“I hope so,” he said, a small frown appearing between his eyebrows as he sipped his coffee.
“Iknowso. Plus, we’re gonna have some fun experimenting with new flavours too. And if none of that works I’ll think of something else to distract you,” I said with a grin before taking a long swig of my own coffee, trying to distract myself from the idea that’d suddenly blossomed in my mind.
“As long as it doesn’t involve you throwing me in the sea at six in the morning, I’ll try anything.”
I laughed and nudged him playfully. “See, we’ve got this!”
Darcy nodded, looking slightly more relaxed than he had done. Mission accomplished. At least for now.
I really wished he hadn’t said he’d try anything though. Because one of the best forms of stress relief I’d ever found was sex… but Darcy wasn’t going to want to have sex with me. Was he?
Nah, definitely not.
Chapter Three
Darcy
“You know what you need,”Milo said as he walked into Lick It!’s kitchen, bag slung over his shoulder, sunglasses on his head, obnoxiously patterned shirt half-unbuttoned, and moustache curling slightly at the end like a Victorian strongman.
I supposed it was better than the seventies porn-stache he’d been sporting in May. Although, with the sunglasses he looked as if he should be starring in an old detective show set in Miami, complete with a very cheesy catchphrase.
“I’m not sure I want to know,” I said, pausing for a second from breaking up digestive biscuits with a rolling pin to look at him witheringly.
“A sausage sandwich and a good wank. Perfect stress relief. And don’t lie and tell me you’re fine, you’ve looked thirty seconds away from imploding for the last six weeks.”
“With good reason! We’ve just opened a new business, and we’re in the middle of our first summer season.”
“True, but your stress goes beyond that.”
“No, I have very normal, regular levels of stress.”
Milo raised an eyebrow. “Then why did you go to the doctor two weeks ago?”
“Because I had an appointment,” I said, very unimpressed with this line of questioning. I put my rolling pin down and tried to lean casually against the counter, like I had better things to do. Which technically I did if we wanted to have stock for the weekend.
“About what?”
“Why is it any of your business?”
“Because I’m one of your best friends and business partners,” Milo said with a shrug. “But you’re right, Alfie should know too. Alfie!”
“No, that’s?—”
“What’s going on?” Alfie asked, stepping through the doorway from the shop into the kitchen. He had the iPad from behind the counter in hand, and I assumed he was doing either a stock take for the weekend or something for our financial records. I’d learned to leave the finances to him, because they were in much better hands with him than me. Although Alfie was just as bad for getting stressed, so much so that he’d nearly lost his adorably sweet gothic boyfriend, Jonathan, recently because he struggled to balance work and everything else.
I’d tried to shield Alfie from my own worries, because the last thing he needed was another burden to bear.
But now Milo was trying to stir shit.
Didn’t he have anything better to do?
If he kept this up, I’d find a reason for him to deep clean the chiller. Which would beverypetty of me, but I didn’t need him poking around. Even if it did come from a genuine place of love and concern.
I couldn’t have sounded more like an arsehole if I’d tried.
“Darcy won’t tell me why he went to the doctor two weeks ago—you know, the day Theo and Laurie turned up to threaten you—and I think it’s because he’s stressed but angel face here won’t admit it,” Milo said, pointing an accusatory finger at me as he strolled across the kitchen to put his bag down.
“And I told you, it’s personal.”
