‘No. I’ll sit.’ He dropped onto the sofa and stretched out his long legs, and then he looked at me and added, ‘Unless you need a hand.’
‘No thanks.’ I walked into the kitchen area. ‘I think I can make coffee. Even if I am a little drunk.’
As it turned out, I couldn’t. The coffee machine was like something from the future. On an alien planet.
‘Erm. I may need your help. This machine seems to have got the better of me.’
He looked at me and grinned, before getting to his feet. ‘Yep. Leave the machines to us men,’ he joked.
Rather annoyingly, by the time I got the milk from the fridge, coffee was flowing into two cups.
‘You’ll have to show me how you did that. Or you’ll have to come back tomorrow and make me my morning coffee.’
He raised one brow. ‘So the night of sex, sex and nothing but sex is off then?’ He was still grinning.
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘Damn. I was looking forward to it.’
‘So was I. But I think the moment has passed, don’t you?’
He shrugged. ‘I guess so.’ He put the cups on the counter and I added milk to both.
‘Sugar?’ he asked.
‘Yes, honey,’ I replied, then quickly added, ‘Sorry. That was a joke.’
He grinned again. ‘Do you take sugar?’
‘No thank you. I’m sweet enough.’
‘Hmm,’ he said with one brow raised.’
I raised both of mine and pulled a face and then I turned to look outside. Snow was falling thicker and faster now and I could see through the sliding doors that it had already settled on the patio.
‘It’s really coming down. Tilly, that woman I mentioned, said we’d have a blizzard and that I might get snowed in. That we all might.’
‘Really? Do you mean the Tilly who’s married to Willy? Willy Trotton’s wife?’
He came and stood beside me and we stood and watched the snow.
‘I don’t know her surname but she owns the bridal shop in town. Fairlight Brides, it’s called. Ah. But you no doubt avoid shops that have even the slightest connection to weddings, don’t you?’
‘I do,’ he said, darting a quick look at me. ‘But I know Tilly, and her husband, Willy, and their dog, Billy. If Tilly said there’ll be a blizzard, then there’ll be a blizzard. I don’t think she’s ever been wrong as far as the weather is concerned.’
‘Really? Wow. The Met Office should employ her.’
He grinned over the rim of his cup. ‘I think they did, once upon a time. But she wanted to open a shop.’
‘Abridalshop,’ I said, rubbing it in and giving him a little nudge with my elbow.
He gave me a hard stare, and then he laughed. ‘Yeah. That.’ He let out a long slow sigh. ‘I’d better get going before too long. Bikes are fine in all weather, generally speaking, but the lanes here can be treacherous in snow and ice, especially as they’re not well lit, and the gritters won’t be out for several hours, knowing the local authority. And as you said, it’s really coming down now. At this rate, I might have to walk home.’
‘Or stay,’ I said nervously, half into my cup that hovered just below my mouth.
His head shot around and his eyes met mine as I glanced up at him. A slow smile crept across his mouth as he leant sideways a little, so that our arms were just touching.
‘Or stay,’ he repeated. ‘But I thought we’d been over this. Sex is off the table tonight.’
