the shop, behind the last customer to not alert Violet to our presence being gone.
“Spill, I haven’t got all day,” never one to mince words she’s always been to the point and dramatic, “shops don’t look after themselves and trust me, if Violet gets a whiff of my disappearance, she will be the first one to get suspicious.”
The words stuck in my throat after a deep influx of breath, I let them spill out in a rapid motion. “Okay, it’s me, the gifts and notes.” I looked straight into her eyes daring the challenge, I knew I was about to be thrown straight into the onslaught of.
“ADAM!!!! Please tell me this is not a stupid game, you will destroy . . .” as I grab her arms, I silence her by invading her boundaries.
“Just stop . . . Listen carefully, I love her, Annie, not just a little bit. I am utterly totally in love with my best friend. It’s not like I could just turn around and tell her though is it? Look at the twats in the past. Look at all the heartbreak I have helped her through. It wasn’t just her heart breaking at the time, it was mine too. All I wanted to do was to hold her, tell her my true feelings, but what would she say to me? All I could see was the harsh reality of rejection followed by the ‘Oh, Adam you feel sorry for me?’ The risk of losing her friendship. Nope, I couldn’t take the chance as the feelings grew and when she said love was no more and that lust was the way forward for her, I couldn’t leave it and risk it. I needed to do something.” Annie’s eyes glistened with emotion. “You are doing a declaration to Valentine’s aren’t you?” She said as she kept her eyes on me. The nod of my head is all the confirmation she needed as her tears rolled. “Let me help, Adam.”
With time passing by I notice Violet back in the shop on our return, with Annie’s red eyes and my arm around her shoulder, her suspicious glare was apparent but no words were spoken about the fact we had both disappeared. With a plan in place of how to keep Violet busy tonight and Annie sworn to secrecy due to the name of love, everything would be fine.
Chapter Nine
Violet
The buzzer on the door decided to alert my presence today, alongside my constantly ringing phone. As I reach across nearly knocking it on the floor off the bedside cabinet six miscalls flash across the screen so far from Annie, unusual, as I scroll down to her name to return the call still half asleep, it starts ringing again. “This better be good, seriously,” she answers the call the chirpy happy voice echoes.
“Morning, Vi, I have a skinny sugar free latte here with your name on it, let me up.”
Hmmmmm, Annie knows exactly what I need, the skinny stuff to keep my figure intact. “Is it large?”
The chuckle from her radiates through the phone. “Why do you like small now? Of course, it’s large, nothing else would do, would it?”
That bloody girl I mean it I employ her, but still, we have a great bond together, the friendship grew as she knocked down my walls but this sweet attitude is firing giant alarm bells in multiple directions as I know something is going on. It’s just finding out what it is, hopefully the caffeine gives the perk my body craves to try and unravel it a bit. I know she won’t tell me to my face, but I have other means to find out for certain, those secret hidden spots could come in handy. As the door knocks and I just about manage to have put my dressing gown on. “Get comfy and let me get some clothes on,” I say as I grab the coffee, and leave Annie to her whistles and humming.
Annie high marched me this morning to the shop in a double pace, with a swing in her step she could have competed for a ballroom dance show, she was bursting with some sort of excitement as she demands my keys to ‘The Posy Bowl’. With a guttural loss, I tried to hide from my expression it was now three days since Adam had been here later than I have. In itself it was an unusual situation so maybe a conversation to discuss with him in case something was