Page 50 of Just for the Season

‘Wow.’ Marcus’s eyes are wide and his lips are quirking upwards like they do as he begins a chuckle. His laughs are extremely infectious because they start smallish and then they really build and there’s something about them that just makes you happy.

‘I know.’ I grin at his mirth and then I’m laughing too.

When we stop with the laughter, we’re both smiling, into each other’s eyes, and there’s a long moment of… something.

I’m suddenly swallowing, hard, and I see Marcus moisten his lips.

‘Okay,’ he says, after another long moment, his voice a little odd. ‘Go and take that walk.’

‘Thank you.’ I feel almost shaky. So weird.

I smile at him again, and he smiles back again, and I spend a good few seconds marvelling at how gorgeous his smile is and how you could happily spend a lot of time just looking at him – the smile is wide and just a tiny bit crooked, and it causes his eyes to scrunch at the sides, and it’s like the whole world feels better when you see it – until I realise that we’ve now been standing just smiling at each other for really quite a long time.

‘I need to show you how to use the till,’ I suddenly realise.

Marcus moves round behind the counter with me, and I’m very surprised by how little space there is here. When I’m behind here with Simon there’s loads of space, and it isn’t like Simon’s tiny.

I think the difference is that every time Marcus and I brush against each other, I really notice, whereas with Simon, no, I don’t.

Yesterday evening, Simon and I watched the Victoria Beckham documentary together. (We both had a lot to say about it afterwards.) We were so cold (the evenings are getting chillier and the heating takes a bit of time to warm up) that we sat snuggled up together under a blanket on the sofa. I imagine for a second snuggling up to Marcus like that and, honestly, I’m boiling immediately. It probably isn’t Marcus himself, though, it’s any straight attractive man. Although… Rick? No. He wouldn’t do it for me now. Any of my other straight male friends? No. There’s something about Marcus. Probably because he’s a new friend. And also so gorgeous. I probably just need a bit of time to get used to his extreme handsomeness.

Marcus clears his throat and I jump.

‘The till.’ I wish my voice hadn’t come out quite so high-pitched. ‘The till.’ Gaaah, weirdly low. And, also, there was no actual need to say it twice. ‘Right. So. To open it you press here.’ Thank goodness. I’m actually sounding normal now.

Marcus moves a little to get a better look and our arms bang against each other, causing the most immense tingle to run through my whole body. I’m just staring at his forearms, which are kind of flexing, and wondering if all forearms have muscles there and if they’re always this sexy.

He clears his throat. ‘Like this?’ he asks.

I tear my gaze away from his lovely arms and look up at his equally lovely profile and cannot think at all.

‘Like what?’ I ask, my voice shaky.

‘Like…’ He looks down at me and presses his lips together for a moment, and I blink.

He says nothing at all for a long moment, while I just stare at him. To be fair to me, he’s staring right back.

‘Is it…’ His voice is very hoarse. ‘Is it easy to work?’

‘Very easy,’ I say, my own voice low and still a little shaky.

‘That’s… great, then.’

‘Yes.’ I take a deep, jerky breath, and say, ‘So… you think you can manage?’

He nods, still staring down into my eyes.

‘Great, then,’ I say eventually.

‘Yeah.’ His voice is so low it somehow catches me right inside, and, honestly, my stomach’s turning to liquid.

A beeping sound starts, and I ignore it, because I don’t want to stop looking at Marcus.

And then I suddenly remember that I put a cake in the oven earlier, and that’s the timer.

‘Cake,’ I say.

‘Cake?’ Marcus repeats, smiling at me.