“Right, how am I getting you home? Carrying? A wheelchair?” He raised his brows. “You can’t stay here all night – the imprint of that seat will be on your arse for a decade.”
I started laughing because he was probably right. “Give me a minute to pull everything up and sort myself out. You sure I’m okay to come back to yours?”
“Pretty much. Just let me call the six women who are there waiting for my return.” He lifted his phone, showing it to me.
I started laughing again because he was taking the piss out of himself, and I knew from the conversations that we’d had – usually in bed – that he’d been strictly a one woman man. “Ask them to open a bottle of red wine and let it breathe. The merlot would be a good choice.”
“On it.” He exited the cubicle and closed the door too.
I did what I needed to do, listening to him make a phone call to Jesse, who’d recently moved into a house near to Jude’s. He was asking him to nip round and put the fire on, and open the merlot.
That was when I cried.
Huge fat tears started to drop as I fixed a sanitary pad and pulled everything up, glancing at the toilet bowl that really did look like something had met a bloody end down there.
A sob broke lose.
The cubicle door opened. Jude stood there, filling the space.
“Is this because you’re on your period, is it because you’re not pregnant, or is it because you were hoping for an orgy with those six fictional women?” He was still holding up his phone.
A noise that was a mixture of a laugh and sobs snorted out of me. “It’s because you’re so nice.”
His laugh surprised me. “You know, that’s not what every man wants to be called – nice. Badass. Hench. Sexy. I get nice.” He pulled me into his arms. “I’ll take nice because it’s coming from you.” He reached round me and flushed the loo. “I’m so glad I’m not a woman.”
“Yeah, some days it’s crappy.” I was let go and headed to the sink, needing to wash my hands. “Let’s go. I need a takeout, wine and something Christmassy on TV.” I didn’t need to pick up my oversized handbag because Jude already had it.
Being looked after was something I was starting to enjoy.
I just needed to make sure I didn’t get used to it.
I left my car at the grounds, sitting back in Jude’s reclining car seat with the seat warmer on high. He had a mix of girl bands playing on the sound system, which wasn’t his usual indie-rock choice.
“Since when have you been in your Spice Girls era?” I’d nabbed a heat pack from Amber’s room and was holding it against my stomach. These cramps were nasty and the pain relief I’d taken hadn’t seemed to have kicked in yet.
Jude took a corner at a perfectly reasonable speed, turning the steering wheel with just one hand, something I found a ridiculous turn on.
“I figured if we had a girl I needed to be up on girl power and stuff like that.” His cheeks coloured slightly and he didn’t expand any further, which was unusual for him.
I couldn’t stop the smile. That was probably the most ovary-exploding thing I’d ever heard, and if I hadn’t wanted specifically Jude’s baby before, I did now.
He glanced at me. “What? Why are you smiling at me?”
“Because that’s just the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.” I knew he was going to hate being called cute.
“Nice. Cute. I’m going to have a complex if this carries on. When your period’s stopped, you’re going to be using completely different words, I’m telling you now.” He shook his head, turning into the road that led to his house.
I smiled at the thought of that. The vibe between us had become easy. Uncomplicated. But that was kind of how Jude was, or how he seemed. I got the feeling sometimes that still waters were running deep, deeper than what he let on.
“When I’m not feeling like this, I’ll think about that comment some more.” I relaxed back into the seat, even though he was slowing down to take the turn into his drive, the gates opening automatically.
I liked Jude’s house. It was huge – because why wouldn’t it be – but it felt homely. I knew his mum had helped him chose the furniture and décor, but he’d insisted a couple of times that it had stemmed from his ideas. It was also the place he wanted to be for a good while, as he had no intentions of leaving Manchester Athletic.
“Home.” He parked the car in the garage, the door something else that was automatic. “Do you need any stuff? Have you got everything here you need?”
One of the things that had changed since last time was that we were staying at his more than mine. It was out in the open now that we were ‘kind of seeing each other’, which was how we’d both explained it to people that we didn’t want to tell the full story too. It would be easier for people to assume I’d gotten pregnant by accident than we’d been trying to get pregnant even though we weren’t in a romantic relationship.
“I think I’ve got everything here.” I eased myself out of the car, Jude whipping round to grab my bag off me. “I am able to carry stuff, you know.”
