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Alex held up his hand. ‘In a minute.’
Helen sighed. ‘You’ve got to go. I need to get dressed.’
Alex was still in bed, covered by the duvet. He ran a hand over his torso, and down to his hips. No top, but he was still wearing the weird tight things that went with his Robin Hood costume. That was something. ‘I think we should talk about last night.’
‘I don’t.’ Helen stood up. ‘We have to get ready for the wedding. Maybe we could agree never to talk about last night.’
She dragged the duvet off him. ‘Hey! I could have been naked under there.’
Helen screwed her eyes up, and wedged her fingers in her ears. ‘Seriously, never even say that.’
Alex hauled himself out of bed and found the T-shirt that went under his costume on the floor. Could he walk back to his room in T-shirt and tights? Would that be better or worse than the full costume? ‘Helen?’ She was still ignoring him. He raised his voice ‘Helen!’
She took one finger out of her ear. ‘You’re not going to talk about being naked any more, are you?’
‘No. Promise.’ He waited for her to open her eyes and free up the other ear. ‘What are we going to do though?’
‘About what?’
He shrugged. ‘About everything.’
Helen glanced at the clock. ‘We’re going to worry about it later.’
There was a lump forming in Alex’s throat. There was one thing he did need to clear up right now. ‘We’re okay though, aren’t we? I’ve not messed that up?’
Helen shook her head. ‘Of course not. You’re stuck with me. We’re practically family.’
His stomach clenched. ‘Don’t say that. It makes last night even weirder.’
‘It’s true though isn’t it?’
Alex screwed up his face.
‘Well not exactly family, but there’s no fire is there?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s no heat between us. I love you. It probably would be easier if there was something like that between us, but ...’ She tailed off.
Alex nodded. ‘No passion.’
‘Not a jot. So shall we just agree? No talking about ...’ She mouthed the words too horrendous to say out loud. ‘... the kiss ever again.’
That sounded like a decent plan. Alex stood up and held his hand out towards her. She shook it. ‘Deal?’
‘Deal.’
That was one thing solved, but flickers of the true horrendousness kept jumping into Alex’s brain. Emily’s engagement ring. Dominic and Helen. The sword fight. Oh god. The sword fight. ‘What about everything else though?’
Helen shrugged. She looked defeated. ‘I don’t think we can fix everything else.’
Alex placed one hand on each of her shoulders. ‘Then let’s focus on what we can fix. You’re right. Let’s get clean and dressed and get this wedding over with. You’ve still got a job to get. We might be destined to leave here every bit as sad and lonely as when we arrived, so let’s at least see if one of us can get some career progression out of the whole debacle.’
Helen nodded. ‘It’s a plan.’
Alex smiled. It wasn’t really a plan, but it had made one of them smile, and right now it was the best he could come up with.