Page 46 of The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts

‘We’d better get home,’ he said. ‘Before I fall asleep in this chair and they start singing again.’

‘The chairs are nice and comfy, aren’t they?’ she said.

‘Must be the wine talking,’ he said, smiling. ‘Come on.’

They said goodnight to Belle and made a somewhat uneven path across the pub and out the front door.

Once outside in the colder night air, Amber realised how drunk she really was.

‘Sorry,’ she said, snagging her boot on a loose bit of pavement and bumping into Josh.

‘I think we’d better link arms,’ he told her, putting his arm through hers as they began to walk over the narrow pedestrian bridge. ‘Otherwise I’ll end up in the river again.’

‘It was an accident,’ she said, laughing. ‘Now I’ve got to know you a bit better I would totally push you in on purpose next time.’

‘Ha!’ he said, as they reached the other side. ‘Next time, I’ll make sure you go in first.’

He opened up the shop, which looked softer, lit only by the fairy lights in the window.

Josh walked through first and immediately bumped into the tractor, having forgotten it was there. ‘Ow!’ he said, hopping around and holding his knee.

‘Are you OK?’ Amber asked, rushing up to him.

When he straightened, up, she realised how close he was standing in front of her. She had a sudden impulse to kiss him. It must be the wine, she told herself.

‘Well,’ she said, her voice trailing off in the awkward silence as they stared at each other. The familiarity that they had shared in the pub suddenly seeming a long way away.

‘You go up. I’ll make sure we’re locked up down here,’ he told her, looking into her face.

She nodded. ‘Yeah. You don’t want anyone stealing the tractor.’

He smiled. ‘My thoughts exactly. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight,’ she replied, turning to go upstairs and away from Josh before she did something really crazy that she may regret in the morning.

19

Amber woke up the following morning with a raging hangover. Exactly how much wine had she had to drink the previous night?

She moved her head and groaned at the pounding headache. She desperately tried to remember what had happened. Then her fuzzy brain finally began to figure it all out. She had gone to the pub with Josh after the tractor had broken down. They had drunk quite a bit, from what she could even bring herself to remember. Rather more than a bit of wine, she realised as her head continued to ache. And then what? She clutched her head and forced her brain to remember what had happened.

Finally, her brain cells slowly clunked into gear. Nothing had happened. She slumped back onto her pillow in relief.

But there had been something. A moment. When Josh had looked at her and she had really wanted to see what it felt like to be kissed by him. But that was ridiculous, utterly crazy. Besides, it was just the wine talking. She didn’t feel like that about him at all.

Getting showered and dressed was a painful process, involving much swearing and moaning as she bumped her head on the low ceiling but finally she felt able to head into the kitchen. The flat was quiet. The door to Josh’s bedroom was open, meaning that he had already got up and gone downstairs to open up the shop.

Tea and toast helped to start to clear her fuzzy head and afterwards she slowly and carefully headed downstairs.

As she walked from the back room into the main shop, the low sunlight was streaming through the windows. It was so bright it made her gasp and cover her eyes with her hands.

‘Oh God,’ she cried. ‘Somebody switch off the lights.’

‘I’ve been trying, believe me,’ groaned Josh from somewhere nearby.

She peered through her fingers and saw that he was actually sitting on the driver’s seat of the rusty tractor, which was still in the middle of the shop. Despite still feeling awful, she couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous sight.

‘I’m not sure you should be driving in your condition,’ she told him, walking over to stand next to the tractor.