espresso martini into his hand and kissed his cheek. “Just say thank you, darling, and drink your martini.”
“Thank you, darling,” I said and sipped my cocktail. It was better than I’d expected, which was probably the reason they’d insisted on coming here. Shane and Eric did not do cheap or inferior drinks, and heaven help the poor sod who tried to pass off cheap vodka as Belvedere.
I hadn’t anticipated the pair of them turning up at my flat last night as I was getting back from work, but apparently they’d decided on a “spontaneous weekend away” and had just so happened to have found a nice hotel in Lincoln for an exceptionally good price.
It was a fucking lie, but I was still grateful for it. It meant a lot knowing I had people in my corner when it felt like mylife wouldn’t stop falling apart. I kept waiting for the hits to stop coming, but they didn’t. They’d simply spaced themselves out and snuck up on me when I least expected it, hitting me in the gut and knocking me breathless as my heart reeled from the onslaught of memory and emotion.
But at least if Shane and Eric were here, they’d be able to catch me.
“Good boy,” Shane said with a wink. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“Don’t start with me. You won’t like where it goes,” I said, chuckling fondly over the rim of my glass.
“I might.”
Eric snorted, putting his hands in the small of his husband’s back and pointing to the stairs in the corner. “Before you start anything, go and see if there’s anywhere for us to sit upstairs. I’m too old to have this conversation standing.”
“Baby, you’re barely forty.”
“Exactly and my knees are fucked from twenty-plus years of bad decisions.”
