Page 36 of The Best Ex of My Life

‘Hi!’ I say far too brightly, like he wasn’t here a few minutes ago.

‘No worries, mate,’ Jordan says easily beside me.

‘I was just—’ Instead of finishing his sentence, Elliot steps forward and opens the fridge, getting out a bottle of wine, presumably to top up Teddy and Karina, who are still waiting for a drink. He holds his bottle out, proof of why he came in, before scarpering out as quickly as he can, but not before I catch the expression on his face. Eyebrows furrowed, eyes intense, his lips pressed tight together. It’s the look he gets when he sees one of his pupils struggling, or when I’ve opened up in the past about my dwindling relationship with Dad since he and Mum got divorced. It’s his troubled look.

The second the door is shut, Jordan turns back to me, his brown eyes a shade darker than usual, and pulls me back to him.

‘Now, where were we?’

I pull away. The moment has gone, and suddenly all the things I still need to do have come crashing back into my mind, along with the fuzziness from the sherry.

‘I was just about to crack on with a very late service,’ I joke. ‘Sorry, I need to get this done. There’s just so much to do.’

Chapter 15

‘Can I please just have one bloody minute to myself,?’ I shout to whoever has just opened the kitchen door.

It’s already half nine, no one has eaten, my generous booze supply has almost dwindled, we’re all half pissed – or more – and it’s because every time I go to do something, someone interrupts either wanting to talk to me or kiss me or get me back into the lounge so I’m not shut away, not realising the only chance any of us has of eating anything tonight is if I’m left to it so I can try and sober up and put something – anything – remotely edible on a plate.

‘I’m sorry. I’ll go.’

I turn to find Matthew, sheepishly backing away and hold up my hands.

‘No, no, sorry, no. Don’t. You can stay,’ I say, guiltily. ‘As long as you promise not to get me to drink anything else for the next twenty minutes so I can finish my starters.’

‘I can do that. Now, what can I do to help?’

‘Nothing at all,’ I say. ‘It’s just so lovely to finally meet you. Karina’s told me so much about you.’ It’s true. A little of my stress dissipates when I remember that, how meeting and getting to know Matthew better is one thing I have been looking forward to tonight.

‘Likewise. I don’t want to alarm you, but Karina talks so much about you and Teddy, I feel like I already know you.’ There’s so much kindness in his eyes, so much warmth in his voice, I’m in no doubt he means it as a huge compliment. I take it as such and understand why Karina likes Matthew as much as she does.

‘God, I can only imagine what you’ve heard.’

‘Only good things, I promise. I love how much she cares about her friends,’ he says, blushing suddenly and ferociously when he realises he’s dropped love into a conversation about a woman he’s only been dating for weeks. To her best mate. Well, that makes two of them. It’s only a matter of time before they say it to each other.

‘I hear things are going well between you,’ I say, helping him push past it.

‘Yeah. She’s pretty special, isn’t she?’ His blush becomes a beam. Him lighting up like this about Karina is so sweet, I could reach over and hug him. This is exactly what she deserves. Everything in Karina’s life might look perfect from the outside, and the men she dates often see her as just that, but Teddy and I know how much insecurity she has over her relationships, how hard she finds it to believe that someone will really love her after what happened when she was left heartbroken at eighteen by the boy she thought she’d be with forever.

‘She sure is,’ I tell him, managing to keep my hands to myself so I don’t freak him out.

‘Who is what?’ Karina says, opening the kitchen door.

‘Nobody. Nothing,’ I say.

‘No one you’d know,’ he says, grinning at her. He doesn’t continue to gush about her like I imagine some of her other boyfriends would have, he doesn’t go over and put his arm round her or kiss her. He moves back, out of the way so Karina can come and stand next to me and offer a sympathetic squeeze to my shoulder when she takes in the chaos around her.

‘Shit,’ she says. ‘What can we do?’

I should tell them to get back to the lounge, that all is in hand, but Karina offering to help is different from Jordan asking to help. Karina knows her way round my kitchen, and I reckon Matthew, as a builder, will have skills that will come in handy.

‘Can you help me assemble the starters?’

‘Wahey. About bloody time too,’ Teddy shouts when the three of us walk out of the kitchen with plates in our hands forty minutes later.

‘Seats, everyone,’ Karina says.

We squeeze in together. Jordan has made a beeline for Teddy, who he seems quite taken with. We’re all going to be so close to each other round this table, who we sit next to really doesn’t matter. There are going to be knees and elbows touching from all directions. I decide to sit next to Jordan on his other side. He’s doing such a good job tonight of fitting in with my friends, of striking up conversation with Elliot and Matthew, that I’m sure he doesn’t need me, but he still pats my knee when I sit down and keeps it there while his body stays turned away from me, so he can listen to one of Teddy’s work anecdotes. This one is about her showing a house to a family of four that turned out to be a weed farm.