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“What do you think?” she asked, and showed me some scribbles of her event ideas. A charity ball after the auction, for everyone to have some drinks and offer donations on top of their purchases.
“I think it’s a marvellous idea,” I said, and meant it. “It really is going to be a lot of work though.”
Her smile was so bold.
“I’m not afraid of a lot of work,” she told me, and I nodded.
“Me neither,” I said.
And so we did it.
We started that day, from afternoon through to evening.
We talked through auction plans as I cooked us a lasagne for dinner, and she shouted out some fresh thoughts from the dining room as she set the table for us.
Our meal was amazing. Warm and easy and so much fun as we conjured up so many ideas, and she was every bit as talented as I knew she would be, eyes sparkling so beautifully as she got herself lost in the excitement.
How I wished I could keep her here. In my place, shining so bright. How I wished I could hold her tight in bed through the night, knowing full well she belonged here.
“I’d better go,” she said finally. “Mum and Dad will be wondering where I’ve got to.”
She got dressed and I got freshened up along with her in my bedroom. There could be sex. Sex and toys and another bout of filth. But I didn’t push it, and neither did she. And this was the first time it wasn’t on the cards for us.
Not because we didn’t want it, but because the mood was so different.
More than the lust brimming over again.
This was about the comfort of two people just being themselves in the moment.
I delayed the inevitable as long as I could do until we were down in my hallway with her hand on the door handle.
I sighed and brushed her cheek, so tempted to ask her to stay with me. But I didn’t.
She hovered, a sweet little smile on her face as I leaned in to kiss her.
“I really am sorry about Erica,” she said when we pulled away. “I know that must have been hard for you.”
If only she had any idea how much harder it was to watch her leave.
“I’ll be just fine about Erica,” I told her. “And she’ll be just fine about me.”
She nodded. “I hope so.”
“Thank you for caring,” I said.
“I’d better go,” she said again, but this time I took hold of her hand and held her back.
“There’s no reason I can’t drop you home this time,” I told her. “Your parents know you’re with me.”
Her grin was stunning. “Oh yeah,” she said. “Maybe you could even come inside, grab a coffee and some chat. We can tell them all about our ideas.”
My gut lurched at the thought but I nodded regardless.
Any excuse to spend time with her was something I’d grab hold of with both hands.
“Let’s do it,” I said, and snatched up my car keys.Chapter Thirty-SevenFaithOh wow, how things climbed so high as they headed towards the inevitable ending. University was calling, the weeks rolling on. Always there, the departure brewing at the back of my mind, looming so heavy as I soared the sky.
I had the confirmations coming through, about my dorm room and my lecture timetable and the opening sessions where I could get to know my fellow students. I wanted to be excited about the next stage of my education and really pushing myself to be a sensible little accountant in the making. But I wasn’t.
I wasn’t excited for any of that at all.
I was excited only for him.
For Miles. The man I loved. The man who was becoming more and more to me every single day, if that was even possible.
I was just so lucky that Mum and Dad had come up with a plan so perfect to make our lives so much easier.
The cat auction had really become so much more than an alibi. It was amazing. Exciting, and fun and meaning so much to both Miles and me as the day came close. We’d given it so much of us. So much of our time. So much of our effort to really make this work for those poor pussy cats. We’d even used a picture of Miss Tiddles as the event mascot on the posters, and it was so cute. So cute and so awesome.
My parents weren’t suspicious in the slightest, and it was so easy to find the normal daily routine in our lives as the weeks went by.
We worked together at the office, and then I’d get changed at home and head over to his for event organisation and an evening meal, and sometimes I’d be the one to end up cooking.
We even began to drive my car back and forth between my place and his, him taking the passenger seat every time and helping with my learning.
