‘Shh. Keep it down.’
‘Stop worrying about them,’ he says in an exasperated voice. ‘I thought you were cool, and now I’m the chill one.’
‘No, no,’ I protest, ‘I’m still cool.’
He looks at me dubiously. ‘Prove it.’
‘Prove …? How?’ I ask, never one to refuse a challenge.
‘Let’s get dressed. Let’s go and get a proper cup of coffee and some breakfast and … I’m going to hold your hand while we walk there. Deal?’
He’s so cheeky it’s hard not to smile. I sigh audibly, pretending I’m horribly put out, like this is the worst idea in the world, which it might be.
I kick the duvet off, stand up. ‘Deal.’
As predicted, Ben and I don’t make it past Ollie and Liv unscathed. It’s Liv who catches me in the corridor, though, as I tentatively open my door. She pauses only to glance around, check if Ben is with me. He’s not. He’s back in his room after he snuck out, showered, dressed in his own space. The countdown is on, though, as we’re going for breakfast in a moment.
Liv grabs me, pulls me into her room for a cosy chat. I half expect to see Ollie still in there, tucked up in her bed, but he’s long gone.
‘Oh my God,’ she stage-whispers at me after closing the door. ‘Guess what?’
I laugh, because I know.
‘I slept with Ollie,’ she says hurriedly, not waiting for me to answer.
‘I sort of guessed. We heard you come in.’
‘We?’ Liv asks immediately.
‘Ben and I – we …’
‘Ohhhh,’ Liv draws out. ‘Didyou? I blame the bottles of that horrid blue drink formymadness. What’syourexcuse?’
‘I blame the fact I wanted to get laid,’ I reply, none too delicately.
Liv baulks, then recovers. ‘I really like Ollie,’ she says. ‘It all happened a bit fast and I don’t want him to thinkI’mfast; and I’d like to, you know, keep seeing him, so what do I do,what do I say? I don’t want him to think that was it and now it’s over, but what ifhethinks that was it and now it’s over?’
‘I don’t know,’ I answer honestly. We’ve both just shagged our flatmates. And that’s probably the worst idea ever. I’m not sure I’ve had enough coffee for this conundrum. ‘I’m in sort of the opposite situation. I can’t seem to shake Ben off.’
‘Oh,’ she says in even more surprise.
I circle back to her problem. ‘What happened this morning when you both woke up? Was it awkward?’
‘A little bit, yes,’ Liv says in her soft-spoken but now distinctly anxious voice.
‘Be honest then. Tell Ollie you don’t think it should be a one-time thing, but if he feels as if it should be, then that’s fine. This is what Ben did to me and it sort of worked, the cheeky bastard.’
‘But it’snotfine if Ollie doesn’t want to be with me,’ Liv replies, panic in her face.
‘It’ll have to be fine,’ I say pragmatically. ‘You’ll just have to suck it up. If that’s what Ollie wants. But ask him first. Be honest. Today. Ben’s taking me out for breakfast. Why don’t you see if Ollie wants to have breakfast with you. Talk to him about it then.’
Ben emerges from his room, clocks both of us and stalls. I give Liv’s arm a gentle squeeze, wish her good luck and head out for food with Ben before he even gets the chance to speak.
‘Two full English breakfasts, please, aaaand—’ Ben drawls out the word to the waitress while still perusing the menu for the drinks.
‘A glass of water and an Americano, please,’ I cut in and the waitress scribbles.
Ben chimes in with, ‘We’ll have two Mimosas too. You all right with a Mimosa?’ he asks me.
