Rome let himself into the shop later that night, walked to the back and up the stairs to Freya’s flat. He knocked on the door and then let himself in.

‘Freya!’ Rome called, making his presence known in case she suddenly decided to walk out the bathroom naked.

‘Be right out,’ Freya called from the bedroom.

He moved to the window and looked out at the little cobbled street. The sun was just setting and some of the houses on the hills beyond already had their lights on.

He put his hands in his pockets and let out a deep breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding.

He was nervous. He had no idea what he was going to say to her and whether he was going to say anything at all. But he knew if he did he had to get it right. This was too important to screw up. Freya was too important.

‘I’m ready.’

Rome turned and burst out laughing. Freya had done her eyes so they sparkled with an electric blue eyeshadow and that gorgeous feline flick of eyeliner. Her shoes matched her eyes and that streak in her hair exactly, but the thing that had made him laugh was she was dressed head to toe in a wheelie bin bag. God, she made him so happy.

Freya did a little spin for him. ‘Do you like it? You did say I could wear a bin bag tonight.’

‘You look amazing.’

‘You’d be happy to take me to the restaurant like this?’

He stepped closer. ‘Of course, although I’m rather interested to see what exactly you have on underneath.’

She smirked at him. ‘Why don’t you find out?’

Intrigued by the challenge, he moved his hand to her shoulder and tore through the plastic, expecting to find the shoulder strap of a dress, but all he found was bare shoulder. Even though that was the only part of her body that had been revealed, it was suddenly hot as hell. He swallowed and repeated the action on the other shoulder, again revealing bare skin. He glanced into her eyes and they were alight with amusement. He returned his attention back to her bare shoulder, resisting the overwhelming urge to bend his head and kiss it. What if she was completely naked under this dress? What would he do if he ripped off the rest of the bin bag and she was wearing nothing but those wonderful sparkly blue high heels? Actually, he knew what would happen if he found her naked under this bin bag: what little restraint he had would snap and he’d end up kissing her, pinning her to the nearest hard surface and not stopping unless she told him to. Suddenly he wanted that more than anything but a night of sex would change everything between them and he wasn’t sure he was ready for that change.

He slid his fingers into the collar, caressing only bare skin on the other side, and he felt the tension crackle in the air between them. All humour had gone from her eyes now and he got the feeling she was suddenly regretting this little joke. Without taking his eyes from hers, he slowly tore at the collar, ripping it open straight down her middle. As the bin bag fell away, he glanced down and was equally relieved and disappointed to see that she was wearing a silver strapless dress that sparkled with blue sequins around the top.

‘Is this better?’

He took a step back so he could admire the dress properly and swallowed. He had never seen her look so pretty before, as she spent every day in jeans. He’d seen her wear dresses previously, but this was something else. The desire to kiss her hadn’t faded at all. ‘You look incredible.’

Her face lit up. ‘Thank you.’

‘Who knew you were hiding those wonderful legs under those jeans and I’ve never seen you wear a pair of heels before.’

‘That’s because I never do. I probably won’t even be able to walk in them.’

He offered out the crook of his arm. ‘Well if you need to lean on me, feel free.’

She grinned at him. ‘I might just take you up on that offer.’

She picked up her tiny blue bag and her jacket which she slung over her arm and then he followed her down the stairs and out onto the street. He offered her his arm again and this time she took it, tucking her hand into his elbow and leaning into him as they walked along the street.

Suddenly he wasn’t nervous about what the night would hold or what he would say. He was with his best friend and it couldn’t get more perfect than that.

* * *

Freya was practically trembling by the time they got to the restaurant. She’d worn the bin bag as a joke to try to lift her nerves more than anything but that whole moment when Rome had been tearing it off her was so freaking hot. It made her think about him tearing off the rest of her clothes. And then walking arm in arm to the restaurant as if they were a proper couple. Rome had booked a table by the window overlooking Buttercup Beach and the sun was setting into the sea, leaving trails of pink and gold across the sky. It was all incredibly romantic. And she was sitting opposite her best friend and with any luck he was going to tell her he was in love with her.

She looked down at the menu, barely seeing the words, and when the waitress came to take their order Freya ended up ordering the first thing she laid her eyes on. She would probably be too nervous to eat anything anyway.

The waitress left and Freya smiled across the table at Rome. It was awkward, neither of them knowing what to say. It had never been like this before. Was he nervous too? The waitress returned and opened a bottle of champagne, pouring it out into two flutes and then discreetly leaving.

‘Champagne?’

‘I felt like we needed to celebrate,’ Rome said, sliding a square black box across the table towards her. ‘I made you something.’

