‘Far from it. Look, I need to get going. I’ll be in touch soon.’
She wanted to say that he shouldn’t, unless it was to update her on Reid, but politeness stopped the words from forming and, instead, she simply replied, ‘Okay, no problem. Bye.’
She hung up and sat in one of the dining chairs, wondering what on earth had befallen poor Reid now at the hands of his ex-wife.
* * *
‘Oh my God! Hekissedyou!’ Millie’s squeal almost deafened Juliette, and she was glad they were on video rather than voice call. Her eardrum wouldn’t have survived. ‘How was it? How do you feel? Are you okay? Did youwanthim to do it?’ As usual, and in true Millie style, a barrage of questions landed one after the other without giving her time to respond.
Juliette rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘I felt…guiltyat first.’ She cringed and waited for the inevitable telling-off.
Pity filled Millie’s expression. ‘Oh, honey, no. You’ve nothing to feel guilty for.’
She sighed at Millie’s unexpectedly soft reply. ‘But… to answer your other question… it was… it was lovely. It was a shock but… a nice shock if that makes sense? Well, until I ruined it.’
‘Ruined it how?’
Juliette curled her lip and gritted her teeth. ‘I pulled away as if he’d slapped me with a kipper.’
Millie closed her eyes for a second. ‘Oh, Jules. What did he do?’
‘Whatcouldhe do? He apologised profusely and left. I felt awful. I wanted to… I wanted to…’
Millie leaned closer to the screen. ‘You wanted to…?’
‘Urgh! I wanted to shout him back and say, “Look, can we just try that again now that I’m prepared?” but of course I didn’t, and he left and now I feel like crap. And then this morning Kendric called and said that Reid’s ex-wife Kate has struck again, and I have no idea what that means, or if I should go round to see if I can help, or if he’ll just shut the door in my face and tell me to sod off, although he’d tell me that first, then slam the door in my face, obviously.’ Her words rushed from her mouth, taking every ounce of breath with them, and Juliette felt light-headed when she stopped talking.
Millie was alarmingly wide-eyed and silent for what felt like an age. Eventually she said, ‘Bloody hell, Jules. I think you might have it bad for this guy. You should totally go round there.’
Juliette snorted. ‘I don’t haveanythingbad foranybody. I’m just… I’m so confused, Millie,’ she whined. ‘I don’t want to like the fact that he kissed me. I don’t want to feel anything like that. But then again…’
Millie gave her a knowing look. ‘I don’t think you’re as confused as you say you are. Take a step back here. Do you find him attractive?’
Juliette pictured Reid’s unshaven face, his scruffy, wayward hair and his paint-spattered clothes and a slight smile appeared on her lips. He was almost the antithesis of Laurie. ‘Yes,’ she replied in a small voice.
‘Did his lips feel nice on yours?’
Again, the lightning-quick memory of the tender kiss flashed into her mind. ‘They did.’
‘Will you regret it if you don’t go round and check up on him, at least as afriend?’
‘I think so. Maybe. Yes.’
Millie smiled. ‘You have your answer, honey. Go and see him. And if heiscold with you, it’ll probably be embarrassment, so don’t take it personally. Men have their pride, remember.’
Juliette grinned now. ‘Listen to you, an expert in the field now you have Harry, eh?’
Millie laughed and held up her thumb and index finger. ‘Just a lil’ bit.’
‘Anyway, enough about me, howarethings with Mr Harry Dreamboat?’
Millie gave a loved-up sigh and her cheeks coloured slightly. ‘Oh, it’s all going so well, Jules. He’s wonderful. He gets on really well with Dex too, which is a bonus seeing ashe’smy surrogateyoujust now. Harry’s just… everything. I think… I think I’m falling for him… or I’ve fallen… I don’t know how to tell. It’s all so weird. But I go to sleep thinking about him, and I wake up thinking about him. And sometimes I wake up thinking about him and he’s actuallythere, which is incredible.’
Juliette raised her eyebrows. ‘Oh! So, things have moved pretty quickly then?’
Millie giggled. ‘You could say that. I’m going to stay at his place in London this coming weekend.’
‘I’m so happy for you, sweetie. I can’t wait to meet him.’
