By the time Piper got to Rob’s she was calmer. Not calm – she’d cried on the train and typed and deleted a bunch of angry texts to both Holly and Matt, before buying herself a tiny bottle of wine and downing it while staring at her own reflection in the window. She’d also texted Rob to tell him she would be turning up about fifteen hours earlier than expected. He was at his mum’s, but said he’d get home in time to meet her.

Now he pushed the door closed behind her and stepped up to her, caging her against the door with his arms. She dropped her bag.

‘You smell amazing,’ he said, dipping his head to kiss her neck.

‘Cheesy,’ she muttered, but she was already melting. It was embarrassing how quickly he could make her knees weaken.

‘Hmm, I don’t think it’s cheese,’ he said, leaning back to smile at her. ‘But whatever it is, I like it.’

She reached up and curled her hands over his biceps, leaning forward to kiss him.

‘Hi,’ he said, smiling.

‘Hi.’

‘Have you eaten?’ he asked, as she followed him into the flat.

She hadn’t, she realised. She’d been too angry to eat. But now she realised she actually was hungry.

‘I can make you an omelette?’ Rob said, opening the fridge and staring at the contents. ‘Or boiled eggs and soldiers.’

‘God,’ Piper said. ‘That sounds really good actually.’

She watched him fill a pan with water and put it on the stove.

‘When I was little,’ Piper started to say. And then stopped as her throat tightened.

Rob glanced over his shoulder at her. ‘Go on.’

‘You’re hot when you cook,’ she said instead, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

‘You really shouldn’t distract the chef,’ Rob said.

Piper kissed the back of his neck, nuzzling her nose into his hair. His stomach muscles tightened under her hands and she pressed closer.

‘Let me just—’ he said, his voice cracking.

‘Why don’t we have the eggs after?’ she suggested.

She hooked her fingers into the waistband of his jeans and he turned the hob off and let himself be pulled into the bedroom.

---

‘I was in Ibiza, on a cycling tour,’ Rob said, rolling onto his back.

They’d got up once, eaten boiled eggs and soldiers smothered with butter and then gone back to bed again.

‘Are you making this up?’ Piper asked. ‘It sounds like the “I was walking in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo…” story from Friends. Have you started watching it yet, by the way?’

Rob laughed. ‘No. And I’m not making it up. A bunch of us went. We had, like, a week’s cycling and then a week clubbing.’

‘Christ,’ Piper said. ‘You can’t just have a proper holiday? Have to flog yourself first?’

Rob slid a hand down Piper’s chest, between her breasts, and then curled it round her waist, dropping his head to kiss her on the shoulder. ‘There was no flogging. Anyway. I met this girl.’

‘Was she cycling too? Cos I fear for her fanny if she was.’

‘No. I met her in the second week. In a bar.’

‘Good.’

‘And we got on really well. And then we went back to her hotel room. Is this making you jealous? At all?’

It was a bit, but there was no way Piper was going to tell him that. ‘No. You’re fine. Carry on.’

‘And I started going down on her… and I’ll never forget what she said.’ He brushed his lips over Piper’s neck. ‘She said, “Oh Christ, what the fuck are you doing?”’

Piper snorted with laughter. ‘Seriously?’

‘Yep. She actually pushed my head away. She said, “Who the fuck told you that felt good?’’’

‘God, Rob,’ Piper said. ‘What were you actually doing?’

‘Now it’s a while ago and drink had been taken so I’m not sure. But I imagine I was probably just, like, mashing my face in there.’

Piper laughed again, rolling onto her side so she could look at him.

‘There may have been some licking? But I think it’d be more like a cow stripping the paint off a car.’

‘What?’

‘My grandad told us that he parked next to a field once and when he came back the cows had licked the paint off his car.’

Piper stared at him. ‘So. Many. Questions.’

Rob tipped his head and pressed his lips to hers. ‘Never mind that.’

‘Right,’ Piper said. ‘You’ve got skills to show me.’

‘Silky skills,’ Rob said, kissing down the side of her neck.

‘Always sport with you.’

He kissed between her breasts, following the path his hand had taken earlier. His hands now were sliding down her sides towards her hips. She sucked in a breath as he nuzzled her belly and kept moving lower. His hands pushed under her bum and she curled her pelvis up to meet his mouth.

