‘Are you looking for Meadow?’ Imogen asked.
Bear looked at her. ‘Yes, how did you know?’
‘Because your chemistry last night at the speed dating was off the charts.’
‘Because we’re friends?’
‘Because you love each other,’ Imogen said, simply. Bear stared at her, his heart thundering in his chest. ‘She’s over there by the sofas.’
He quickly moved through the room, scanning it for Meadow. He spotted her sitting on a sofa chatting quite passionately to Oliver. Bear had worked alongside Oliver on the lifeboat crew and played rugby with him a few times in a local team. He was a good man and, while he didn’t seem to be into Meadow with the way he was leaning back in his chair listening to her, he wasn’t desperately looking around the room for a way out either. Oliver was a laid-back man and quite happy talking to anyone – whether they were a fifteen-year-old boy or an eighty-three-year-old woman, he had time for them all.
Bear walked over, ‘Meadow, I—’
She looked up at him and her face lit up. ‘Bear, you came!’
She got up and hugged him, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. He caught Oliver’s eye over her head. ‘Sorry to interrupt, Oliver, this is important.’
Oliver shrugged. ‘By all means. We’ve just been talking about women’s football and why they aren’t paid the same as men. In fact, we’ve covered many women’s sports tonight, where the media, the sponsors and the organisers don’t treat women with the same respect as men. It’s been quite an interesting conversation. I haven’t matched with anyone, but I have become a feminist so it’s been a good night.’
Bear smirked but suddenly realised that Meadow was crying into his chest.
He pulled back to look at her. ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’
‘You hate me.’
‘No honey, I promise that would be impossible,’ he wiped her tears gently from her cheeks. ‘You were trying to do the right thing for me and yes it was misguided and unneeded but you loved me and you wanted me to be happy even if that wasn’t with you, that’s incredibly selfless. And I wasn’t honest with you either. I was in love with you then too.’
That had been a lot easier to say than he thought it would be. Probably because he was hiding behind the past tense. He hadn’t admitted he still loved her now. Although he fully intended to do that tonight, too.
She stared at him. ‘You were in love with me?’
‘Yes and I didn’t tell you so we’re even on that score.’
Tears filled her eyes again. ‘I’ve made such a mess of things.’
He so rarely saw Meadow cry. When Star was born and she’d been in an incubator, she’d cried quite a bit then. Sometimes he’d watch an emotional film with her and she’d shed a few tears but nothing like this. He looked around as a big cheer went up at the back of the room as some man downed a shot.
‘Meadow, have you been drinking?’ he asked gently.
‘Just a few shots of wine,’ she said, holding up her fingers to show a very small amount.
‘And maybe a few more,’ Oliver said. ‘She was quite sad for the first part of the night, until the alcohol kicked in.’
And that had been Bear’s fault for his stupid overreaction to what she’d done eight years before when she had been only a child herself.
He turned his attention back to Meadow and bent his head to meet her eyes. Sure enough she was looking a bit dazed, her eyes glazed over.
Suddenly both their wristbands started beeping and vibrating.
He looked down at them in confusion. Meadow let out a hollow laugh. ‘It thinks we’re a match, it doesn’t know we’re friends, so it assumes we’re attracted to each other.’
She looked really sad about this too.
‘I don’t know, these computer programs are pretty sophisticated,’ Oliver said. ‘They can tell the difference between friendship, family and sexual attraction.’
Bear looked at him.
‘It’s all in the leaflet,’ Oliver said, waving it in the air.
