Chapter Twelve
Rupert
It was strange going back to work the next morning and trying to pretend nothing had changed. That I hadn’t had the best sex of my life the night before, or agreed to enter some sort of casual hook-up arrangement with the man who, five months ago, had irritated me beyond belief.
At one point, I’d never wanted to see, hear, or speak to Milo, or even acknowledge his existence. And now I couldn’t stop daydreaming about the feel of his cock inside me or fantasising what he might sound like when I fucked him.
I was pretty sure Norman had noticed the ridiculous smile I’d been sporting from the moment I woke up, but I’d tried to avoid all his questions by busying myself with a new window display for the shop. With Halloween rapidly approaching, and autumn in full swing, it was time for a seasonal change.
And if I could encourage people to consider buying their Halloween treats from us, instead of the supermarket, that would be perfect.
“You know, you can avoid me as much as you like, but that doesn’t change the fact I know something is different,” Norman said, an amused but pointed smile on his face as he sidled up to me, a box of chocolate spiders in hand.
“I don’t know what you mean. Nothing’s different, I’m simply having a good day,” I said with a casual shrug, not looking up from the fake cobweb I was attempting to prize gently apart.
“Really, Rupert, I wasn’t born yesterday.
I know you took the boy from next door home last night.
And I’m assuming by that mark peeking out of your collar that you had a lot of fun together.
At least, I hope it was fun. Your youth is too precious to waste on mediocre sexual encounters with men who think teal, yellow, and pink is an acceptable colour combination. ”
I sighed, trying to ignore the sudden, anxious racing of my heart or the way my face was heating like I’d been struck with fever.
I should have known Norman would find a way to bring it up, despite my attempts to secrete myself away by the window.
He’d never been the sort to let gossip go un-investigated.
Especially not when something was happening right under his nose.
“Firstly, I like that as a colour combination, it’s fun and, when it’s done right, it can look great,” I said, still not looking up from my mass of cobwebs.
“Oh he really took you apart, didn’t he?” Norman said dryly. “You’ve lost all your common sense.”
“Secondly,” I continued, slightly louder. “Yes, Milo and I are seeing each other. No, you cannot tell everyone. Yes, I am having fun. No, you may not interrogate him about it. And no, it’s not serious.”
“Oh, darling, I never said anything about serious. Have as much fun as you can. I remember the time Sidney and I took half the cast of The Importance of Being Earnest home every weekend for nearly six months. Oh, and there was the time he and I spent a whole week in the South of France with a young Richard Pike. He was delightful. And ever so flexible. The things he could do with his tongue.” He sighed longingly and I bit back a chuckle.
“You know, if you want to reminisce, you can do it while making a couple of hampers,” I said cheekily and waved my hand in the direction of the counter.
“Certainly not. I have questions I need to ask first.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
I finally looked at him and raised an eyebrow over my glasses. “Fine, but I reserve the right not to answer them.”
“Are you being safe?” Norman asked, the tiniest hint of worry flickering across his eyes. I knew exactly why he’d asked it, and I couldn’t begrudge it as a question. Not after everything he’d experienced.
“Yes, I promise.”
“Thank you. Now, I know you don’t want me to tell anyone, but can I at least tell Sidney? Please, darling, you know I can’t keep this sort of thing to myself. I promise it won’t go any further.”
“Won’t it?”
“I swear it. And if it does, I shall let Sidney pick my waistcoat every day for a month.”
“Only a month?” I asked. Mostly because I was curious about how far he’d go for this.
“And… I shall tell him he can wear that hideous yellow waistcoat to my funeral.”
I stopped what I was doing to stare at him, completely stunned by what he’d said. I hadn’t expected him to offer something like that. “Holy shit, you are serious then.”
“As the grave. Which I shall be in soon if you force me to keep this secret. My poor, aged heart shall give out from all the stress.” He clutched his chest dramatically, like he’d been mortally wounded.
“Really? It’s not a big deal.”
