Happy Hour (A Romantic Comedy)

Chapter 29

"Consider that revenge," he says smugly five minutes later, rising gracefully back to his feet as I lie back on the bed, gasping and trying to recover from what he's just put me through. 

I pull myself back up to a sitting position, and scuttle back so I'm relaxing against the the approximately three hundred pillows on the bed. "Revenge for what?" I ask curiously.

"For ignoring me when I was at school, of course," he shrugs, passing my prosecco back to me and topping the glass up.

I let out a laugh. "Chris, if that's what you think the definition of revenge is then it's a good thing you teach business and not English."

His eyes are bright as he puts the prosecco bottle back in the rapidly melting ice bucket. "You know what I mean," he smiles. "Just trying to remind you what you could have been having all this time if you had actually been able to see me." He strips down to his boxers and joins me on the bed.

"Do you think we'd have lasted?" I ask curiously, despite myself. "I mean, if we'd both realised our feelings then and acted on them? I mean, we were so young."

He looks thoughtful. "I've never really considered it," he replies, rubbing the stubble on his jaw. "I think because I didn't know how you felt until, well, now, I hadn't really had those 'what if' moments if you know what I mean. You came up in my thoughts a lot, and I'd wonder what your life was like and if you ever thought about me though." He sighs. "I'd like to think we'd have lasted. Or at the very least found each other again. But maybe that's because I already can't imagine you not being in my life." He says the last sentence so softly I almost don't hear it. 

I can't help but smile. "How is it that I never realised what a big softy you are?" I tease as he slides his arm around me and pulls me close. 

"Because I did my best to hide it from you, of course." His breath is warm on the top of my head. I close my eyes, relax back into him.

"Did you ever tell anyone else how you felt about me?"

"Not at the time. Just revelled in my own misery," he laughs. "Funnily enough though, I then found out that Kirsty had suspected something but just hadn't said anything."

"Oh really? She never let on to me either," I reply. "She knew I fancied you - she said all her friends did, which didn't surprise me - but we never spoke about it."

"I don't think she realised immediately," Chris said. "She said she had always noticed how I treated you totally differently to her other mates, like I was nicer to them and ignored you, but she didn't put two and two together . . . And by the time she had worked it out you'd drifted apart so it would have been too late for her to do anything about it anyway.

"She didn't mention this to me until a couple of years ago, and then one night we were drinking and she asked if I'd had feelings for you back then. She then decided she was going to try and look you up but she couldn't find you on Facebook."

"Ah, I don't do Facebook. Never been keen on it," I shrug.

He chuckles softly. "I figured that. I didn't tell Kirsty this but I had tried looking you up before myself. Anyway, she realised at that point it was pretty futile but she said she had this feeling that it would all work out in the end. I thought she was being ridiculous."

"Turns out she wasn't." I like the idea that my former friend had turned out to be our biggest ally. I also can't help but wonder . . .

"Does she know we reconnected?" I ask slowly.

"I told her a couple of weeks ago I'd found you on Instagram but was trying to stay anonymous for now," he says. "I've not had a chance to speak to her since. Wait."

He looks into my face, realisation dawning. "You think she tagged me in the photo on purpose so you might see it?" He shakes his head. "Of course she did.  And of course she chose that photo of me and Lois so she could clarify that I'm her Uncle and not her dad. The photo was at least three or four months old so I was confused about why she chose to share it last week."

"Sounds like someone was trying to do a spot of matchmaking," I say.

His phone decides to bleep into action at that point. "Guess who?" he says, holding it up to face me. There's a message from Kirsty sitting there.

She's taken a screenshot of an Instagram story I posted earlier, before we reached the hotel. I had panned the phone camera round at the Loch Tulla viewpoint and caught Chris at the end. The briefest glimpse but eagle-eyed Kirsty has been all over it. 

How's Glencoe?😜 Her accompanying message asks him.

It seems the little schemer has rumbled us.