Styling Wellywood: A fashionable romantic comedy (Wellywood Series Book 2) (32 page)

Once inside he looks around the
apartment in about a nanosecond, declaring that it’s a great place. I’m fairly confident in my assessment that checking out my new apartment isn’t why he’s here.

Nothing gets past
me, I tell you.

He
then produces a bottle of pinot noir from seemingly thin air, offering me a glass as he ferrets through my kitchen cupboards looking for wine glasses.

With
help from me locating them we finally sit on my sofa and he raises his glass.

“
Cheers, Jess. Here’s to old friends.”

What is the man trying to
do? Since my declaration of love he’s avoided me like the plague and now he wants to celebrate our ‘old friends’ status? This is hardly in good taste.

Feeling increasingly bewildered I clink my gl
ass, repeating, “To old friends,” and sit as calmly as I can, waiting for him to clarify this odd and unexpected need to see me.

After a mom
ent or two of silence he finally speaks. “So you’re probably wondering what I’m doing here.”

Bingo!

“You could say that,” I reply.

He turns to face me.
“I haven’t been entirely truthful with you.”

“
Oh?” He’s aroused my interest now. Mr. Perfect’s slipped up. What can this all be about?

“
That kiss,” he begins, looking at me intently.

I’m suddenly aware of how closely we’re sitting on my sofa
and I catch my breath.

“
The one in London you mentioned a while back? We were waiting on the side of the street in Mayfair for a cab together after a night out. And it was incredible. Jess, I’ve thought about our kiss so many times.”

I don’t want to move an inch in my seat in case I’m imagining
this.
“Go on!”
I feel like screaming as a knot the size of Texas grows in my stomach.

My heart racing
I smile back at him, attempting at least an outward appearance of calm, while inside I’m doing cartwheels of sheer joy.

“
It was Park Lane, after a night out at Nobu,” I add.

It was a great kiss. One of the all time great kisses, in fact.

“Why exactly are you telling me this?” I question, narrowing my gaze at him in suspicion.

I’m not going to get myself involved in another love triangle, even if the prize is Ben Pearson
this time.

But all he does is laugh
lightly in response, which infuriates me.

“
Ben, why are you here?” I ask with a definite edge in my voice.

I hold my breath as his face rapidly
becomes more serious.

“
Because, Jess, I feel it too. And I’ve felt it for a long, long time. Way before we kissed, actually.”

Not
daring to comprehend his meaning I tentatively ask, “Feel what, exactly?” as I look at him sheepishly through my eyelashes, not daring to believe what he’s suggesting.

“
Jess, you have to have known that I’ve been in love with you for bloody years.”

“
You have?” I yelp, my eyes widening into dinner plates.

I risk
a little shake of my head in order to reluctantly wake myself from this extraordinary dream, a dream I’ve had for far too long for any self-respecting single twenty-something.

He laughs at me,
doubtlessly because I look like a cat trying frantically to shake one of those cones off it’s head, and then moves himself closer to me so we’re sitting on my sofa like a couple of sardines in a can.

The feel of his body is unexpected and extremely
arousing, but I’m too busy processing what he’s telling me to enjoy it.

“
But…” I start.

He turns towards me so that we’re sitting face to face.

“Look, I don’t know what else to say. I love you, Jess. I’ve loved you for a long time. That’s all there is to it.”

Confused, I
protest, “But you’re going out with Jia. You go on dates with her, you’re the perfect lawyer couple doing perfect lawyer-y things. You spent
Christmas
with her and her family.”

“
All over. I wanted to make it work, but after you told me how you felt about me I couldn’t get you out of my head. I gave Jia and me my best shot, but it just wasn’t right. I even hear she’s started seeing someone new.”

He shrugs as if to say he could really care less about what she does, and I have to work hard to suppress the urge to hurl myself into his arms
because before I do anything of the sort I’ve got a bit of a bone to pick with him.

It
had just dawned on me he’d put me through absolute, unnecessary hell since the night I confessed all, so I don’t hold back as I reach over and slap him on the arm in a slightly harder manner than could strictly be considered playful.

“
Ouch! What’s that for?” he complains, rubbing his arm.

“
For making me think you wanted nothing to do with me after I told you how I felt. It took a lot of courage, you know.”

He bows his head.
“I know, it was shitty and I’m sorry. I was just trying to do the right thing.”

Even though I’m infuriated
his idea of “the right thing” was to stay in a relationship with Jia and not come flying into my arms, I respect his sense of duty and integrity. He manned up, even if it meant I had to unwittingly wait in the wings.

