‘I’ll do it on the computer in the morning,’ Mr Farrier said, sagging a little. ‘I’ll email it to you.’
‘A digital copy would be good,’ Bex said.
‘In addition to the handwritten one you’ll be making right now,’ Iris said in a voice that rang with authority. ‘Then I can leave you in peace.’
Mr Farrier sat down looking tired and almost tearful. Mrs Farrier went to find a pen and Iris began clearing away the plastic cups.
Bex was finding it difficult to concentrate on Iris and the Farriers. None of it mattered. She should go and see Jon. She should tell him how she felt. Iris had helped her, which meant she was worth helping. Maybe she was worth loving, too?
‘There,’ Mr Farrier said.
Bex took the handwritten reference, skim-read it and checked the signature and date. She was happy and none of this mattered, but she wasn’t an idiot. She still needed to find a new job in the morning. ‘Cannot live on love alone,’ she said, then put her hand over her mouth. That bloody truth wine.
Iris had gathered her things together and was shaking hands briskly with the assembled people.
They were heading down the hallway when the doorbell chimed. ‘I’ll get it,’ Bex called through to the living room.
A lanky figure with rather too much brown hair and a couple of days’ beard growth was on the doorstep. Jon.
‘Why are you here?’ Bex said before her brain could.
Jon looked uncomfortable. ‘I heard you talking. My window was open and I heard you and Iris and I thought I could help. Give you a character reference. See if I could get your job back for you.’
‘You didn’t need to do that,’ Bex said, glowing pink.
‘Is it all sorted, then?’ He looked at Iris who nodded.
‘Forgot my bag,’ she said and retreated back down the hall, leaving Bex and Jon alone.
‘Well, that’s good, then,’ Jon said, not looking especially happy.
‘It’s nice that you came,’ Bex said. ‘I appreciate it.’
He smiled, still awkward. ‘I wanted to help.’
Bex reached out and pulled him into the light of the hallway so that she could see his face more clearly. She loved his smile. It was so warm. And inviting. It made her want to kiss his mouth. Of course, everything made her want to kiss his mouth. Bex realised that she was staring at the lower half of Jon’s face and that he’d been speaking.
‘Sorry, what? I was watching your mouth.’
‘I said …’ Jon took a deep breath. ‘I wish you’d let me take care of you sometimes. I like you, you know.’
Bex felt foggy as if she were in a dream. She shook her head lightly. ‘What?’
‘You heard,’ Jon said. He glanced away, as if considering making a run for it.
Truth potion, Bex thought. Now or never. ‘I like you, too,’ she said, not trusting the electricity that suddenly seemed to be running through the air.
‘I know,’ he said, looking sad, and Bex felt the weight of disappointment hit her. This was it. He was going to say ‘I’m sorry, I just want to be friends’, the words she’d been both dreading and expecting for the last twelve months since that night in the bar when she’d felt her stomach flip.
‘You like me as a friend,’ he said, moving back through the doorway and onto the street.
Bex followed him, unable to stop herself. The words tumbled out: ‘More than a friend, actually.’
There was a moment of silence. Bex felt like everything else in the world had gone away and it was just her and Jon standing both uncomfortably close and too far away from each other on the dark street.
‘A really good friend?’ His voice was husky and Bex could hear the need underneath it, and suddenly she knew that it mirrored her own.
‘More than that,’ she said.
‘Oh, thank God,’ Jon said. He leaned down to kiss her and she stepped into his arms.
After a few moments, moments which could have lasted anything from a few seconds to twenty minutes, Bex became aware of her surroundings. The cool night air on the bare skin of her arms, the sound of Iris Harper clearing her throat as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and closed the Farriers’ front door. Without the light from the hall it was harder to see Jon’s face, but she could still see his wide grin. He looked wildly, loopily happy and Bex had the feeling that she looked the same. For one thing, her cheeks were beginning to ache from smiling.
‘I’ve liked you for so long,’ he said quietly.
‘Don’t mind me,’ Iris said, moving past them on the pavement.
‘I didn’t realise,’ Bex said, thinking that if she got any happier, she was actually going to start floating off the ground.
He squeezed her hand. ‘Yeah. Didn’t you wonder why I kept suggesting film nights? Why Ben never joined us for Life of Brian? I’d told him to give us some space.’
‘I thought he just had terrible taste in comedy.’
Jon shook his head, still smiling.
‘You must’ve known about me, though,’ Bex said. ‘What about all those times I stayed over.’
He shrugged. ‘I just thought it was convenient. After it had got so late. Or that you were interested in Ben. That’s another reason I always encouraged him to be elsewhere.’
Bex couldn’t believe his stupidity. ‘What about when I kept suggesting we play chess at eleven o’clock at night? That was just so it would get too late for me to go home and then I’d have to stay –’
Jon’s smile got even wider. ‘I just thought you were a genius.’
‘You always beat me,’ Bex said, laughing.
‘I thought you were letting me win.’
‘Ha,’ Bex said. ‘I don’t even like chess that much.’
Jon looked stunned. ‘You’re kidding? We’ve played loads of times.’
‘I just didn’t want you to think I was thick.’
Jon’s smile disappeared. ‘I would never think that.’
Bex caught sight of Iris moving away
