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However, Mum was right. Emily Darlington was someone my grandfather would consider a good match, and perhaps it was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to stress anyone out any more than they already were, so maybe inviting her would keep the peace.
I could take her, tell Grandpa it wasn’t serious, both placating and pleasing him simultaneously.
I dropped my arm and stared over at the fireplace. The fire was almost out, but I couldn’t be bothered to get up and toss another log on it to bring it back to life.
This wasn’t a decision I wanted to make today. On the other hand, I didn’t have much of a choice.
I was being strongarmed into it at the last minute.
I wasn’t even sure Emily would be able to go. The last I knew, she was working for a law firm in Chelsea, and I doubted she’d get a week off at such late notice.
In fact, nobody I knew would be able to get time off at such late notice.
Unless…
No.
That was ridiculous.
I wasn’t going to entertain such an insane thought.
I got up off the sofa, grabbed my book, and headed into the kitchen. Clearly, I needed some coffee, because I had to be tired if I was considering asking Grace to go with me.
***
I cupped my chin with my hand, pressing my finger against my lips contemplatively. My elbow was flat on the table and taking the weight of my head as I stared at my phone.
Asking Grace to go with me was insane.
Sadly, the coffee hadn’t helped with that little idea.
More to the point, she wasnotsomeone who would fall into the list of acceptable from my grandfather.
Although I couldn’t help but think she wouldn’t be deemed entirely unacceptable, either. She was Cambridge educated and studying for her PhD, and if there was one thing Grandpa valued, it was intelligence.
Her love of history wouldn’t exactly be out of place either. He was a history graduate himself, but Oxford rather than Cambridge.
Hmm.
It’d been two days since our collision outside the coffee shop, and I hadn’t texted her since. I hadn’t known what to say, and now I felt a bit awkward, given the only reason I was going to do it was to see if she was able to be my plus one.
God.
If I didn’t do it, I wasn’t ever going to.
I understood how questionable this decision was, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and I was certainly on the verge of a desperate time.
I grabbed my phone and got it over with.
ME: Hey, it’s William. The coffee destroyer.
Fuck me. That was a dreadful way to start a conversation.
It was all I had.
The goddamn prettiest woman I’d seen in a long time, and I referred to myself as the coffee destroyer.
I was shaking my head at myself when my phone pinged in my hand.
