Fuck, he found his scarf.
I couldn’t be sure, as I was nearly unconscious and internally debating how to deal with the scarf situation, but I thought I heard him whisper sadly. “Natasha Munro, you have completely bewitched me. I would like– no, I know I could be everything to you. But it’s impossible.”
Chapter 12
Friend-Zone
Morning came, bringing with it the sun, bathing the room in yellow hues, and Tink, leaning on one arm in my bed and regarding me with a suspicious gaze.
I groaned and stretched, pleased that my head felt less fuzzy and that the whopping lump at the back seemed to be shrinking.
“Morning, chuck,” I greeted Tink sleepily.
He raised an eyebrow and clicked his fingers about an inch from my face. “Natasha Munro, you little slut!”
“What?”
It’s too early for this shit.
He sat up, placing one perfectly manicured hand on his hip. “What??? I come home to find you coiled around a mammoth chunk of Canadian beef and you say ‘what’???”
Aww, bugger. Busted.
I quickly looked around the room, but no Tudor was to be seen. I turned to Tink and opened my mouth to relay the events of the previous night, when he held up a hand, effectively silencing me.
“He’s not here, Ms. Desperado. He left when I came back in the early hours of this morning, reluctantly, might I add. I practically had to boot him out, and believe me that would have been a David and Goliath-style battle.”
He shook his head, looking disappointed. “I shouldn’t have left, should I? When he said he was going to look after you I didn’t expect him to take the job quite so seriously. I didn’t expect him to weasel his way into your suddenly slack knickers,” he pinged the waistband of my pants to underline his point.
“Ow! I–" A cocoa butter-lotioned hand muffled my explanation.
Oh, this bitch is going down…
“You need to shut up and listen to me, Wilbur!” Tink squealed, and finding my inner Zen, I did what he asked, and gestured for him to continue.
“I walked in to check on you, only to find you both under the duvet joined together like a freakin’ jigsaw puzzle: you fast asleep and him wide awake nuzzling your hair! What the f**k happened?”
I grimaced. “Nothing. He looked after me and I fell asleep… end of,” I answered truthfully, and pulled the quilt over my head.
Tink immediately pulled it back down and rolled on top of me, pinning me down spread-eagle. “End of nothing, you little hussy! I knew he’d try it on. You were concussed, for frigg’s sake. You don’t see nurses climbing in bed with their patients, do you, stroking their arms and kissing their heads? Well, at least not until after the watershed. Why was he wrapped round you like a pretzel? And don’t lie to me,” he demanded.
My heart began to pound.
What did happen? Looking back we did touch a lot but in a very chaste way, and there was all that cuddling, but nothing happened… did it? No…
“Tink, calm down. Nothing happened, we talked, watched TV, he got me my pills and I fell asleep. The next thing I know, you’re glaring daggers at me and I’m being interrogated by the Flamboyant Friggin’ Inquisition!”
Tink leaned back against my black faux-fur head frame, flicked his hair with his hand and pursed his lips into a severe pout. “Well, fine. If you’re gonna say nothing happened then I’ll have to believe you. But it sure looked like something. I entered the bedroom, and when I reached the side of the bed to try and pull you both apart, he didn’t even look at me, he kept his focus solely on you and said, ‘I’m not leaving, so don’t even ask’.
“It took Tate to persuade him to get his fine ass out of the bedroom – I was having a bitch-fit! He said he just needed to stay this one night, he only had this one night, whatever the f**k that meant. And then he finally left… in a right mood too. He slammed the friggin’ door so hard it nearly fell off its hinges!”
“Tink, why didn’t you let him stay if he wanted to? There was no harm in that.”
What did he mean by ‘he only had one night’? One night to do what?
“I made him leave as I was back to take care of you, and ‘cos I thought you had given in and boned him against my wishes. I was pissed off!”
“Well I didn’t, did I? And now you’ve upset Tudor for no reason.”
“What do you care? What’s he to you?” he quizzed, eyes boring into mine.
“A new friend, one who kindly stayed with me to let you go on a date, and you graciously kicked him out after doing so.”
Tink sighed and played with his fingers, jutting out his bottom lip. “I was protecting you. I thought he was taking advantage,” he whispered.
I moved my hand down my body. “No advantage taken. Anyway, like I’ve said a million times, he DOES NOT fancy me! He even mentioned some actress or someone he was interested in, for f**k’s sake.”
I cringed, trying not to feel the arrow through my heart at the reminder of that revelation.
Tinks eyebrows furrowed. “He did? Tater-Tot never mentioned any actress when I asked.”
Pookie? Tater-Tot. Oh, I think my best friend is about to be bitten by the love bug; he only gives out pet-names when he really likes you.
“He’s private, maybe Tate doesn’t know.” I argued.
He sighed again, theatrically this time, and grabbed me in for a hug. “Sorry Wil, I may have slightly overreacted. Are you okay?”
“Slightly? And yes, I’m fine. I have always said nothing was going on.”
“Okay, I jumped to conclusions, but you must admit it looked bad.”
“Call Tate and apologise to Tudor. Yes?”
I could hear his teeth grinding. “Fine,” he agreed reluctantly.
Stubborn as a mule!
After failing to stay in my mood with my meddling best friend for more than thirty seconds, my curiosity got the better of me. “So how was your date? Where’d you go, what’d you do, what’d you see?”
Tink’s eyes lit up and he got all mushy. He pulled the duvet back to slide under next to me and held my hand in excitement,
“Wil, it was totes amazeballs! He took me to the Calgary Tower and he had managed to hire the whole flippin’ thing. It was so romantic,” he gushed, releasing my hold and putting his clasped hands under his chin.