I did feel a little on the back foot as I looked around and wondered who else knew who I was and where I worked and lived.
‘Sorry,’ I heard Finn saying huffily as I inched my way through the bar and over to the table everyone else was squeezed around, ‘but there’s nothing I can do about him.’
‘No,’ said Poppy’s partner, Jacob, sounding equally miffed, ‘I don’t suppose there is.’
‘You can perch on here with me if you like,’ Chloe said to me, shifting half off the bench she was already on the edge of.
‘No,’ I said, ‘you’re all right. I don’t mind standing.’
I did really because my legs were aching even more after the walk into the city and back, but I wasn’t planning on it being long before I made my excuses and left.
‘I would offer you my seat,’ said Finn, ‘but if I stand up, there’ll be even less room.’
He had a point.
‘I really am fine here,’ I told him, ‘but thanks.’
It was weird standing next to him when he was sitting down. His face was far too close to mine and the heat from the fire was warming up that intoxicating aftershave he wore.
‘Anyway,’ he said, turning his attention back to Jacob, ‘you won’t have to worry about him hanging about for too much longer because there can’t be much left for him to do and now I’m living on site, I’ve told Luke that I’m happy to see to anything that comes up.’
‘I’m not worried as such,’ said Jacob. ‘It’s just he always seems to hone in on Poppy.’
‘I wish you wouldn’t keep on about it,’ she laughed. ‘I’m perfectly capable of handling him and it’s all bravado anyway. He’d run a mile if I gave him back as good as he gives me.’
‘Well, let’s not test that theory,’ Jacob shot back.
‘And it’s not just Poppy,’ Finn carried on. ‘He met Freya on Monday and she got the same treatment, didn’t you?’
Everyone’s eyes turned to me.
‘Met who?’ I queried. ‘And got what treatment?’
‘Zak,’ Finn elaborated. ‘He came on to you in Luke’s office, didn’t he?’
‘Actually, no,’ I said, ‘that wasn’t me.’
I didn’t want to further fuel Jacob’s concerns about Zak flirting with Poppy, but I didn’t want anyone thinking that I’d been bewitched by his muscly charms.
‘I heard you,’ Finn said, turning slightly red, ‘you were having a bit of banter with him in Luke’s office, but to be fair you did sound as if you were—’
‘That wasn’t me, it was Poppy,’ I cut in, ruffled that he had jumped to a conclusion and the wrong one at that. ‘Sorry, Poppy.’
Jacob’s gaze swung back to his girlfriend and Finn looked up at me.
‘Oh,’ he said, ‘I just thought…’
‘I know what you thought,’ I told him, ‘but I wouldn’t have talked to him like that. He’s not my type. I’m not interested in egocentric muscle-bound idiots.’
Finn’s face split into a sudden smile.
‘That’s the best description of him I’ve ever heard.’
‘Well,’ I said, trying not to notice how attractively Finn’s eyes crinkled when he smiled, ‘that’s as maybe, but don’t tell him that’s what I said, will you?’
‘I won’t,’ he chuckled.
‘So,’ said Chloe, looking mischievous, ‘what is your type then, Freya?’
I shook my head and refused to answer.
‘Did you tell Zak where to go?’ Jacob asked Poppy.
‘Of course, I did, you loon,’ she laughed.
They kissed and made up and everyone finished their drinks before getting ready to head home.
‘I need to get back too,’ I said, draining my glass. ‘Nell will be wondering where I’ve got to.’
‘No, she won’t,’ said Poppy. ‘She’ll be having a great time with Gus. There’s no need for you to rush back. I’m only going because I want to make sure Ryan’s all tucked up. He’s got a college trip tomorrow and has to leave early.’
‘You should stay and have a drink with, Finn,’ Chloe whispered as she buttoned up her coat and pulled on her woolly hat.
I thought that was a strange suggestion, coming from her. If anything, I thought she would be the one hanging on to bag some extra alone time with him, because not only had they walked back from the city centre arm in arm, they had been squeezed next to each other in the pub too.
‘What about you?’ I asked her. ‘You could stay.’
She shook her head.
‘I’m walking back with Hannah,’ she said, pointing over to where the young woman who had served me earlier was getting ready to go. ‘We live on the same street,