Chapter Nine #4
“Does that mean that we can’t be friends?” Amy asked, ignoring the cliché. Gone was the broken, tearful Amy, and in her place was a woman on a mission. It seemed that she wasn’t going to let Imogen go without a fight.
Did Imogen even want to fight? The awful heaviness in her chest loosened just a little. “Friends?”
“Yes.” Amy put her hands on her hips. “Friends. I happen to make a really good friend. I have lots of them. And the press doesn’t write stories about them or anything.” She quirked her mouth up at one side. “Be my friend.”
“Can we even be friends after we, you know?”
“Dated? Flirted? Kissed?” Amy lifted her eyebrows.
Imogen could feel herself blushing. “Well, yeah.”
Amy shrugged. “Couldn’t we at least try?
I like us doing all those things, but I also like talking to you.
I look forward to hearing about your day.
I enjoy spending time in your company. I’m invested in hearing about this place.
” She cast her hand across the pub. “Knowing you has been a bonus in my life that I hadn’t expected.
I don’t want to lose you, Imogen. Maybe we don’t have to see each other all the time, but we could at least keep in touch. Do we really need to cut all contact?”
“I suppose we don’t,” Imogen heard herself say. She did feel a bit lighter at the prospect than she had done two minutes ago when she thought she was never going to see Amy again. “I guess we could try being friends.”
Amy beamed. If they were going to be friends, Imogen would have to find a way not to go weak at the knees at that smile. “Good. Then I’m going to go now before I get fired and they replace me with Margot Robbie, but I’m going to text you later. Okay?”
“Okay.” Texting was good. Imogen could cope with texting. “I’ll talk to you later then.”
“You will.” With a confidence that had been missing since Amy arrived, she turned and headed back toward the exit.
She even turned and gave Piper and Niamh a wave, who both looked like their heads were about to explode behind the bar.
Most people would have at least attempted to give them some privacy, but all Piper and Niamh were missing were tubs of popcorn.
Imogen made her way back over to their gawking faces once Amy had left. “So, I’m not dating Amelia Whitlock anymore.”
“Oh, Immy.” Piper threw her arms around her, and Imogen was surprised by how badly she needed the hug. She wrapped her arms around Piper and squeezed hard, hoping it would help ease the ache in her chest.
Just because she and Amy had agreed to be friends didn’t mean Imogen’s feelings had miraculously vanished.
She still felt like she was grieving something that had barely even begun.
Somehow, she was going to have to find a way to bury those feelings, which was unfortunate because she really had thought Amy might become someone special to her.
Maybe she still would—just differently now.
“What happened?” Niamh asked, seamlessly joining in on the hug. They were pros at the three-way hug—it had healed a lot of wounds in the past. Maybe it would once again.
Imogen went over the whole story from beginning to end, and even when she rehashed it, she stood by her decision to forgive Amy.
Sometimes shit happened. People got themselves into sticky situations.
But Imogen could tell that Amy’s intentions had never been malicious.
“So, even though we can’t date anymore, we have agreed to stay friends. ”
“Yeah?” Piper said. “Was that what the whole walk of sass back across the bar was about? Which totally slayed by the way.”
“It was,” Imogen replied, still a little stunned that Amy had come back like that. “She said that she didn’t want to lose me completely.”
Niamh made an aww face. “Well, that’s really nice.” She rolled her lips in like she was about to say something she shouldn’t. “Is there no way that you could still date? Not even after the whole Notting Hill, I’m just a girl in a bar speech?”
Imogen shot her a look. “This isn’t a film, and you know there isn’t.
Come on, guys. You were there before. I nearly lost myself over what happened with Chelsea.
I can’t go through that again. And Chelsea was only a small fish compared to Amy—imagine all those judgments on a global scale. My life would become complete chaos.”
“No, you’re right,” Niamh said. She gave Imogen a supportive pat on the shoulder. “It’s just a bit of a shame is all. It sounds like you two really had something.”
“It is a shame,” Imogen said. Because after a year of cynicism about romance and love, she had started to believe that they really had something too. “But it wasn’t meant to be. And hey, maybe we’ll turn out to be even better as friends.”
“Just look at you and me,” Piper said.
“Jesus Christ.” Imogen flicked her on the arm. “Will you stop bringing that up?”
“What?” Piper held her hands out to her sides. “It’s relevant to the situation. We dated once upon a time, and we turned out so much better as friends.”
“One date. And we were meant to erase the date part from our memories.”
“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting. My bad,” Piper said. She shot Imogen a devious grin. “While I’m already in the bad books, is it going too far if I point out that Amelia Whitlock is extremely fucking hot in person?”
“Yes!” Imogen and Niamh both said at the same time.
Niamh glanced sideways at Imogen. “She kind of is though.”
Imogen playfully scowled at the two of them. “No more of that. Amy’s my friend now and I can’t fancy her, so pointing out her hotness is officially banned.”
“But—”
“And you pair can’t fancy her either.” She glanced at their dismayed faces and relented. “Or if you really must, then do it in private.”
“Fine,” Piper said like it was the hardest thing she’d ever been asked to do. “No blatant drooling over Amelia Whitlock along with the rest of the world.”
“Thank you.” She realised it wasn’t an easy ask. Imogen was going to have to find a way to play by those rules too.
“I still can’t believe she was just in here,” Piper said in amazement, still unable to let it go. “Amelia Whitlock was in our pub. Amelia Whitlock is your fucking friend, Immy.” Her eyes widened. “Does that mean she’ll be back again? Can we meet her for real?”
Imogen rolled her eyes and walked over to pick up her stock list again, more than ready to focus on something else for a while. Imogen was the type of person who needed time to digest things quietly and talk about them later. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
She could see Niamh hushing Piper out of the corner of her eye before she approached her. “Seriously, Im, are you okay?”
“I will be.” And she would, wouldn’t she?
Her life was going to go back to the way she liked it.
Ordered. Predictable. Solitary. Safe. At least being friends with Amy wouldn’t disrupt the quiet life she cherished so dearly.
Imogen should be relieved really. Amy had been a prospect that she hadn’t planned for, and Imogen often floundered without a plan.
Besides, she hadn’t even been looking for anything romantic anyway, so it would be ridiculous to miss it. Wouldn’t it?
Except, ridiculous or not, she already did.