Winter's Fairytale. Maxine Morrey

loved a punctuation mark.

      Here we go.

      At Rob’s.

      I pressed ‘Send’ and looked at Rob who was now peacefully resting his head on the back of the chair and watching the snow. He looked relaxed. And for some reason that made me smile. He turned his head and caught me watching him. Oh shit. That looked weird. I jumped in.

      ‘My phone is going to ring in a moment.’

      A slow smile spread from one corner of his mouth. ‘Did you get psychic when I wasn’t looking?’

      I raised an eyebrow. ‘Nope. But Mags just asked if I was home. Which I’m not. So she asked where I was.’

      ‘And you’ve said here…which for some reason is going to make your phone ring?’

      As if on cue, my phone lit up, and Mags’ ringtone jingled out, a cute picture of her appearing on the screen as it did so.

      I flipped my hand out as if to say ‘Ta dah!’

      Rob looked confused, laughed and went back to watching the snow as I picked up my phone. Unwillingly I unwrapped myself and got up from the sofa as I answered, touching Rob’s arm as I did so, handing him the blanket and pointing to indicate he should sit there instead of folding his huge frame into the armchair. He smiled at me, and nodded, his hand brushing mine as he took the blanket.

      ‘Hi.’ I answered, walking over towards the other side of the room.

      ‘Hi?’ Mags repeated, ‘You can’t just tell me that you’re at Rob’s flat in the middle of the night and then just say “hi” when you answer the phone!’

      ‘What?’ I laughed. Apparently, Gorgeous Bus Boy had bought my friend more than one drink. She sounded positively tipsy. ‘Then how am I supposed to answer the phone?’

      ‘What happened? How come you’re there? Did you kiss him yet? Oh my God! Are you in bed? Oh! I’m so sorry! I’ll call you–’

      ‘Mags! Mags!’ I raised my voice and jumped in front of her train of thought.

      ‘What?’

      ‘What are you on? It’s Rob! Of course I haven’t kissed him and oh my God, no! We’re not in bed! Why on Earth would you think that?’

      ‘I… just thought…’

      ‘No. Definitely not. It’s not like that.’ I was doing my best to try and keep the very awkward conversation as low in volume as possible, but casually. Without it seeming like I was bothered about Rob hearing. I had a feeling I was failing miserably.

      ‘I bumped into him outside my studio, they were cancelling trains all over the place, including mine, so I ended up coming back to his place so that we could take a look at the traffic and the weather. All the roads are blocked solid. We had a microwave meal and watched a film.’ I thought I may as well tell her everything in case something came up later and she read more into it because I hadn’t mentioned it.

      ‘And now?’ she asked.

      ‘And now what?’

      She let out a sigh. ‘What. Happens. Now.’

      ‘Nothing. Happens. Now.’ I said, ‘I’m going to bed shortly.’

      A squeak of excitement came from Mags’ end of the line.

      ‘On my own.’ I clarified, but couldn’t help laughing, ‘What’s got into you tonight?’

      ‘Nothing.’ she replied. ‘It’s just that Rob is nice. Really nice. He’s been so concerned about you, and now he’s shown up on your doorstep, like a white knight–’

      ‘Oh blimey! Bus Boy really sprinkled the love dust on you tonight, didn’t he?’

      ‘He did not!’ Mags said, but there wasn’t as much indignation in her voice as I would have expected. Wow. Bus Boy really had made an impression.

      ‘Ok. Well, I’m going to go to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Hopefully the snow will have gone then and I can get home.’

      ‘Ok. Sleep well!’ Mags said, her voice indicating that she thought that sleeping should be the last thing on my mind.

      ‘You’re potty. Love you. Night night.’ I said, and pressed ‘End’.

      I walked back to the sofa, put the phone on the table and plopped back down next to Rob. He shooshed the blanket out so that it covered both of our legs. And for some reason, it didn’t feel awkward. It felt natural. I was just about to start wondering if that should worry me when Rob spoke.

      ‘Is Mags ok?’

      ‘Yep. I think Bus Boy got her a bit drunk. But yeah, she’s ok. I think she might actually really like this guy. She was acting a bit lovey-dovey.’

      Rob didn’t look at me but out of the corner of my eye, I saw him raise his eyebrows. He’d know Mags long enough to know that was an unusual state of affairs for her.

      ‘I know.’ I agreed with his silent statement.

      ‘So, she knows you’re here then.’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘She all right with that?’

      I looked at him. ‘Why wouldn’t she be?’

      ‘I don’t know. I just didn’t want her thinking that I was, I don’t know, taking advantage of you, or something.’

      A giggle burst up. ‘You’re frightened of her!’

      ‘I am not!’ Rob defended himself, ‘I’m just saying that I didn’t want her getting the wrong idea about us. About this.’

      ‘Afraid of another broken nose?’

      Rob pulled a face. ‘Somehow I don’t think Mags would be that generous.’

      He probably had a point. His nose might well be the last of his worries.

      ‘She won’t get the wrong idea, Rob. I promise. I put her straight on that.’

      He looked at me. ‘So, she did suggest something?’

      ‘Why do I suddenly feel as if I’m in the witness box?’

      He smiled at me.

      ‘You look like a shark about to attack,’ I laughed. ‘Is that what you do? Put people at ease with your easy manner and gorgeous smile before going straight for the jugular!’

      Now it was his turn to laugh. ‘You’ve been watching too much Law and Order.’

      I wobbled my head in a ‘maybe yes, maybe no’ sort of way.

      ‘And you didn’t answer my question.’

      ‘Oh my God!’ I laughed, resting my head on the back of the sofa, ‘You are not going to let this go, are you?’

      ‘I just don’t want Mags thinking I’m–’

      ‘Rob. She doesn’t. Ok? Don’t worry about it. She knows you’re just being a friend.’ I bumped against him in a gesture of reassurance. He smiled and nodded without looking at me.

      ‘Good.’ he said. ‘Yep, that’s good. Right. I’d better find you a toothbrush, hadn’t I?’ With that, he got up and headed off towards the bathroom.

      Half an hour later I was sat ready for bed in Rob’s guest room. I stood up and looked at the image in the mirror. Rob had leant me a pyjama top that was still in its packet.

      ‘I only ever wear the bottoms.’ he’d explained, handing it over to me.

      To say it was a little big was a mild understatement. Let’s just say, I probably didn’t actually need to stay in Rob’s flat – I could camp out just in this shirt. The top covered most of my thighs, the sleeves brushed my knees