“Oh yes it is! Back in May, you practically declared this man to be an enemy of the people and now you’re taking him home with you to do a horizontal tango. And while I do approve of sleeping with your enemies—it’s truly Machiavellian—I cannot let you dismiss this as ‘not a big deal’.”
“He’s not my enemy,” I said as I started to drape bits of cobweb across the window display, making sure it was dense enough to support some chocolate spiders, but not so thick it would completely obstruct anything behind or underneath it. “It was… a misunderstanding. One we’ve now resolved.”
“A misunderstanding?”
“Yes.”
“Rupert, he threatened to set an army of seagulls on you, drew the borders of his shop in chalk, with a ruler, and put Vaseline on the back door handle. Those are not misunderstandings. Those are acts of war. Petty ones, but still.” He almost sounded impressed by Milo’s creativity, despite the fact he’d cursed him out as much as I had.
“I’m aware. And I retaliated. Neither of us are innocent in this.”
“So, what? Now you’ve decided to take your vindictiveness out on each other physically?”
“Not even that.” I smiled softly, my heart doing strange little backflips in my chest while my stomach bubbled.
“I like him, Norman. I know we’ve had our disagreements but we’re more similar than I thought, and he…
he gets me. He understands my brain, or at least, attempts to.
And he talks to me! We actually communicate. Do you know how rare that it?”
Norman’s lips twitched into a smile. “I am aware.”
“Look, I don’t know where this is going, or even what we’re doing, but I’m okay with that right now. I have enough other things in my life to worry about. Don’t I deserve to have a little fun?”
“Of course you do, darling. You know I just worry about you.” He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.
“You should come for dinner again soon. Sidney is dying to cook for you. And he wants your opinion on a new waistcoat he’s acquired.
Apparently my opinion isn’t to be trusted, because he thinks I have no taste.
Why I married him I have no idea! Truly.
I should never have tied myself to someone with such poor judgement. ”
I chuckled. Their relationship would always amuse me, because they truly adored each other but seemed incapable of saying anything nice about each other ninety percent of the time.
I assumed they were very different in private, and that this public vindictiveness was a bit of a defence mechanism from a time where it had been so much harder for them to be openly together.
Or maybe it was simply their personalities.
“I’d love that. Maybe next weekend? You have a much busier social calendar than me, so you let me know what works for you and I’ll be there.”
“Excellent.” Norman beamed, then handed me the box of chocolate spiders.
“These are for you, by the way. Wretched things. I should send a box of them to Mrs. Lambert. They’d fit perfectly with her aesthetic.
Do you know she was in here again the other day demanding Christmas updates?
I’d have thought she’d prefer to wait until her celebration was over.
After all, not everyone gets an entire day dedicated to them. Spiteful witch.”
“Did you give her a form? I left them behind the counter,” I asked as I took the box off him.
I’d had the forms available for several weeks now, before our agreed-upon date of the seventh, because I hadn’t wanted to face the wrath of Mrs. Lambert.
Or Norman, if he was forced to deal with her.
And I wasn’t going to put myself through that.
But she hadn’t been in to get one since issuing her demands, which didn’t surprise me. She could be a contrary person.
“Certainly. But I didn’t enjoy it.”
“You don’t have to enjoy it, Norman. You only have to do your job.”
Norman huffed and turned away. “I am well aware, young Rupert. But dealing with Mrs. Lambert should count as going above and beyond. I should get hazard pay.”
“And I’m very grateful for it,” I said. I still wasn’t completely sure why the pair of them loathed each other, but there was no point asking Norman. Not if I wanted the truth.
As I turned back to my half-constructed window display, I saw a familiar face smiling at me from the other side of the glass, and I had to giggle because he was wearing his hot pink, teal, and yellow fleece. The eighties one he’d apparently rescued from his uncle’s wardrobe.
I waved, beckoning him to come inside. There was a strange feeling of giddiness racing through me, as if I hadn’t seen him in months instead of hours.
