‘Your head okay?’
‘Yeah, fine. Used to it now.’ He rapped his knuckle on the top of his head. ‘It’s pretty tough. He got me worse than that the first night here. He forgets we’re all Borrowers compared to his size.’
She snorted with laughter, shutting the laptop lid. ‘Nice try, but I’ve been felled by Hans before too, he’s basically a toddler in a man’s body.’
‘I know that, when he stayed at mine back home, we always knew he was around. Dad used to hide the good china.’
‘I bet, the breakage rate skyrockets on my days off.’ She pushed the laptop lid shut again when he attempted to open it. ‘Besides, no more work. I have a job for you.’ Heading back over to the bags, she lugged them onto the sofa next to him and gave him her sternest look.
‘Now before I open these bags, I need you to remember that you owe me.’ He put up a hand to protest, but she karate chopped it back down.
‘You owe me, despite the fact that you did replace most things …’ She eyed the sofa with a devastated look. ‘… You do still owe me an apology. So,’ she pulled a small plush orange cuddly dinosaur from one of the nearest bags, ‘this is how you will pay me back.’ The look on his face was worth all the lugging of bags after all. He looked terrified.
*
‘You fancy a cuppa?’
‘Now, that’s the best thing you’ve said all day.’
‘Ah, come on,’ Rebecca teased him. ‘You loved every minute of it.’ Looking at him dishevelled on the floor next to her, covered in glitter and bits of ribbon, she suppressed a smirk. ‘They look great.’
All around him were baby bits, including a rather impressive nappy cake that they had spent half their crafting time putting together. Luke hadn’t even heard of one before, and thought they were about to bake. As if that was all she did. It had irked her at the time, but she was getting less and less shocked with every little weird thing he did and said. She realised, the guy was a brainbox, but he didn’t have a lot of life skills. Bear Grylls would have left him whimpering in the boat, strapped to an inflatable unicorn. It was cute though. And glitter suited him.
‘They do, but the whole experience was definitely a bit weird. Did you have a lot of babies around you, growing up?’
She thought of her childhood. ‘Nope, only child. Baby free. I didn’t even have time for babysitting to be honest.’ She got up to go to the kitchen.
‘Really?’ Following her in, he swerved around her, taking two mugs from the tree and flicking the kettle on. ‘Super nerd, were you? Sat in a corner somewhere, reading comics?’
She popped a tea bag into each mug, him passing the milk to her whilst she reached for the sugar.
‘Two, right?’ she checked, and he nodded. Spooning two spoons in each one, he grabbed the kettle the second it flicked off and poured the water in. ‘And I think you’ll find that you were the comic geek.’ He blushed, and she knew she’d nailed him. It. Nailed it. ‘I was the one who hung out near the gym, for fun.’ Oops.
‘Really …’ he muttered, trying to slowly lift the lid of his laptop again. ‘Any photos?’
Her eyes fell below the coffee table before she could stop them. Her heart was thudding in her chest. She’d had her album out before he’d landed in her life, a night filled with wine and regrets. Fuck. Had he looked? Surely not.
‘No, sadly not. I hate the camera.’
That was true enough. It had never been about that. Not for her. They both watched the tea stewing in the mugs, for lack of anything else to say.
‘So …’
‘Anyway?’
They both laughed nervously, their awkwardness made palpable by them removing their tea bags and adding milk in annoying synchronicity.
‘What I was—’
‘What I meant was—’
‘Got any plans for tonight?’ he blurted out, dropping his tea bag into the bin as he asked, missing it entirely. They both watched it slowly slide down the side of the bin, leaving a little tea puddle on the floor, and a path down from lid to bottom where the tea had dripped. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. ‘I meant to do that. Pa Borrower uses them to fertilise his allotment.’ She was about to call him a plonker, when he put his hand over hers.
‘What I was trying to say, was that I would really like to get out of this flat for a bit, I was thinking we could go out to eat? I’ve not had a look around yet. My treat, to say thanks and sorry yet again. To you and your poor bins. Do you have plans?’
She didn’t, and if he’d seen her work calendar downstairs, he knew it too.
‘No, but you don’t have to do that. You already made it up to me.’
‘I know, but you’ve got to eat anyway, right? What were you going to do?’
She looked at him blankly. She had nothing. A family-sized bar of chocolate and a romance book in bed wasn’t exactly comparable to going out with a cute guy, to have a free