“
I get it. That’s not to say I like it, though.” I push him playfully this time, and he doesn’t even flinch.

“
Sorry,” I say, referring to his arm, “but you deserved it.”

“
I guess I did,” he smirks at me and I smirk back. “But I did also think you’d gone back to that arsehole Scott.”

I cringe at the memory.
“It was a moment of weakness. I’d actually just realised how I felt about you, and you and Jia being all lovey-dovey got into my head.”

“
Sorry about that. Laura put me straight, you know. Told me you’d never go back to Scott.”

I smile, thinking how Laura had defended my honour.

“So what took you so long?” I ask. “I mean, if you say you’ve loved me for ages, why didn’t you just tell me?”

“
I had to wait until you were ready. Think about it, Jess. You always went for the flash harry guy. Luke, Scott. Even as a guy I can see what women liked about guys like them, but they were also completely self-absorbed arseholes.”

“
Don’t hold back there, cowboy,” I laugh, my minor feeling of affront at his disdain for my previous choice in boyfriends completely eclipsed by his obvious concern for me.

“
Ever heard the expression ‘arsehole magnet’?” he asks.

I nod
, cringing slightly at the brash term.

“
Well, that’s what you were, Jess. Sorry to say. You seemed to attract men who’d treat you badly, do the dirty on you. I’m not that guy.”

“
I know you’re not,” I reply, thinking about what he’s saying.

I guess he’s right. It’s so obvious to me now Scott was keeping me a secret, but I chose not to think about it. I was dazzled by his good looks, sexiness and charm, much as I was by Luke and probably others before him. I realise with a spreading sense of calm I don’t have any interest in men like
them any more.

Wow, Jess, you’ve finally grown up.

Neither of us says anything for a while, both deep in thought, until Ben finally breaks the silence.

“
Put me out of my suspense, will you, for god’s sake?” he pleads.

“
What do you mean?”

“
I mean,” he says as he pulls me closer to him, putting his hands on my shoulders, “what do you say? About us?”

My face
breaks into a smile and my whole body begins to melt at his touch.

How could I turn this man down? Su
re, I hadn’t always loved him. In fact I used to think despite his obvious cuteness he was a bit too straight and boring for me – well, he
is
a lawyer. How many exciting lawyers do you know? See, told you - plus he always went for total highflying, stunning women in a league far, far above me. It would never have occurred to me that he was in love with me all this time.

No wonder Amber and
Jia hated me, I think with a little smile - they obviously knew how he felt about me while I remained entirely oblivious.

But looking into his eyes now a
s we sit in my dimly lit living room I can’t imagine not loving him. He’s warm, kind, loyal, and the best mate a girl could have.

He’s
it for me. End of story.

“
I say, abso-bloody-lutely,” I reply, making him smile equally broadly.

We both lean in towards one another instinctively, and as our lips touch
all the fantasies, hopes and expectations I had about one day kissing him again come to life and I feel like I might melt right into his arms.

Together at last.
Beautiful.

Wellington’s pulled a magnificent day out of the hat for the first day of the Rugby Sevens Tournament. We’ve been vaguely aware of various brightly coloured teams playing seven-a-side rugby on the field in front of us as we dance, sing and laugh in the stands. People are dressed in completely amazing costumes, from Sesame Street characters to superheroes, to pirates and fairy tale characters.

The stadium has an incredible buzz, with everyone determine
d to have an amazing time on a beautiful, sunny afternoon.

I’m dressed in my Princess Leia costume, pigtail buns and all, chatting to Laura.

“You look fantastic, Jess, what are you worried about?” she asks as she sways from side to side to the music.

She and Kyle
are indeed dressed as girl and boy matching Darth Vadars, and even though they’re great friends of mine and I love them both, they do look a little more at the naff end of the spectrum than the end I imagine they were aiming for. Still, they’re having fun, and that’s what counts.

“
It’s just I hadn’t imagined it’d be quite so short. It wasn’t in the movie,” I reply, self-consciously tugging at the bottom of the white dress.

“
Jess, it’s from www.sexyourselfupcostumes.com. What did you expect?” she laughs. “You look totally hot.”

“Yeah, you sure do.”

I turn around and see Ben standing in front of
me, holding a large drinks tray, spilling over with beers and chips. He’s wearing his Han Solo costume, which has the potential to look ludicrously try-hard on most other guys, but he pulls it off perfectly.

So much so in fact
I feel like taking him home right now and repeating some of the unspeakable things we did to one another this morning in my flat all over again.

