Noah had his phone against his ear as he flopped back onto his bed. When Seren didn’t answer immediately he let it ring for longer than he usually would.
“Hi,” she said, her voice groggy when she finally answered.
“Sorry for waking you.”
“It’s fine. I was trying to wait for you to call. I wanted to hear about your date but I must have dozed off. What time is it?”
“Almost midnight.”
“So you didn’t bring her back to your place?”
“No.”
“Have you slept with her yet?”
“No. But I have invited her to come home with me for Mum’s birthday.” The silence unnerved him. “Okay, you clearly think that was a bad idea.”
“I’m surprised. You’ve only just met her.”
“I actually met her about eleven months ago. But I didn’t really notice her.”
“And now you’re going to bring her home to meet the family?”
“She suggested it as a joke, but then I thought it’d be fun.”
“What the hell has happened to you? Have you completely lost your mind over this woman or what?”
“How do you mean?”
“Well for a start, when a woman suggests something as a joke, that’s just her way of suggesting it without coming over too keen.”
“It wasn’t like that. She was joking. When I invited her for real she was shocked.”
“She sounds like a fantastic actress.”
He clenched his jaw. “You sound bitter and cynical. And you’d better get over that quick because you know what people will say if I bring a girl back and you’re not cool with it …”
“Oh yes. Everyone will figure out that I’m secretly in love with you. I may as well just tell you, the only reason I’m being grumpy about your new friend is because I’m insanely jealous.”
He shuffled up the bed to settle himself against the headboard. “You’re saying that as though it’s a joke, which is confusing because I recently discovered that women who joke about stuff like this probably aren’t joking at all.”
Her laughter brought a smile to Noah’s face. “I hate you,” she said.
“No, you love me.”
“That as well. Anyway, I presume you told Keira about your plans to move back here.”
“Yes. I told her.”
“I don’t actually believe it’s going to happen, but how did she take the news?”
“Okay, I think. She was surprised and didn’t seem overly happy, but she also didn’t shout at me and storm off so it wasn’t too bad. She said she needs time to think about it, and then we’ll talk again. So she might not even come with me on Friday. We talked about that first, then I realised I couldn’t really bring her home without telling her about my plans.”
“I still can’t believe you invited her here. If some guy asked me to hop on a plane to a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic after a couple of dates, I’d probably be a bit freaked out.”
“Oh, crap!” Noah sat up straighter, rubbing at his forehead.
“What’s wrong?”