Down London Road (On Dublin Street 2)

Cole stared at me, his green eyes round with astonishment at my outburst. ‘Jesus, chill, Jo. It was just an idea.’

‘It was a bad idea.’

‘Aye, I’m getting that.’

I relaxed at the teasing in his voice and leaned back into the couch, pulling my paperback up to my face. ‘Just draw, you pain in the ass.’

He choked back his laughter and put down his mug to start drawing again.

After a minute, I looked at him over the top of my book. ‘Just so you know … I love you, baby boy.’

‘Mmm-hmm, lu uu uu.’

I deduced that was ‘Mmm-hmm, love you too’ in teenage muttering.

My lips twitched against an answering grin, a warm contentment settling in my chest as I stared down at the pages of my book.

7

Even though it was the end of February, and March was but a day away, Edinburgh was still freezing. The frigid sea air rushed up towards New Town, blasting those who were unfortunate enough to find themselves walking north towards it, unprotected by the buildings.

Malcolm and I stayed out of the direct lambasting of icy wind as we strolled along George Street, going in and out of dress shops, and then down Frederick Street and on to the cobbled Rose Street, one of my favourite lanes in Edinburgh. It was packed with restaurants and pubs and boutiques, and we had lunch in a pub before carrying on to Harvey Nichols on St Andrew Square.

‘No, no, this is awful,’ I told Malcolm through the curtain of the changing cubicle. By this point I’d tried on at least fifteen dresses and neither of us could agree on one that we both liked. Becca was treating us to dinner at the Michelin Star restaurant Martin Wishart and Malcolm insisted on buying me something new to wear.

‘Why? What’s wrong with it?’ he asked, his voice coming closer to the curtain.

I couldn’t believe he wasn’t bored out of his mind yet, but he seemed to be pretty patient with shopping. In fact, I got the distinct impression he enjoyed it. Or at least, he enjoyed spoiling me … which was lovely.

Staring at my reflection in the mirror, I wrinkled my nose in distaste. The dress was so sheer you could almost see my ni**les through it. Add the fact that it had a cut-out back and a short hemline and I might as well pin a piece of paper to my chest that said FOR SALE.

‘Let me see.’

‘No.’ i moved to hold the curtain closed, but i was too late.

Malcolm’s face appeared in the gap he’d created and his dark eyes glittered mischievously as they ran down the length of me and then came to rest on my chest. The mischief slowly disappeared and when he looked back up at me there was heat in his eyes. ‘If we weren’t in a changing room right now …’

I felt a niggle of something in my gut and wondered if it was disappointment. I imagined that if this was Joss and Braden or Adam and Ellie, it wouldn’t have mattered if they were in a changing room. Braden and Adam would have pounced on their girlfriends with no thought to the consequences.

I shook myself for those thoughts. So Malcolm and I didn’t have an all-encompassing passionate relationship. It didn’t mean what we had wasn’t great.

I forced myself to grin incredulously. ‘You think this is hot?’

‘For the bedroom, yes.’

‘I don’t think that was the intent here.’ I looked down at it dubiously.

‘Try on the green one. It’s the same colour as those gorgeous eyes of yours.’

I pressed my mouth to his lips for the compliment and let the curtain fall back so I was alone again in the cubicle.

He was right. The green shift dress by Lanvin was stunning.

Malcolm got a cab to a development site he wanted to visit, detouring to drop me off at home. He knew I wouldn’t invite him inside. I was all set for dinner with Becca and Cam on Saturday night. Well, ready in that I at least had designer armour to wear and Malcolm to act as a buffer.

Tonight at work there would be no designer armour and no Malcolm.

I despised the flurry of butterflies that awoke in my stomach at the thought of working with Cam and all the things he might say to damage my already fragile ego.

It seemed I still needed to grow a thicker skin.

There was a kaleidoscope of butterflies in my belly by the time I got to the bar and when I stepped into the main room and saw Cam and Joss laughing about something as they cleaned glasses, the butterflies swarmed upward to my chest and I couldn’t breathe for a moment.

What was that all about?

I took the stairs down to the bar and ducked under the counter, throwing a smile of hello their way before hurrying into the staff room. Two seconds later, Joss was at my back and the music on the stereo system blasted on. I heard Brian yelling at someone to turn it down and the noise muted to a bearable level.

‘What’s up? You looked like you had swallowed a very sour lemon when you came in just now,’ Joss observed.

I shrugged out of my jacket, smirking. ‘Did I? I can’t imagine why.’

‘You’re afraid I’m going to try and set you up with Cam.’

‘Am I? I can’t imagine why.’

Joss made a face. ‘Okay, enough with the sarcasm. Look. I’m not going to.’

I turned towards her, shoving my phone in my back pocket. ‘What? The matchmaking is over before it’s even really started?’

She clenched her jaw for a second before replying, ‘Yes. And that’s a promise.’

‘What brought on this change of heart? Not that I’m complaining,’ I hurried to assure her.

Completely deadpan and traumatized, Joss held my curious gaze. ‘Ellie made me watch an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma so she could show me the dos and don’ts of matchmaking. This was followed by a redundant showing of the teen movie Clueless, which happens to be based on Jane Austen’s Emma.’ She let that sit with me, clearly urging me to find it as horrifying as she had.