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‘Have you got a crush?’ Paige asked as Melanie dug herself further and further.
’No, not at all, it’s just that she’s . . . you know . . .’
Paige shook her head. ‘No I don’t know, what is she?’
‘Famous.’
Now Paige really did chuckle. She knew Sophie was famous, but she didn’t think of Sophie like that at all. ‘She still pukes into the toilet and all over herself when she’s drunk too much same as all of us. Oh, and you must have seen the video where she poked herself in the eye with her mascara wand and swore like a trooper. Besides, she makes her sex tapes the same as the rest of us . . . only with good lighting.’
‘Wait, what?!’ Melanie had been laughing, but now she was about to choke on thin air.
‘It was accidental but that’s a story for another day,’ Paige said.
‘Wait, have you made a sex tape?’ Melanie asked and then immediately covered her mouth with her hands. ‘Forget I asked that.’ The pink in her cheeks now really stood out.
Paige smiled slowly. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know.’
Melanie said nothing for a second as their eyes locked.
‘Anyway, you were talking about organising?’ Paige said, sitting back in her seat and crossing her foot over her knee.
‘Yeah . . . erm . . . so yeah.’ Melanie coughed a little. ‘I’ll add you onto my to-do list app. What’s your email address?’ Paige reeled it off and a notification appeared on her phone. ‘You just download the app and then we can both see the schedule and the tasks. That way if you do a task, you can cross it off the list and it will keep us both up-to-date.’
A shuffling sound broke Paige’s focus and she shot up to look over the back of the sofa. The traitorous Mr Higgins was currently curled up in a little ball next to Alfie’s chest.
‘Oh my God, I need a picture of this.’ Melanie appeared behind her, and Paige watched as Melanie leaned over the sofa and took a picture. Paige could admit it was pretty damn cute. He never curled up like that when she napped. But admittedly she was somewhat larger than Alfie. Grabbing her own phone, she took a pic and then took a step back and caught one of Melanie taking the photo on her phone. That weird feeling in her chest once again.
‘I probably need to wake him up really. Otherwise, he won’t sleep tonight,’ Melanie said almost to herself as she bent over the back of the couch to stroke her nephew’s face.
Realising that she was staring, Paige quickly moved towards the kitchen and tried to find something for her little guest to eat. He probably wanted a snack about now, right? After a couple minutes, she’d managed to find a lightweight glass that wasn’t as big as some of the others and filled it with oat milk. She’d also figured he might want a biscuit and made her way to the sofa where a little voice was talking sweetly.
‘He’s so cute,’ Alfie whispered.
‘Remember gentle hands,’ Melanie said.
Alfie was sat up and stroking Mr Higgins who was loving all the attention as he purred noisily. He almost appeared to be looking at Paige as if to say ‘this is how you do it’.
Dick.
Paige sat down at the other end of the sofa and placed the drink and the biscuit on the coffee table.
‘Hey Alf, I got you some milk and a biscuit if you want?’
‘Thank you Pwaige.’
Well, dammit that was cute.
Chapter Eleven
Melanie
Melanie disliked mornings the most. When her alarm went off, she was forced to open her eyes and once her glasses were on, she couldn’t help but see the boxes she otherwise tried to ignore, and her heart would sink a little further into the duvet. Then she would race to open up her to-do list and calendar as quickly as possible so she was forced into action, forced to start her day rather than unpack literally and psychologically.
Studying her phone, Melanie was relieved to see a standard Wednesday lay ahead. Run, shower, dress, coffee and then to her sister’s house to take Alfie to school. From there she would go to the bar, spend an hour on paperwork, deliveries and other essentials, while the kitchen team prepped, before making sure the whole place was reset as the wait staff turned up and then it was doors open and ready to go.
No there wasn’t a lot of spare time, but she was occupied and she was productive and that, along with the pressure to succeed, sustained her. However, that morning was different for several reasons. The first being that Melanie kept replaying her afternoon at Paige’s house over and over in her mind. She still couldn’t believe it had happened, that Paige had been so adorably awkward and yet caring for Alfie. That she had forgotten herself for a minute and even attempted some cheeky flirting. No, she did not have time to flirt with Paige.
Anyway, the second reason the morning was unlike any other, was that Paige had apparently texted her late last night. The third was a notification of a new video on Sophie’s YouTube featuring Connie. Feeling a strange thrill at all three things, Melanie allowed herself some extra time in bed and figured that for today she could cut short her usual running route. But the excitement in her belly was matched with a little ball of anxiety. She looked at the text from Paige first.