‘Holy shit,’ she murmured, sliding one hand into the back of his hair.

She felt like she was melting into the bed – Rob’s hands on her hips, his tongue on the inside of her thighs. Then everything was blackness and static before her orgasm overtook her and white light burst behind her eyes. She felt like she was shattering into pieces, exploding all over the room. Bits of her embedded in the walls and the ceiling forever.

---

‘Do you keep in touch with Ibiza girl?’ Piper asked after. Both of them were lying on their backs, gazing up at the ceiling, Rob’s foot hooked around her ankle.

‘Her name was Belle. And no.’

‘Her name wasn’t fucking Belle,’ Piper laughed. ‘That’s the name she gave you.’

‘Her name could’ve been Belle! You don’t know.’

‘Belle.’ Piper laughed. ‘God.’

‘Your name’s Piper!’

Piper grinned. ‘Piper’s not a Disney princess. Anyway. I’d like to send made-up-name-Belle a present. Maybe a car. Or a house.’

‘Good, right?’ Rob said, rolling on his side again and nuzzling against her.

‘A whole new world,’ Piper said.

‘I think I’m falling in love with you,’ Rob said, his face pressed against the side of her neck.

Piper pulled back to look at him, her hand curved around his jaw, thumb brushing his bottom lip. ‘No.’

He smiled. ‘What do you mean “no”?’

‘No. That’s not… that’s not what this is.’ She wanted to get out of bed, but Rob’s ankle was hooked around hers, his hand resting on her waist.

‘What is it then?’ Rob asked, his eyebrows pulling together.

‘It’s…’ Piper started. ‘It’s… fun. It’s… you live up here. And I live down there. And neither of us is going to move so it just has to be fun.’

‘I’m having fun,’ Rob said. ‘Why does that mean I can’t fall in love with you?’

Piper shook her head, closing her eyes. ‘Because!’

‘Because…?’

‘Because that’s just not what’s meant to happen.’

Rob dipped his head to kiss Piper gently, her thumb still between their lips. ‘Well I wish you’d told me this when we first started. I would have tried really hard not to fall in love with you. But you didn’t tell me. So…’

‘So nothing,’ Piper said.

‘So I think I’m falling in love with you.’

Piper dipped her head, hiding her face in the curve of his neck. ‘No.’

‘I mean, you can say no as much as you like,’ Rob said, hand sliding round to the small of her back, pulling her more firmly against him. ‘Makes no odds to me.’

‘Stop talking about it.’ She licked the side of his neck. She loved the way he tasted there, salty and warm.

‘I’ll stop talking about it now,’ Rob said, rolling her onto her back, bracing himself on top of her. ‘But I’m going to bring it up again, just so you know.’

Piper shook her head again. It was ridiculous. He was being ridiculous.

‘You don’t need to say it back, if that’s what’s bothering you,’ Rob said.

‘That’s not it.’ Piper hooked her legs around his thighs. ‘You don’t need to say it at all.’

‘But I want to say it.’

‘And I don’t want to hear it.’

‘What if I whisper it?’ Rob said, his mouth moving round to her ear, lips grazing her earlobe.

‘No,’ she said. She rolled away from him. ‘Look, I’m going to go and stay at Connie’s.’

He reached for her. ‘Don’t do that. I’ll shut up. I can think of a few ways to keep my mouth busy.’

‘It’s not that,’ Piper lied. ‘I just think I should go. I keep coming home and seeing you and barely seeing Connie and—’

‘Pipes, it’s the middle of the night!’

Piper was standing now, pulling on her clothes from where she’d left them on the floor.

‘It’s okay, I’ve got a key. And this way I can see her in the morning. She said she’s got something she wants to show me.’

Rob sat up in bed. ‘You really don’t have to go. You shouldn’t walk up there on your own.’

‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘It’s Friday night, it’ll still be busy.’ She knew it was – she could hear music from the pubs through Rob’s open bedroom window. ‘This was really good. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?’

‘Piper,’ Rob said. He was out of bed now too, but he hadn’t bothered getting dressed. He followed her through the flat, naked.

At the door she turned and kissed him quickly, one hand flat on his chest to hold him back.

‘It’s not because of what you said,’ she told him.

But she knew neither of them believed her.