“They want to complete in early January.” He said it with a grimace.
“But your new house won’t be ready until the end of March, will it?” He was buying one of the new builds at the new estate over the ring road from me.
“Exactly.” He drained the rest of his cider. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to sell mine and get it done, I just wish the timing had worked out a bit better.”
“I don’t suppose you can get them to delay a bit?”
He sighed. “Maybe for a bit, but not for almost twelve weeks and I don’t want to lose the sale.” Scooping up our rubbish, he chucked it in the bin behind us. “I’ll sort something, it’ll be fine.”
“You know you can always stop at mine.”
Christian huffed out a laugh. “With you and Jasper?”
“Yeah, I mean, you’d have to sleep on the sofa unless you bring a bed for the box room, but the offer’s there if you want it.”
He grinned. “I’m not sure I’m ready for that hotbed of sexual tension.”
“Fuck off.” I kicked him under the table, but I laughed. He had a point. “We’re not that bad.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I ignored him and stood, brushing crumbs off my jeans. “Anyway, we’ve got shopping to do.”
He groaned. “I can’t believe you talked me into this.”
“Yeah, right. You love shopping, don’t even try and deny it.” It wouldn’t surprise me if Christian had finished all his Christmas shopping weeks ago.
“Who’ve you got left to buy for?” He asked as we made our way towards Cabot Circus.
“Um...” Yeah, I was maybe a bit behind with things.
He laughed loudly, startling some of the other shoppers. “You haven’t bought any presents, have you?”
“I’ve been a little preoccupied.”
“With Jasper?”
“I was going to say with work, but...” I shrugged, not really able to deny it. “He is a little distracting.”
“I’m sure he is.” Christian nudged me with his shoulder. “But that aside, do you at least have ideas about what you want to get?”
“Yeah, I’m not totally useless.” I also wanted to get out of here before midnight. “I have a list.” Fishing it out of my pocket, I waved it under his nose.
He snatched it and read down the names and items on there, humming to himself as we walked. Then he looked up at me, eyebrows raised. “Isn’t someone missing?”
“I don’t think so?”
“What about Jasper?”
I stopped in my tracks, earning a few grumbled curses from those walking behind us. “What about him?” I followed Christian over to the side, out of everyone’s way.
“Nothing, never mind.” He consulted the list again and pointed to a shop further down. “Let’s start there.” Then he set off with purpose.
“Christian?” I hurried to catch up to him. “D’you think I should get Jasper a present?” The thought honestly hadn’t occurred to me. He wasn’t my boyfriend, he was... I didn’t know what he was. Or what we were to each other.
Friends?
It didn’t seem to fit any more.
