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After finding a place to serve us massive traditional English breakfasts, we navigate the tube again to go to one of the city’s overground train stations where Andreas buys the right tickets for us again.
“Fifteen minutes,” he says in satisfaction, looking at the board to see when the next train is going to depart. “Perfect. Let’s grab some tea, and then we can get ourselves settled.”
“Coffee!” Jalen squeaks. “Coffee, please, coffee!”
Andreas laughs and rubs his back. “Coffee it is, hun.”
Several minutes later, we have our hot drinks in takeaway cups and have been able to load our suitcases into the luggage racks at the end of the carriage. Our smaller bags have been placed overhead on a clear shelf by Andreas, and we managed to find four seats around a table so we can all see each other for the duration of the trip. I snuggle up next to a vibrating Jalen, and Andreas sits opposite. It’s a bit like when he came to our flat to ask us on this trip with us. Jalen said later it felt like we were interviewing him for a job.
It’s funny to think of our little flat still sitting there back there in Mount Druitt when we’re all the way over here in London.
“So what time is your family expecting us?” I ask Andreas.
“Oh,” he says, looking up from his phone with a nervous laugh. “They’re not.”
I blink. “They’re…not?”
He shakes his head. “It’s a surprise.”
He can say that again.
CHAPTER12
Jalen
I might be hallucinatingfrom both a lack of sleep and caffeine overload, but I swear that Andreas just said that his family doesn’t know we’re on our way to visit.
“Come again?” I say, blinking rapidly and leaning over the table that separates me and Colby from Andreas. He’s facing backward again like he did on the plane. I realize this because the train gives a jolt, then slowly starts moving out of the station.
“They don’t know Jalen and I are coming?” Colby asks. “Or they don’t knowanyof us are on the way?”
Andreas looks sheepish. It’s not a particularly ‘Daddy’ expression, I must admit.
“Um…they don’t have a clue that any of us are about to show up on the doorstep. I thought it would be fun!”
I narrow my eyes at him, calling bullshit. “Girl, are you serious? You don’t think your mama will want to know? Moms have rules for these things. She’ll want to get extra food and clean the sheets and other mom stuff.”
“One,” Andreas says, holding up a finger with a grin. “My mum might be a rubbish cook, but she’s anexcellenthost, and she’ll have bought enough food to feed the whole street. No kidding. Two, we’re not staying with them. I found us a last-minute cancellation on an amazing holiday rental a short drive away, so we can have our own space and not be completely overwhelmed by the madness that is my family getting together.”
I glance at Colby, still feeling a little unsure. “But why not tell them?” Colby asks.
“Are you ashamed of us?” I ask, as usual not willing to dance around the issue.
Andreas looks like he’s been slapped. “Ashamed? What?”
He thrusts out his hands toward us, palms up, his eyebrows raised until Colby and I slip our hands against his. He takes a deep breath and visibly relaxes as he holds on to us.
“Thank you. Right, no. Absolutely not. If I’m being honest, I didn’t mention it to my family so it wouldn’t put any pressure on you guys to say yes. I know that this is amassivestep forward in our relationship, and I was doing my best to keep it as low stakes as possible.”
“Oh,” I say with a chuckle. Of course he was protecting us.Duh.
“My family won’t be put out,” he says with a smile. “In fact, they are going to lose theirshitin the best kinds of ways. There will be screaming and crying and hugging. And if I’m honest, if we spring this on them, they won’t have had the time to overthink who you guys are or what’s going on between us. We’ll just tell them that you’re my new friends because that’s the truth.”
I glance at Colby, who nods sweetly. I’ve been thinking nonstop about the conversation Andreas and I had the night before we left Australia. It’s obvious none of us is feeling confident enough to name what’s going on here because it’s all so unfamiliar and uncertain.
But I believed Andreas when he said that he cares for both me and Colby equally, and he keeps proving to me how true that is. At least, it’s feeling that way to me. Like right now. He’s holding both our hands and rubbing against our knuckles with his thumbs, looking between us as he speaks.
However, I also meant what I said when I told him I was terrified about anything changing too much between me and Colby. He’s the best friend I’ve ever had, and we all know how much sex complicates things. But I’ve been sharing a bed with him more and more these days, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t getting that much harder to keep my hands to myself.