“
Not so bad yourself, Mr. Solo,” I comment, causing him to almost drop the tray of beer and chips as I give his taut butt a cheeky squeeze.

We’ve been together for a few weeks now and it’s even better than I’d imagined. At first we were both a little shy of one another, despite wanting to rip each other’s clothes off
all the time, making the transition from friends to lovers. But any feelings of bashfulness are now long gone and I feel on top of the world.

“
Hey you two! None of that carry on, thank you.” Laura laughs.

Ben passes the tray down the row
to our group of friends so everyone has a drink in hand. After a while I notice Laura hasn’t drunk any of hers, despite appearing to sip it.

“
Come on, Laura,” I shout over the music. “It might not be a race but you need to actually
drink
the beer. It’s the law of the Sevens, you know.”

She looks at me with a barely suppressed smile and the seed of a thought begins to grow in my head, and then suddenly hits me
between the eyes.

“
You’re
pregnant
?” I squeak.

“
Shhh,” she replies immediately, looking around to see if anyone else has heard my outburst. Satisfied her secret is safe, she turns back to face me, leaning in conspiratorially. “Yes. Just found out yesterday.”

Her excitement is palpable and I’m so thrilled for her.

“Laura, that’s fantastic! Congratulations.”

I hug her as well as I can, considering our costume restrict
ions, the beers in our hands, and the small fact that we’re standing in a stadium with tens of thousands of other people, all dressed in outlandish costumes.

“
I’m only eight weeks, so we need to keep it hushed up, you know, before the first scan. But Jess, I’m so happy. And more than a little nauseous.”

“
Laura, that’s awesome. About the baby thing, not the nausea.”

I’m so pleased for her and Kyle. Although I’d
prefer to have hot daggers poked in my eyes than have another baby on top of twins, they really want this.

“
I told Morgs when she and I Skyped last night. I couldn’t hold it in,” she says.

“
I bet. So where are they now? I haven’t heard from her for a week or so.”

Morgan and
Pabla have been on their world tour for nearly two months now and are having an incredible time, by all accounts. She’d been welcomed with open arms by Pabla’s family, which was great as she’d been a bit worried about it. But it seems all is good in lesbian paradise.

“
They’re in Nepal,” Laura begins. “They’re about to trek the Annapurna circuit. Having an awesome time, she said. They’re now talking about coming back to New Zealand to get married.”

“
Wonder if we’ll be bridesmaids?” I joke, imagining any wedding Morgan features in would be far too chic to involve anything as commonplace as bridesmaids.

“
Doubt it! Speaking of weddings, how’s Cynthia’s planning coming along? Managed to reign in those froufrou tendencies of hers?”

“
That woman is a force to be reckoned with, I tell you. She’s insisting on the doves, the big white dress. As if she’s fooling anyone - that particular ship clearly sailed a long time ago. Still, it’s her day and I don’t begrudge her it.”

“
And what about
your
dress? As scary as first thought?” she asks.

“
Even worse! I’m going to look like a child of three designed my dress after watching too many Disney princess cartoons. So not cool.” I shake my head, smiling, as I think about the dress Mum insists on me wearing.

When
it was once all important to look as good as possible, now I find I don’t care quite so much, knowing whatever I wear Ben will quite happily rip it off me when we’re alone.

Laura laughs.
“Hey, I never said how totally awesome I think it is you and Ben finally got it together.”

“
Yeah, it is, isn’t it? We should’ve done it years ago.”

“
Well, what matters is you’re together now. I’m really happy for you, Jess. For both of you.”

Just then Ben slides his arms around my waist from behind, spinning me around so we’re face to face.

“You talking about me?” he asks, pulling me close.

“
Of course,” I reply.

I can feel the full length of his body pressed against mine
, and a sudden shot of electricity courses through me.

I can’t imagine ever getting tired of this
and can’t help myself running off a list of all the fantastic things I have in my life.

1. A
   successful burgeoning business in a glamorous field?: check
   
2. H
   ot, funny, clever, wonderful boyfriend who adores me?: check
   
3. A
   wesome life-long friends who’ve totally got my back, no matter how things go?: check
   

Yep, life’s pretty bloody good for Jess
Banks in Wellywood.

I lean in to kiss
Ben as Kyle and the others let out a sudden, raucous cheer. Not caring whether it’s at Ben’s and my public display of affection or the rugby match being played on the field in front of us, I kiss him full on the lips, thinking how fantastic it is to be here, with Ben, in the city I love.

THE END