Page 19 of Never Date a Celebrity

“Immy?” Piper fixed her with a pointed stare.

Imogen looked over to Niamh for some moral support, but she was watching her with an expectant look on her face too. She sighed. “Fine. A woman came into the pub, and we talked for a while. It’s not a big deal.”

“One Pint Willy seemed to think it was a big deal,” Piper said. “Mutual interest he said. Right, Niamh?”

“That’s right. I think we need to hear more about this whole mutual interest part.”

Imogen was going to have to spill the beans eventually, so what was the point in stalling? She was a goner whenever they both ganged up on her. She shrugged. “She was nice. We laughed over my inexperience of pouring Guinness pints. Discussed village life. That sort of thing.”

“Who was she?” Niamh asked. “Can’t have been local if Willy didn’t recognise her.”

“And, more importantly, was she attractive?” Piper added.

Imogen tried to play it cool. “Her name is Amy. Actually, she’s part of the crew for that film you pair are obsessed with. Some sort of editor or something I think.” Piper and Niamh looked at each other wide-eyed—unsurprisingly impressed.

“And you didn’t tell us about this the second we got back here because why?” Piper asked.

“I mean it’s not like it was Bridget fucking Clemonte,” Imogen said, deflecting.

Piper relented and smiled. “Touché. But this might be even more interesting than that. You haven’t had any mystery woman encounters in forever.”

“No. I leave those to you,” Imogen said, knowing that Piper would never take offence. There was nothing Piper enjoyed more than flirting with women. She smiled proudly like she agreed that it was her role in life.

“You still haven’t told us if you found this Amy attractive or not,” Niamh reminded her.

“Intentionally haven’t told you,” Imogen corrected her.

Piper gasped. “Which totally means that you did. Did you hear that, Niamh? Immy was chatting up attractive women right here in our wee bar while we were gone.”

Imogen couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s true, I sort of was.” Maybe chatting up was a bit of a stretch, but there had been some kind of energy zipping and zapping between Amy and her throughout their conversation.

“Unbelievable. We leave you alone for one afternoon.” Niamh leaned back on the counter on her elbows. “Tell us more. Was there eye contact?”

Imogen nodded. “Lots of that. Locked and loaded.”

Piper fanned herself. “How about little touches? I love little touches.”

Imogen thought back to Amy’s hand on her arm and she could almost feel the warmth of the touch again. “Yes. Those happened too.”

“Compliments?” Niamh asked.

“You won’t believe it, but…” She held a hand to her chest. “It was me. I was the compliment initiator.”

Piper looked like someone had just handed her a hundred quid. “You were? Immy still has game. What did you compliment?”

“Her eyes.”

Piper nodded her approval. “Always a good one. Who doesn’t love a nice pair of eyes? Did she compliment yours back? You have great eyes. Expressive.”

“She did, yeah.” It had been kind of adorable when Amy had gotten all flustered. Imogen hadn’t expected that. “And she also said I was interesting.”

“Ugh,” Niamh said. “Interesting is such an underrated compliment. What girl doesn’t dream of being called interesting?”

Piper hummed her agreement. “Or smart. Smart can be a real charmer.”

“Well, I don’t know if it counts as smart, but she did say that my Guinness was really good.”

“Oh? No bumps today?” Niamh sounded surprised. Pleasantly so.