Page 32 of More Than Just Friends

‘I was just thinking the same! By the way, thanks.’ I faced him. ‘I appreciate you babysitting me. Honestly, Kayleigh and Adonis must think I’m a right wimp.’

‘That’s because they don’t know what you’ve been through. If they did, they’d understand.’

‘Maybe.’ My stomach tightened as a flashback of one of the most horrific days of my life flashed into my mind. I quickly pushed it away. I didn’t want to feel sad. ‘Anyway, I want you to know that I appreciate you creating that story to get me out of it and I’m sorry if I’m pussy blocking.’

‘Pussy blocking?’ Noah said a little too loudly causing an older lady in front of us to turn around and tut loudly. I guessed she understood English. Oops.

‘Yeah, y’know, stopping you from spending quality time with your match.’

‘I understand what you’re trying to say,’ Noah said, ‘but it’s still called cock-blocking. I don’t think in this case you need to change the saying.’

‘Yeah, you do!’ I insisted. ‘I’m stopping you from getting in Kayleigh’s knickers.’

‘Which would mean you’re still blocking my cock,’ he said casually and for some stupid reason the mention of that word sent a tingle shooting between my legs.

‘Ah… right. I see your point.’ I nodded as we continued walking down the narrow streets, passing different jewellery stores and more souvenir shops selling ceramics, linen, blue dresses and T-shirts. ‘Well in that case, sorry for cock-blocking.’

‘Thanks for the apology, but it’s not necessary. It’s not like I was about to throw Kayleigh over my shoulder, carry her inside a souvenir shop and start shagging her up against the fridge magnet display, so you’re fine.’

‘Phew,’ I wiped imaginary sweat from my forehead. ‘Then again, you two probably already got acquainted last night and maybe even this morning, right?’

Noah and I used to talk a lot about our relationships. We didn’t always go into detail about bedroom stuff, but we were comfortable to chat about basically anything. We hadn’t had any conversations like that for a while though.

I knew he’d been dating on and off since he moved to North London, but nothing serious. In fact, now that I thought about it, I couldn’t remember the last time he’d mentioned sleeping with a woman.

And I was curious.

Okay, curious was just a polite word for nosy. Call it whatever you want, but I was interested to know if he’d slept with Kayleigh. Although it was only our first full day here, she seemed very tactile and looked at Noah like she was ready to throw him down and ride him on the spot. And naturally Noah was attracted to her so it was still perfectly feasible that they’d banged.

What was I even saying? I saw the way they were looking at each other at dinner last night. Of course they’d shagged.

‘Are you asking if Kayleigh and I slept together?’ He raised an eyebrow.

‘Er, yeah, but, if you’d prefer not to say, that’s totally fine.’

‘Why do you care?’ Noah asked.

‘I don’t!’ I protested a little too loudly. ‘I was just curious, that’s all.’

‘You know what they say about curiosity…’

Right on cue, a cute black-and-white cat strolled past us and we both laughed at the coincidence. I’d noticed there were a lot of cats just casually roaming the streets here.

‘See! Just proves that curiosity doesn’t kill the cat like the famous saying suggests. Thankfully the cat is very much alive and well.’

‘Good. I’d never forgive you if it came to any harm,’ Noah said. ‘You know how much I love animals.’

‘I do. I also know that you still haven’t answered my question,’ I pressed.

‘I’m aware.’ He grinned mischievously.

‘In fact, you never tell me anything about your dating life any more.’

‘There’s not much to tell. And I told you I went on that date Colin set me up on last month.’

‘And that’s it? You’re telling me that those blind dates are the only ones you’ve been on? They never go beyond dinner or drinks, so when you need to let off steam so to speak, do you use the apps? Go out with people from work? I refuse to believe that you’ve been hiding all of this—’ I gestured to his face and body ‘—and living like a monk.’

‘You’re asking if I hook up?’ He clutched his chest in mock horror.