Page 113 of My Kind of Happy

In fact, by the end of the day, we’d ended up facing eviction, but I was building up to that.

‘There were some left over so I made a bouquet of pink, yellow and blue blooms and gave them to Rosie for her baby shower.’

‘Which I missed,’ she said.

‘So did I in the end,’ I said. After the events of that day, I hadn’t felt up to joining Rosie and her friends to celebrate at the café.

‘Wait,’ said Nina excitedly. ‘I’ve just realised what you said. You said ‘we’ managed to sell the flowers. Who’s we?’

‘Me and Sam.’

‘You and Sam?’ I held the phone at arm’s length while she squealed in delight. ‘YESSS! I’m so happy for you. So he came back, I knew he would.’

The last time I’d updated her it was to tell her about the Saturday night when Pandora had turned up during the cricket players’ workshop and Sam had found out about Gareth and stormed out.

‘He’s been brilliant,’ I said. ‘We made a great team.’

‘And yet I’m sensing all is not paradise in the garden. What’s up?’

‘It’s not Sam, it’s me,’ I groaned. ‘I’m so sorry, I’ve made a mess of everything.’

‘Hey, you’ve brought nothing but good stuff to Nina’s Flowers, I’ve got a couple of minutes before the next task, tell all, it can’t be that bad.’

‘I’m afraid it can,’ I said and proceeded to prove it by bringing her up to speed.

‘Jeez! By September? The absolute shitbag!’ she spluttered. ‘How pathetic and spiteful and un-bloody-necessary.’

I felt wretched. I leaned my elbow on the counter, resting my head in my hand. ‘We haven’t had it in writing yet, but I’m expecting it any day now.’

‘And this is all because Pandora has gone crying to Daddy about Sam’s relationship with you?’

‘I think so. I can’t prove it, but it’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? And the annoying thing is, Sam and I have done nothing wrong. In fact, we’ve done nothing full stop. Unlike her.’

Nina was quiet except for her breathing which sounded like the snort of a bull getting ready to lower his horns and charge.

‘I’m sorry. I feel totally responsible,’ I began, feeling the weight of the silence. ‘So I thought perhaps—’

‘Oh shit, look I’ve got to go, I’m wanted again,’ she said abruptly. ‘I’ll call back later.’

‘Later today or later—’ I stopped, realising the line had gone dead. ‘Well done, Fearne, you handled that brilliantly.’

‘Talking to yourself?’ came a familiar voice from the door. ‘Sounds like I came in the nick of time.’

I lifted my head and there was Sam: golden and gorgeous, the sunlight behind him creating a halo effect around his hair. Just friends, I reminded my heart which had automatically started to thump at the sight of him. Not that I was ruling anything else out in the future, but Ethel’s advice was to give him space to extract himself from his feelings for Pandora, and that was what I needed to do.

‘Hello, Sam,’ I managed to say casually. ‘Your timing’s perfect. I’m just making tea.’

Scamp was off his bed in a flash and sat down at Sam’s feet to gaze up adoringly at him. Sam patted his pockets and produced a Tic Tac.

‘It’s all I’ve got. I don’t suppose he can eat mints?’ He gave me a lopsided smile.

I nodded. ‘He loves them. In fact, you’ll be doing a public service; he had salmon for breakfast.’

I watched the two of them having a cuddle and tried not to feel jealous.

‘So how are you?’ we both said at the same time and then laughed awkwardly.

‘You first,’ said Sam.