It’s just polite to bring latte and check on a cat-inflicted wound, that’s all.
She pushes the door to Great Expectations open, and the not-particularly-romantic buzzer sounds.
‘Hi,’ says the woman behind the counter, and Lexi clocks it straight away: it’s Amanda. And then, she adds, ‘Aren’t you in the wrong bookstore?’ She says it light-heartedly, but Lexi isn’t fooled. She knows how to recognise the tell-tale signs of a woman being territorial. What is this woman who hurt Sam so badly doing back in his life? In his bookshop?
‘I just came to bring a latte to Sam,’ she says. She knows there’s something about the way you say the name of the guy you like, something about the intonation or the emphasis or the false lightness of it, that instantly gives away how you feel. She hopes she hasn’t just done that. Not that shedoeslike him, anyway. It’s simply that the way she said his name just then? It made it seem like maybe she did.
‘He’s in the back,’ Amanda says, and Lexi’s stomach drops like she’s on a roller-coaster. The back. The place where unexpected things happen. Unexpected and very, very hot things. She hopes she’s not blushing, not giving anything away.
She doesn’t know why she cares what Amanda thinks of her. Maybe it’s her flawless make-up, or her American teeth, or her unchipped nails. Maybe it’s the humiliation of bringing coffee to someone who is clearly already taken– by a woman with flawless make-up, American teeth and unchipped nails.
‘I’ll take it to him,’ Amanda says, doing that smiling-while-talking thing.
Lexi smiles back, then she speaks, because she’s British and she can’t do both at the same time. ‘No, no, that’s okay. You’re busy.’ She isn’t. ‘I don’t mind taking it.’
Amanda looks Lexi up and down, clearly weighing up if it’s worth the argument and how important it is to keep her away from Sam. ‘Fine,’ she says. ‘I’ll get him.’ She must have come to the conclusion that Lexi isn’t much of a threat with her imperfect make-up, British teeth, and slightly chipped manicure. Lexi doesn’t blame her for coming to that particular conclusion. She’s frazzled, and she probably looks it. Did she even brush her hair before she left the house this morning? It’s likely. But she also wouldn’t rule out having forgotten.
Amanda disappears behind a door, but Lexi hears her unmistakably. ‘Someone’s here to see you. I think it’s the owner of that other bookstore?’
That other bookstore.Ha. If anything, Sam’s isthe other one.
He pokes his head around the office door. Lexi is relieved to see that he looks less pale than yesterday. ‘Hey,’ he says. Something about theheysounds kind. Intimate, even. Lexi is tempted to look at Amanda, to see if she’s noticed, but she keeps her eyes firmly on Sam (which, to be fair, isn’t much of a hardship).
‘Hi.’ It takes her a moment to remember why she’s here. ‘I brought you coffee.’
‘A Peregrine latte?’
‘Of course.’
‘Thank you.’
‘It’s the least I could do after last night.’
Lexi feels rather than sees Amanda’s head swivelling towards her. She can feel her interrogating her with her eyes. Sam shuffles on his feet, so maybe he can feel it too. Or maybe he knows that the interrogation is really for him.
‘I wanted to see how you’re doing, too. How’s the arm?’
Amanda stacks some papers that don’t need stacking, then types some emails that don’t need typing, if in fact they are emails at all. But Lexi isn’t fooled: Amanda isn’t missing a word of this.
‘It’s doing okay,’ he says, lifting it as if to prove it’s still there. ‘Hasn’t fallen off yet, at least, so I’m taking that as a good sign.’
‘It’s definitely not abadsign.’
‘Right? I’ll be sure to put it in my gratitude journal tonight.’
Amanda’s stopped pretending to be busy. She’s watching Sam and Lexi. She’s putting two and two together and getting 853.
‘So it wasn’t just a random cat,’ she says.
‘No,’ Sam says, still looking at Lexi. ‘It wasn’t.’
‘In fairness, though,’ Lexi says, ‘you’d have rescued a random cat. I know you would have done.’
Amanda narrows her eyes and looks from Lexi to Sam and Sam to Lexi. Because Lexi is right about him, and Amanda knows she is right about him, and maybe, just maybe, is wondering how she knows him so well. Will Lexi be the cause of an argument later? She can but hope.
‘He would,’ Amanda says. ‘He’s kind-hearted like that. ’Course, sometimes it means he gets taken advantage of.’
Lexi bites back a laugh. Sam is the last person on earth who’d allow himself to be taken advantage of. If he doesn’t want to do something, he doesn’t. ‘Does it?’
