She could tell you were missing from the group @Amy Evans, so that’s one reading she got right! Can’t wait to see you at the wedding xxx
I tried to think of how to respond, but I heard someone call my name from the other room, so I pocketed my phone and flushed the toilet for effect, going as far as washing my hands before coming out.
When I walked into the lounge where everyone was gathered, I saw Chloe stood in front of the other five with a video queued up on the TV.
“Aren’t we going to the pub?” I asked as Phil reached out a hand for mine. I took it, then he yanked it back when he felt that it was still a bit wet, wiping it on his jeans. Pablo trotted over and put his paws on my leg, so I bent down to pick him up, cradling him close and giving him belly rubs.
“No, we have homework to do,” Chloe said, pointing to the TV, which was paused on two people in black spandex dancing together.
“Homework for what?” Jack asked.
“The ball,” Chloe said, with an implied “duh” on the end. “There will be a few choreographed dances, and I think we’d be remiss to not learn at least one.”
Fatima, Grey, and Jack all moaned. “Seriously?” Grey asked. “Choreographed dances?”
“Come on, it’ll be cool,” Phil said. “Like what they do inBridgertonand shit like that. How there’s a few dances that everyone just seems to know? It’s for the vibes.”
“Exactly,” Chloe said, pointing a finger at Phil. “They’ve got them all up on YouTube, and I’ve found the easiest one, so there arenoexcuses!”
She pressed play on the video, which started walking us through the basics to the dance, which was set to an orchestral version of “Symphony” by Clean Bandit. She grabbed Pablo from me so I could dance with Phil, and I laughed as he twirled me around, completely ignoring the video’s instructions despite his previous defence of it.
“Philip!” Chloe scolded him, and he sighed, straightening up exaggeratedly and following the instructions. But he was still smiling, and it was completely contagious.
Eventually we learned the dance– it was actually pretty easy, just lots of walking around one another in different positions– and Chloe let us leave. It was too late to go to the pub, so I walked back to the house with Phil, and he twirled me down the pavement all the way home.
* * *
I wouldn’t have thoughtPhil and I had any firsts left– we’d known each other so long that there was no need to decide when to meet the family, go away together, or anything like that. But as it turned out, everything we did still felt like a first. Even things we’d done when fake dating didn’t count, because it was the first time we were doing them as a properus, like our first proper date after the festival.
And then there were our true firsts. Like our first actual dinner date, where we sat on the same side of the table, barely able to keep our hands off each other long enough to eat our food; our first overnight just the two of us, when I was housesitting for Jack and Anil was with Ethel; and the first time we talked about what we wanted for our futures and realised how aligned we were– on board with marriage, on the fence about kids, huge preference for relaxing holidays over adrenaline seeking ones. It made me excited for the firsts we would still have, like our first trip away together, and the first time we used the L-word. I could feel the latter brewing, but everything felt so new and exciting that it didn’t bother me that it never came up.
Literally theonlybad thing about being Phil’s actual girlfriend, however, was that he made it very, very hard to get any work done.
One Thursday morning after I’d stayed the night, I let Phil sleep in like I had so many times. I got Ethel up and fed her, then we went for a walk together in the morning sun. But by the time I needed to wake Phil so I could go home and change for my Kenchester presentation, he proved unusually difficult to rouse. I couldn’t just leave Ethel unattended, but Phil wouldn’t budge from bed, even as I turned on all the lights and physically shoved him. He just pulled his duvet up over his head, holding onto it tightly so I couldn’t pull it off him.
“Just two minutes of cuddles,” he said, loosening his grip to reach for me.
“You and I both know that if I got in that bed, it would be much longer than two minutes before I got out again.”
Phil smirked. “Damn right it would.”
I knew he was naked under that duvet, and I could imagine exactly what was going on at the mention of me getting back in bed. But as tempting as it was, I truly did not have the time.
“Which is exactly why you need togetup, not getitup. Some of us need to go to work.”
“You don’t need to work,” he said, reaching for me again, and this time I let him pull me down so I was sitting on the edge of the bed. He curled himself around me from behind, his arms around my waist.
“I do if I ever wanna move out of my parents’ house.”
“Just move in with me.”
He said it sleepily, his eyes still closed, his mouth quirked up in a smile.
“You’re absurd.” I tried to get up again, but he held me tightly in place. “Despite what our friends and family think, we’ve only been together for three weeks. I’m not moving in with you after three weeks.”
He opened his eyes and frowned, letting go of me to prop himself up with one arm. “What about four weeks?”
I rolled my eyes, even as I grinned. “No, Philip. Not after four weeks either.”
