Winter's Fairytale. Maxine Morrey

Come on. Clearly you’re hungry. I know I am.’

      My traitorous body wasn’t letting me out of this one so I conceded. ‘Ok, yes I’m hungry. Mags is on a pre-Christmas diet so we both just had antipasti. Which is fine, by the way! But I missed lunch. So, yes, I am a bit hungry.’

      ‘And it would seem you get grouchy when you’re hungry.’ Rob smiled, somehow softening the blow of the extremely accurate observation.

      ‘Wow.’ I said, flatly, ‘You’ve really got this gracious host thing sussed.’

      Rob laughed, letting go of me and poking holes with a knife in the plastic wrap coverings of the ready meals. He opened the microwave and shoved them both in, adjusting the timings so that they’d both be ready together. Pulling open the cutlery drawer, he handed me knives and forks, before going back to his original question.

      ‘So, beer or wine?’

      A few minutes later, we were sat next to one another on the sofa, ready meals tipped out onto plates, with red wine filling our glasses. The TV was still on the news channel, and showing reports of increasingly miserable looking drivers stuck on various routes, in and around the south east. Reporter Beth was looking colder and colder by the minute. I knew that, but for the grace of Rob, there go I. Except I would have been in a far worse position because, unlike Beth, who was decked out from head to foot in North Face winter ready clothing and boots, I had set out this morning in a knee-length wool coat and four-inch heels. Both of these I knew looked fabulous but were definitely not up to the job of keeping me warm whilst I stood waiting for a train that was never going to come. But staying at Rob’s tonight? Why was I having such a hard time with that? We were friends – again – that obstacle, at least, thankfully seemed to have been surmounted. And I stayed over with Mags plenty of times when we’d been out on the town or had a movie night in with popcorn and jammies. Mags was a friend. Rob was a friend. So staying over here was just like staying over at Mags’. Wasn’t it?

      ‘Those cogs are whirring again.’ Rob broke into my thoughts.

      I took a sip of my wine, and hoped I didn’t have Ribena smiles. Best to be honest. ‘I just feel a little awkward about staying here tonight.’

      ‘Why?’

      Honestly, I had no idea.

      ‘I don’t really know. I suppose tonight’s just sort of taken me by surprise – I mean, I haven’t spoken to you in six months and then I bump into you, promptly cry all over you, and then you offer to risk life and limb to get me home, feed me and offer me a bed for the night because it turns out I have zero chance of getting home tonight. I just – I think it’d be better if I went to a hotel. I just think it’d be less awkward.’

      Rob nodded slowly, then looked directly at me with those eyes the colour of a melting Galaxy chocolate bar.

      ‘Izzy. We’re friends, right? We established that?’

      ‘Yes. We are.’

      ‘Ok good. So if you’d got to Mags’ place and realised you couldn’t get home, would you be saying that you should go and find a hotel?’

      ‘No, of course not, but–’

      ‘But what?’

      ‘But…’ I didn’t actually know “but what”. Rob had once again delved into what I was thinking and laid it out there for us both to see. I really was going to have to keep closer control of my thoughts.

      ‘Is it because I’m a bloke and you’re not?’ He was grinning.

      ‘Oh I don’t know!’ I bumped my head down onto my knees, feeling just the tiniest bit idiotic.

      Rob laughed and rubbed my back. ‘Come on, Izz. We’re friends. Nothing more. And no offence, I’m not looking for anything but friendship from you. If you were a great big hairy rugby player, I’d still have fed you and offered you a room rather than letting you freeze on a station platform. The fact that you’re…’

      ‘Waif-y?’ I filled in for him from my hunched over position.

      ‘I was going to say “not”,’ he laughed, ‘just means that I at least got to eat one of those meals.’

      ‘But I don’t have any spare clothes – or my toothbrush!’ I said, sitting up.

      ‘I can stick your stuff in the washing machine, and put it in the dryer. You can borrow something to sleep in, and I have spare toothbrushes.’

      I rolled my lips inwards at the plural. ‘Toothbrushes, eh? That implies more than one.’

      Rob waggled his eyebrows. ‘Cheaper in bulk.’

      I rolled my eyes and he laughed.

      ‘Ok. Fine. Then thank you. If you’re sure I’m not imposing–’

      ‘You’re not imposing.’

      ‘Or my being here isn’t going to cause any…’

      Rob frowned, but the smile remained on his lips. ‘Any what?’

      ‘Umm…’

      ‘Izzy, just tell me what on Earth you’ve thought of this time?’

      ‘I just don’t want you getting in trouble if your girlfriend walks in, and you’ve got another female here. I mean, not that we’re, you know… we’re just friends, but if she just walks in and there’s another woman here, and she doesn’t know then she might–’

      ‘She won’t.’ Rob said, shaking his head at me, a look of incredulousness fixing on his features, ‘She won’t, because she doesn’t exist. I don’t have a girlfriend to walk in unsuspectingly. And before your crazy mind goes off on yet another tangent, I don’t have a boyfriend either. Just for absolute clarification. Now that’s taken care of, are there any other scenarios you need to tell me about that might possibly happen, or can we please just sit and relax?’

      ‘No. I can’t think of anything else.’ I said.

      ‘Thank goodness.’ Rob said, with a little more feeling than I’d have liked.

      ‘At the minute.’ I added, just for that.

      He looked at me for a long moment.

      I pulled a face and half smiled. ‘Don’t tell me. Now you’re beginning to think that Steven might have been on the right track leaving me.’

      I saw a shadow flit across Rob’s eyes, before he smiled. ‘Nope. Not even close. I still think he’s a twat. Now, switch that mind of yours to a slower speed, put your feet up and just relax.’

      I smiled back at him. ‘I’m not sure it has a slower speed. But I can try.’

      ‘Great!’ Rob said happily as he let out a sigh and stuck his long legs out on the coffee table in front of us.

      ‘Do you want to watch a film?’ he asked.

      ‘Yep, sure.’ I answered. That actually sounded pretty nice. Wine, warmth, good company and something nice and inane on the telly. Although, oh dear, Rob was a really intelligent guy. I watched as he brought up the video streaming service and hoped he didn’t head to the ‘Foreign Films’ section. I couldn’t deal with subtitles tonight.

      ‘What do you fancy?’ he asked.

      ‘Me?’

      He laughed. ‘Of course, you. You’re my guest.’

      ‘Oh! I really don’t mind.’ I snuggled into the sofa a little more, grabbing the blanket that Rob had put around my shoulders earlier. ‘Although nothing with subtitles.’ I decided to come clean because I knew he’d only fish out that thought from my brain anyway.

      ‘Subtitles?’

      ‘Yeah, you know. Something foreign with subtitles. Preferably not that. Although, of course, it is your house, so if you–’