Page 97 of All Yours

He said the only thing he could think to say.

‘Hi.’

She exhaled slowly and a reluctant smile touched her lips.

‘Hi,’ she replied.

Fox grinned. He couldn’t help it. Whatever she’d done to him, she still melted him with a single smile. Even if his head knew that she was now with Finn, and going to Botswana with him, and their time together had meant nothing at all, it didn’t seem to matter to his heart. Not in the slightest. He was still crazy about her.

The music changed, and the band started playing ‘White Christmas’. He held out a tentative hand and only relaxed when she took it, and he led her on to the dance floor. The smell of her vanilla perfume filled his senses as he took her in his arms, right in the middle of the crowded room, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

She fit perfectly against him, like the missing piece to his puzzle. He forced himself to hold her gently, while desperately wanting to crush her to him. Robyn placed a hand on his chest, right by his heart, and he took her other hand in his. That bit of contact was enough, it seemed, to bring their two separate entities together. They moved slowly to the music, falling into step. He stared down into her masked face, glad of his own mask suddenly, thinking his face might betray him. He wanted to bury his face in her hair and breathe her in, but he held himself back.

‘Having a good night?’

She tilted her chin at him and he was horrified to see her lip start to tremble.

‘Not really.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ Fox hesitated, and then, as though pressing on a bruise, asked, ‘Could Finn not make it?’

A flash of surprise passed over her face and then Robyn frowned.

‘Finn?’ she asked. ‘What’s Finn got to do with anything?’

Now they were both confused.

‘I thought you and Finn . . .’ he said. ‘I thought you got back together?’

‘Why would you think that?’ Robyn stopped swaying, eyes searching his face.

‘You said it had gone better than you expected . . .’ he tried lamely.

‘Better, because I finally realised he was just not the right one for me. And in fact, instead of thinking him standing me up at the church was a bad thing that happened, I decided maybe it was the universe looking after me all along. It was saving me from a huge mistake.’

Fox shook his head, trying to get his intoxicated thoughts to keep up.

‘But I saw you out together, in town. You looked like a little family.’ Fox heard the hurt in his own voice. She thought for a moment.

‘That must’ve been when I was walking him to the train station,’ she said slowly. ‘To see him off. It felt like the right thing to do, because I probably won’t ever see him again.’

Her words burned through him like fire.

‘We’re not part of each other’s lives any more. I shouldn’t really have let him affect me for so long. It was just a final goodbye.’

Finn was gone. In fact, it sounded like he was never back in the first place. Fox had jumped to conclusions. Although it didn’t really change anything if Robyn still felt nothing for Fox himself, somehow it made him feel better that she hadn’t gone back to that man with the perfect beard. He pulled her to him again, gently, and resumed their dance, his thoughts spinning. Eventually he asked again.

‘So, I don’t understand then, why aren’t you having a good night?’

She sighed in what sounded like exasperation and when she looked at him, her eyes burned into his and he could see the shine of her unshed tears.

‘Because of you, Fox,’ she said, her voice shaking with emotion.

‘What?’ he asked, astounded. ‘Why?’

‘Because you dropped me like a stone, and I miss you.’

Fox was suddenly completely sober. He had hurt her. He blinked, suddenly wanting to rip the mask from his face, to show her how he truly felt. How he missed her so much that he thought about her twenty-four hours a day.