They weren’t just full of delight at his irritation butsomething else. Something a little darker. A little flirtier. His skin prickled.She enjoyed making him cross!What kind of sick woman enjoyed tormenting others? Didn’t she know how stressful running a kitchen could be? When all she had to do was match some wines to a relatively simple menu.
“Well,” she said, tipping her head at a coquettish angle. “It looks like your fancy food is a bit of a triumph. You should come to the gym; see how it’sgoing down.”
Felix held a breath. Had she just winked at him? Used innuendo? No. She’d never do that. More likely, an eyelash had fallen into her eye. Thea would do a lot of things, like laugh at his bruised balls and mess up his car with absolutely no remorse, but she’d never openly flirt with him. Would she?
“I will,” he mumbled, unsure where to look as she beamed at him. Thea turned out the door, leaving him with a fabulous view of her almost bare back. Milky skin over toned shoulders. Damn. Even after the hours with his trainer, wrangling animals had her in better shape than him.
As the door opened, the sound in the gym increased to a dull roar. Maybe his foodwasthe talk of the evening. With a smirk of satisfaction, he washed his hands, took off his simple, black apron, and, after checking his hair in a shiny saucepan that hung from a ceiling hook, walked towards the exit.
The minute Felix stepped inside the gym, the noise hit him like a freight train. Brightly coloured streamers and balloons hung from the ceiling, and a disco booth bearing the sign “Spin and Win with DJ Malcom” took up an entire corner. Nobody sat at their tables. There were no wine glasses to be seen, and far too many half-eaten plates of food lay abandoned on the side. Why wasn’t everyone sitting to enjoy his food? He scanned the room, past Persephone Murray’s enormous chocolate fountain, to a jostling crowd of people. There, holding court and passing out drinks, stood Thea Fox.
He strode towards her, fighting through the bodies. Thea stood before a large table with three oversized punch bowls. Each contained a brightly coloured liquid and the odd slice of badly cut fruit. Fairy lights hung off a canopy that looked like a kindergarten class had nailed it together, and a hand-painted sign read “Coktail Bar.” And were those small, paint-smudged fingerprints at its edges?Ammy.
As soon as Thea saw him, her eyes widened, and she smiled as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “Felix! You made it out of the kitchen. Drink?”
“Where are the wines?” he ground out, his hands bunching into fists.
Again, a shrug of those glorious shoulders and an even bigger smile. “About that,” she said, handing a man the cups she had in her hands. He looked like he’d consumed an entire bowl on his own. Thea took Felix’s arm and led him to a quieter spot beside the fountain. As they walked, Felix breathed in her flowery perfume and tried very hard not to ogle the inch of cleavage that teased him from under her top.
When they reached the corner, Thea gazed at him. “I just didn’t know enough about wine to match them properly,” she said, still holding onto his arm. “And as you predicted, Daniel Cunningham had very few suggestions.”
Felix scoffed. “No. He’d be more interested indrinkinganything that came in the bottle. Thea, you only had to ask for help. Reach out.”
“But I could see how busy you were,” she said, her thumb moving, stroking his arm through his jacket. “I mean, at the bakery, you spent more time fending off texts than talking.”
Heat hit Felix’s cheeks, whether from her words or her touch. He couldn’t say. Texts from Adrienne. She’d asked a million and one questions about his plans for Lucas, and no matter how many messages he responded to, she still sentmore. She made Thea appear easygoing. And what on earth would Adrienne make of her “coktail bar?” He could only imagine her sneering derision. The stinging criticism.
“And look,” said Thea, finally taking her hand off his arm and gesturing to the crowd of happy punters at the punch bowls. “Everyone’s having a marvellous time. Your food is amazing, but really, sausage rolls would have been enough.”
With a sigh, he met her eyes. She’d proved to be correct. He should have listened to her. Aside from his disastrous beef dish, he’d wasted his culinary experience on the folk of Clavenham and Tottenbridge.
Felix cast his eyes over the crowd of partygoers as they laughed and chattered. Having fun. Fun wasn’t something he did very often. Lucas always told him he should lighten up. Felix let out a breath. Well, if he couldn’t beat them, he’d join them. “So, what’s on the drinks list?”
With a devilish grin, Thea took his hand, her warm fingers wrapping around his. Felix could only stare at the golden skin of her knuckles as she led him back to the punch bowls. She jumped the queue when they arrived and ladled him a cup of almost neon pink liquid.
“And what exactly is this?”
“I’m not entirely sure. Daniel said….” Her words ran to silence.
“Cunningham had something to do with your little bar?”
“Only a little. When I told him you covered the cost of the food, he wanted to do the same with the drink. So you see, I had very little control.”
Felix scoffed. “Of course he did. Always has to outdo me.”
Thea’s fair brows creased a little. “He did me a favour. Daniel is a mate. If you and I are going to be friends, you’ll have to get used to that.”
Felix’s eyes rushed to Thea’s face. Had she just suggestedthey be friends? He hadn’t expected words of amity. Like Lucas, Felix didn’t have friends. Didn’t mix well in situations that weren’t related to his business. He opened his mouth to respond when her eyes widened.
“Incoming,” she said, her face erupting in a dazzling grin at something over his shoulder.
Felix spun round to see Persephone Murray heading right towards them, with a face like a starving vampire.
“Fuck.” He tipped back the entire cup of his pink drink. It caught in the back of his throat, and his eyes watered like they’d sprung a leak. Pleading to the heavens, he glanced around them, looking for an escape route. As if in answer to his prayers, the lights in the hall dimmed, and the disco started up.
“Dance with me,” he said, taking Thea’s half-empty cup. He drank that too, before putting it down with his own on the side.
“I don’t dance,” she said, her words coming out in a squeal as he grabbed her hand and practically dragged her to the spot in front of the DJ booth. A few other folks joined, and DJ Malcom put on a track from Taylor Swift.
