“Pretty much. She asked me to go for a coffee with her and said she wanted to catch up.”
Georgia’s eyes blazed again, only this time I didn't think the fiery anger was directed at me.
“I don't need to ask if you said no, do I?”
I smiled at the question disguised in another question. “I said no. I told her I was seeing somebody else and that it was serious.”
“Oh. How did she take it?”
I wanted to joke, and say something the lines of that she was incredibly disappointed and absolutely heartbroken, because, hey, who wouldn't want to get back together with me? But I had enough sense to know it wasn't the right time for that. Maybe I had learned something from Maxwell.
“I don't know. I hope she realised I was serious, and she leaves me alone. I was pretty blunt with her. But I also think that she made up a reason to have to come to the offices today. I think she was trying to find an in with me.” It was strange that Cassie turned up there today after three years without having seen each other not even casually bumping into each other, she managed to make her way into my place of work. I figured that she had heard I was seeing someone else, and not just casually dating. There had been times in our relationship or rather not in our relationship when we weren't together because Cassie had broken up with me, but soon as she found out that I’d seen somebody else, she wanted me back.
I sat down on Georgia’s desk chair, bringing her onto my knee and holding her while she curled up into me.
“I'm sorry,” she said, her hand resting on my chest, a finger drawing a circle or a pattern. “I don't usually get jealous, but you were with her for so long and with her coming back in like that it did make me feel worried, I guess.”
“I understand. I know how I would feel if Rose’s dad suddenly turned up.” This was something I'd already thought about quite a lot, and one of those nights when I was lying in bed by myself and couldn't get to sleep. What would happen if Rose’s dad came back into her life and wanted a relationship with her? What would happen if he realised he'd made a mistake leaving Georgia and wanted her back too? The thought of it made me want to whisk Georgia and Rose away and take them away somewhere he couldn't find them, but that wasn't my place. I was just the boyfriend and the man who helped Rose with her maths homework.
Georgia laughed and her hold on me grew a little bit tighter. “Rose's dad isn't going to turn up out of the blue. He made that very clear when I had her, and he also signed a piece of paper relinquishing his parental rights. He might change his mind when she's older, but then it has to be her decision about whether she wants anything to do with him and that will only be up to her.”
Relief started to trickle through me. “But what about you? Have you ever thought about getting back together with him?”
“Why would I want to be with a man who cheated on his fiancée with me, and he's never wanted to anything to do with his child? I wouldn't change anything because then I wouldn't have Rose, but I am so glad he's not in our lives. You've really got nothing to worry about, Seph.”
“And neither have you with Cassie.” I only had words right now to reassure her, I just wish they would fully carry how I felt right now.
She nodded. “I'm sorry if I overreacted.”
I shook my head. “I'm glad you did.”
“What?”
I grinned, unsure if what I was going to say was going to make her smile or smack me. “Because it shows me how much you like me.”
“I do like you, Seph.”
“How much?”
She whacked me on my ass. “Enough to invite you to mine for an early night.”
“I'm not sure. I might be washing my hair.”
And for that, I got an elbow in my stomach.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Georgia
London on a Friday afternoon was never the best time to travel out of the city. Having said that, there was never a particularly good time to travel in or out of London. On a good day the place was like a slow-moving car park, with most cars stationary at lights or just generally stuck, and on some days it was gridlocked. We got lucky and managed to leave the city just before the afternoon rush began. I’d packed the night before, throwing more stuff than I needed into the boot of Seph’s car. There were enough of Rose’s toys in there to keep a nursery full of children entertained for three weeks, and enough of her clothes that we were covered for every occasion including a Princess fancy dress party, a wedding and some form of muddy festival.
It was nerves. Good, old fashioned, meet-the-parents, nerves. I had met a couple of boyfriends’ parents before, but it was more the whole bumping into them when he had to stop at their house to pick something up, or we happened to bump into them one afternoon. It hadn't been arranged, or a formal introduction, like this was. I'd met Marie a few times when she’d been in the office and for lunch; she'd seen Rose on a couple of occasions, and we'd both met Seph’s dad, but this was the first time it was just me, Rose and Seph going to see his parents as one unit and it definitely felt like a milestone.
“Mummy, how long will it take to get there?”
It was the dreaded words that no parent wanted to hear this early on in the journey. Rose was a little bit disappointed that she couldn't spend Friday night at Addy's. They had a set routine and they really did like to stick to it. The appeal of going to see Seph's parents wasn't quite there for her, so I had to invest in several new reading books as a basic form of bribery.
Seph had found it very amusing, as had Ava when he’d told her. Ava had said that she would definitely prefer a girly sleepover than spending the weekend at home.