Milo grinned and blew me a kiss before heading for the door, and my stomach started doing somersaults, like it was trying to win a gold medal for gymnastics. I put the chocolate spiders down and turned towards the door as Milo pushed it open, the bell tinkling joyfully.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to see you today,” I said.
“Well, I just happened to be out and about and I saw a very gorgeous man through the window, so I thought I’d stop by and say hi,” he said, smirking casually, his hands in the pockets of his fleece.
The urge to lean forward and kiss him rose up inside me, but I resisted because I knew Norman was watching us from behind the counter.
His fake busy act was completely transparent.
“Are you on your lunch then?”
“Yeah. Enjoying my freedom before we start a final deep clean, then our last day for the year is Sunday. Really not sure what I’m going to do with myself after that.”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something.” I couldn’t imagine having that much free time. In principle it sounded nice, but I was sure I’d quickly get bored.
Maybe it would give me an opportunity to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, though.
I’d spent all this time telling myself running Saltgate Sweets was only temporary, that one day I’d sit down and work out what I was actually interested in.
But “one day” had never materialised and somehow ten years had passed and I was still here, no closer to the life I really wanted.
It wasn’t like my life was bad. I could be doing so much worse than I was. And happiness in life was never a guarantee, so I supposed I didn’t have much to complain about.
But sometimes I did wonder, what if? What if my uncle hadn’t died? What if I’d sold or closed the shop as soon as I’d inherited it? What if I’d put myself first instead of the wishes of a dead man?
“You okay?” Milo asked, tilting his head slightly like a curious puppy. “Where’d you go?”
“Yeah, just thinking. I’m not sure what I’d do with that much free time either.”
“Maybe I’ll go back to doing graphics for a bit. Do some art. Come and annoy you.”
“How kind of you.”
“I know, I’m very generous.” He grinned and nodded towards the door. “Want to go and get some lunch? My treat.”
“Are you sure?” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go, but if Milo wasn’t going to be working for several months, I didn’t want to put any financial pressure on him. A sandwich might not sound like much, but it all added up.
“Of course. Come on.”
“Okay, let me grab my coat.” I looked over towards the counter, where Norman was pretending to tidy a stack of paperback. “Do you mind if I go out, Norman?”
“No, darling. You go and have fun.” He smiled at me and I knew he was itching to call Sidney and tell him exactly what was going on.
“Do you want me to bring you anything back?”
“I’ll never say no to a cup of tea or a piece of cake, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” I walked over to the counter so I could duck around it to fetch my coat. “I assume you’re waiting until I leave to tell your husband everything?”
“Absolutely not!”
“Really?”
“Yes. He’s giving tours today, and I promised not to distract him. I shall tell him as soon as I get home instead.”
I chuckled and shook my head, grateful for that small mercy at least.
It only took me a few minutes to grab my coat and hat, pulling them on quickly before I went back into the shop to find Milo and Norman chatting animatedly.
Norman was clearly telling some scandalous story about his wild youth in London, the pair of them laughing together as Norman waved his hands for emphasis.
“You know, I was saying to Rupert earlier he should come for dinner again soon,” Norman said when he spotted me, a sly smile on his face. “I think you should come with him.”
“Er, yeah, that’d be great. If you’re sure?” Milo looked between me and Norman, almost as if he was asking for permission. But I didn’t mind. It would be fun. After all, we were friends. And friends got dinner with friends.
Why would it be an issue?
There was a bit of a funny twinge in my chest at the idea, but that was likely just my normal anxiety.
Sometimes it flared up over the smallest things, and this didn’t feel like anything to worry about, so I assumed it was worried about the overall idea of socialising. Even if it was with people I knew.
“We’d be delighted to have you,” Norman said.
“Sounds fabulous,” I said as I held my hand out for Milo’s.
His skin was warm against mine, his fingers slotting into place around mine like they belonged there. It felt right.
But there was still an uncomfortable feeling in my chest and I didn’t know why.