Catherine’s eyes widened, but she dared not ask. Instead she said, “Well, here’s to your fresh start. Hopefully, there’ll be less groping and more glamour!”
Jules tapped her can to Catherine’s. “Ha, yeah. Cheers to that.”
28
CHOCOLATE CAKE
The last dregs of daylight were draining from the sky by the time Catherine pulled up outside their building and cut the engine. Her skin tingled from the sun, and her body hummed a happy tune from all the time outdoors.No,from all the time in the presence of Jules — the least you can do is admit it to yourself.
Their time together was slipping away like a Sunday afternoon, and her chest ached for more. She wished they were still in the lake trying to ward off the indecent invasion of nudists, or laughing and debriefing over cans of gin and picky bits in the forest, butall good things…
Jules stifled a yawn against the back of her hand. “God, I’m shattered. It must be all that fresh air! I’ll sleep well tonight; that’s what they say, isn’t it?”
Catherine yawned in response.
Jules unclipped her seat belt and Catherine wanted to clip it back in to keep her there for longer, just the two of them in this joyful little bubble of her car, where lifewasn’t complicated and she couldn’t fuck it all up by sleeping with her neighbour. You’d think at her age, and with her experience, this wouldn’t be so difficult.
But Jules was already closer than she should be. Jules lived in her building and literally slept in the room above her. And Catherine hadn’t let anyone get this close since…Francesca.
But that was then, and this was now, and she so desperately wanted to bottle the precise moment Jules twisted around in the passenger seat to face her. As if watching it all from a distance, Catherine turned her own head. She never wanted Jules to stop looking at her the way she was right now, both soft and searching.
Jules’s lips hitched into a smile that felt like a dare, and even though she was still, her entire presence seemed to lean in. Every synapse in Catherine’s brain lit up with the desire to close the space between them. Her entire nervous system hummed with the command to cup Jules’s face in her hands and capture her lips; to reclaim the breath Jules was so effortlessly stealing from her. But Catherine couldn’t move; she sat frozen on the knife-edge of indecision.
Jules spoke before Catherine could act. “You’ve probably had enough of me for one day… but if you don’t have plans this evening, do you fancy ordering a takeaway and finishing that bottle of wine we opened last night?”
Catherine may have restrained her internal screams of delight, but she lost the battle with the smile that spread thick and fast over her lips. “Yeah.” She nodded slowly. “I’d really like that. I mean, it was a nice bottle ofwine; it’d be a shame to leave you to drink it on your own.”
And just like that, the evening took on a new shape. Her Saturday night wouldn’t consist of eating leftover picnic snacks as she attempted to channel all her pent-up energy into a new jigsaw puzzle. It would’ve been futile, as she’d have fixated on every creak and crack from above until her imagination took the reins and galloped off.
After a refreshing showerand a change of clothes, for the second night in a row Catherine found herself at the top of the stairs tapping on Jules’s door.
“It’s open,” Jules called from within. Catherine moved inside, and Jules met her in the hallway, waving a small stack of takeaway menus.
She’d changed too and looked adorably cosy in leggings and a plaid shirt. Damp hair hung loose over her shoulders, and her skin still glowed from the heat of her shower.
“Pizza, Chinese or Thai?”
Catherine shrugged. “You choose; I’m not fussy.” She bent down to say hi to Juni, and he wound around her feet as she followed Jules through to the lounge. Catherine instantly felt just as at home as she had the night before. Jules had lit the candle, and two glasses of wine sat waiting on the coffee table.
Jules patted the sofa next to her, and as soon as Catherine sat, Juni jumped up and insisted she continue fussing him.
“He’s not like that with anyone else, you know.”
“Really?” A little bubble of pride rose in Catherine’s chest as she softly scratched Juni’s ears.
“Yeah, really. He even hisses at Will.” Jules glanced back at her phone. “Don’t know about you, but I’m famished. I’m going to go with pizza. Shall I just order one big veggie one and we’ll share?”
“Sounds good to me. Let me give you some money, though.”
Jules shot her a withering look and tapped their order into an app. Juni made himself comfortable on Catherine’s lap and, with all his purring, it took her a second to realise her phone was buzzing in her pocket.
Penny:
How was the big date? x
Swarmed by skinny dippers! But all’s well that ends well. I’m at hers now x
Penny responded with a stream of aubergine emojis. Catherine scoffed a laugh and quickly locked the screen.
