Chapter 8 #3
My my, this is very impressive and organised, even by your industry standards (although with this being my first time engaging in your industry, I have no idea what the standards are like tbh – I assume not as rigid as yours?).
Thank you so much for sending this through!
One small amendment – I’d love to be able to maximise our time getting to know each other, so would you mind us leaving out the bookshop browse for now?
Outside of that, everything looks perfect, and I’m looking forward to seeing you soon! Cassie x
I rejoined the rest of the crew, periodically checking my phone to see if Jericho had responded.
I had already checked out by this point and wanted to leave sooner than the one hour minimum that Kofi and I had agreed on, but in the interests of trying to be supportive, I decided to stay.
I only had thirty minutes left to go; I could do this.
I could see Kofi beckoning me over to sit with him and then I remembered how I’d left.
Damnit. I hadn’t had time to come up with a good lie, which at this point – given how tipsy I was – probably wouldn’t have been the best.
‘Hey babes!’ I called out, sliding into the seat beside him with a little too much enthusiasm. ‘What’s up?’
‘Yeah, so—’ Kofi set his glass down and turned to me, his eyes narrowing in mock suspicion ‘—what did you mean earlier about me seeing someone who actually likes me back?’
My brain scrambled like eggs in a hot pan. Lie? Deflect? Fake faint? Nope. None of those would work. Honesty it was – well, my own tipsy brand of it.
‘What I meant was, we’re all deserving of being liked, right?
’ I said, forcing my voice into some semblance of calm.
‘Like, take me – I’m absolute trash in the dating scene, I can never seem to get it right.
But you? Setting you up with Sade was perfect, because now you two found each other and—’ I gulped so hard I nearly swallowed my dignity.
‘Well, no, what I meant was I’m glad I set up two people I care about. That’s all.’
‘Mmhm.’ He leaned back, lips twitching like he was enjoying this way too much. ‘But see, you said “someone who actually likes me”. And since I haven’t really updated you about my dating life outside of Sade …’
He trailed off, eyes suddenly widening as the penny dropped.
‘Oh my God.’ He pointed at me, half laughing, half offended. ‘You set me up with Sade to keep me busy, didn’t you? Like a kid with a colouring book or something.’
I winced, covering my face with my hands. ‘… In my defence, it’s a very high-quality colouring book.’
Kofi continued to shake his head disapprovingly at me.
‘For the sake of your friendship with Sade, I’m not gonna tell her that we had this chat, but honestly, Cassie, it was never that deep.
I may have flirted with you here and there but I honestly didn’t ever think it would go beyond that.
If I’ve ever made you uncomfortable though, I do apologise. ’
Now I felt even worse. My banter with Kofi was always very light-hearted and I feared I might have now caused somewhat of an awkwardness between us.
‘Don’t apologise! I’m the one who should apologise,’ I blurted, throwing my hands up dramatically and nearly knocking his glass over.
‘Maybe I was just … arrogant, thinking you were – actually, no, nope, we’re not opening that door.
You and Sade are a thing now. And we want that, right? We like that.’
Kofi let out a reluctant laugh, shaking his head. ‘Yeah. We like that a lot.’ But his eyes still held a flicker of unease, like he was humouring me but filing the whole incident under ‘things Cassie says that keep me awake at night’.
‘Good! Excellent!’ I declared, a little too loudly, as if we’d just signed a peace treaty. ‘So let’s leave it at that. I apologise for saying what I did. You’re an amazing man, you deserve all the great things, blah blah blah—’
‘Blah blah blah?’ he repeated, incredulous.
‘Fine! Marvellous, magnificent, king among men,’ I said, throwing my hands up so dramatically I almost pushed my glass off the table.
Kofi burst into laughter then, the kind that bubbled out despite himself, though I could still see the trace of tension in his shoulders.
I leaned in and wrapped him in a hug, whispering, ‘Truce?’
He hugged me back, but with a measured squeeze. ‘Truce. But Cassie …’ he pulled back just enough to look me in the eye, half grinning, half serious ‘… let’s not mention this again, yeah?’
I nodded sheepishly, grinning anyway. We both laughed, but the warning was clear.
Another twenty minutes went by. At that point, Kofi was interacting with a few other members of staff, leaving me to nurse my drink alone.
As I looked around the pub, trying to ascertain why people found this sort of social gathering fun, I caught the eye of Jeff yet again, whose gaze lingered on mine a fraction too long before he sauntered over to sit next to me.
‘How are you enjoying the evening, Cassandra?’ Jeff asked, with slightly slurred speech. Clearly by then, he’d had a few; I just hoped that this wouldn’t become another embarrassing encounter.
‘Yeah, it’s … um … it’s really nice!’ I said, smiling sweetly. He didn’t need to know that I would rather be anywhere but there at that moment. ‘I’m not really someone that does pub drinks and things so it’s a new experience for me, I suppose.’
Jeff took another swig of his drink, seemingly nodding his head in agreement. In my peripheral vision, I could see Kofi’s head turned slightly towards us, as if eavesdropping on our conversation.