That smile!
‘How are you? How’ve you been?’
‘Good.’ Which, right then, was perfectly true. ‘How about you?’
His grin turned rueful. ‘Well, my documentary took an unexpected twist, leaving me morally obligated to wipe all footage. So, I’m still filming weddings. But actually, I’m learning to embrace it.’
‘What? The super-sceptic Ben is learning to embrace happy-ever-after?’
‘He is. I am.’ He looked me right in the eye and my stomach dissolved into a puddle of goo.
‘Time for a drink?’
‘Here?’ I looked around at the room, bursting with wedding guests and medical paraphernalia disguised as decorations.
‘There’s a much quieter bar in the back.’
‘Aren’t you meant to be working?’
He shrugged. How could a shrug be sexy? ‘I’m due a break.’
Nita poked me in the back with the leg of a cake stand. ‘OW!’
‘Off you go, I’ll set up here. When I’m done I’ll take the van back and pick you up on the way to Hatherstone Hall tomorrow.’
‘But how will I get home?’
‘You’ll figure it out.’ Then she winked at me, and Ben grinned innocently. I was so embarrassed I went with him for a drink just to stop having to talk about it any more.
We settled on a sofa by the open fire with a G and T and a cider. It took a while to get through the requisite catch-up – my new home, my family, his plans to set up his own studio.
‘So, how’s Cooper?’ I mean, I had to ask, didn’t I?
‘He’s okay. Took him a while, but he’s getting there. A little less RoboCoop as the months go by. He’s even joined a pub quiz team. And I think he smiled a couple of weeks ago.’
I guess that answered the unaskable question about whether or not he was still single.
‘He’s got that dinner tomorrow night, the one where I was supposed to be showing the film, so he is extra grumpy today. Not that he’s the one having to humiliate himself in front of his arch-nemesis, but having been a vital component of the project’s success means he’s been bearing the brunt of the prof’s simmering rage ever since. No telling at what point in the proceedings it’ll boil over.’
I carefully put my glass down on the table. ‘Bridget’s going to the dinner.’
Ben looked at me. ‘Is she, now?’
‘He still loves her, doesn’t he? I mean, of course he does!’
‘It’s not exactly prime topic for conversation, but I’m guessing that, yes, he will love Bridget for a long time yet.’
‘She still loves him.’
Ben widened his eyes. ‘You sure?’
‘She told me. At Christmas. It all felt too complicated and painful for it to ever be able to mean anything. But now? Maybe it’s Valentine’s Day and a second gin and tonic, but now I’m wondering why on earth two people who’ve been in love with each other forever, are both single, both good people, shouldn’t be together.’
I took another sip of my drink, hardly able to believe I’d just come out with that statement. Head whizzing as I tried to probe the furthest corners of my brain to double-check if I’d really meant it.
‘Is that completely absurd?’
‘Of course it’s absurd. Which doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen anyway.’ He glanced down at his bottle of cider, picking at the label. ‘Except for the one, insurmountable thing stopping that from ever happening, of course.’