Oh god, her heart was pounding so fast she felt sure that Rome would hear it. Was he really going to propose? This was crazy but she knew if he did she would say yes. She had been in love with this man for two long years, of course she would say yes.

With trembling fingers she lifted the lid and stared down at the pale pink glass orchid brooch that glittered in the candlelight. At the centre was the opal that Rome had clearly taken from the ring. Disappointment hit her in a great wave but she quickly pushed it away. The brooch was beautiful and he had made it with her in mind. Of course he wasn’t going to propose. They hadn’t kissed, never gone out on a date and he had lost the woman he loved and never been in a proper relationship since. He would want to take things slowly.

‘This is stunning, thank you,’ Freya said, hoping that he couldn’t hear the disappointment in her voice.

‘I know you love orchids.’

‘I do, thank you.’

‘Freya, I have something important I want to talk to you about.’

Freya looked up at him and he was smiling at her.

‘Two years ago you came to work for me and you’ve turned my business around. Sales are up nearly four hundred percent, I have never been so busy. You created a stunning website, handle all my social media, I owe you so much. Because of you Through the Looking Glass is a massive success. But more than that you have worked so hard to train in the art of working with glass. You’ve been a delight to teach and the work you produce is completely stunning.’

Freya frowned slightly. As lovely as all this was to hear, it wasn’t the big romantic declaration she was hoping for. Maybe he was building up to that.

‘The business is as much yours as it is mine and I was wondering if you would like to be my partner.’

She stared at him in shock.

He wanted her to be his partner at work.

‘That’s what you wanted to ask me tonight?’

Rome frowned in confusion. ‘Well yes. Well, I wanted to talk to you about a number of things but… mainly that.’

Freya swallowed down the burning ball of emotion in her throat.

‘Excuse me for a moment, I just need to go to the bathroom.’

She got up on shaky legs and made it into the toilet cubicle just before the tears came.

How could she have been so stupid? She looked back over the last few weeks, the gestures, the looks, the little touches. Every instinct said that Rome was falling in love with her too. How could she have got it so wrong?

She was his friend, his colleague and nothing more than that. She would never be more than that. She had allowed herself to hope over the last few days and that was a dangerous thing because now those hopes were dashed, it was the most painful, disappointing feeling she’d ever had. She hadn’t even felt like this when her engagement to Jake had broken up. There had always been a niggling doubt that something wasn’t right between her and her fiancé and, in some ways, finding him cheating on her was something of a relief. This… this was heartbreaking.

Two years during which she’d thought she was getting closer to Rome, during which she’d thought it was leading somewhere, and it had led to this: her crying in the toilets while her friend had no idea that she was in love with him.

Well thank god she hadn’t declared her love for him, she could still hold her head up high and continue as normal.

But could she continue as normal? Because even though Rome wasn’t in love with her, she was still desperately in love with him. Could she really continue to work alongside him knowing that nothing was ever going to happen between them? It would be torture. And if she did then she would always be hoping, always be waiting for him to one day realise she was there and that he was in love with her too. How long could she wait for that? Another two years? Forever?

But then what was the alternative? Rome was her best friend and she didn’t want to lose that. The prospect of not having Rome in her life hurt even more than the thought that he didn’t love her. And she loved her job, she didn’t want to walk away from that either. She would just have to go out there, graciously accept his partnership and continue working with him, being friends with him, and hope one day she could fall out of love with him.

She stepped out of the cubicle and dabbed a wet tissue under her eyes to get rid of the streaks; luckily the rest of her eye make-up had stayed intact so hopefully he wouldn’t notice she’d been crying.

She took a deep breath, fixed a smile on her face and stepped back outside into the main restaurant.

There was Rome, chatting and laughing with a different waitress. She watched his face as he talked to her and he wasn’t wearing the fake smile he had used on Kitty that day, this was natural and relaxed. He liked her.

There would always be other women in Rome’s life and while Freya could possibly just accept that he didn’t love her and never would, it would be impossible to watch him continue going out with all these women for the rest of her life.

Something inside Freya snapped. She wasn’t good enough for him, that’s what it boiled down to, just like she had never been good enough for Jake. And frustratingly, here she was again, making the same mistake she made with Jake. Waiting for him, pinning all her hopes on Rome falling in love with her too one day, building her life around him. She thought of all the women Rome had been with and how he had not once looked at her in that way. She was friend material and not anything more. She deserved more than that.

Feeling angry, hurt and betrayed, she marched over to the table, Rome looked over at her as she got closer and his face creased in concern.

‘You know what Rome Lancaster, I’m better than this, I deserve better. You can stick your partnership up your arse.’

Rome stared at her in shock and she grabbed her jacket and bag and stormed out.

Once out on the street, the chill of the night shocked her back to reality. What the hell had she just done?