Dream of Us

Ani’s POV.

“It’s only a casual thing, a couple neighbours, some friends…”

Sian is talking to Gwen when I walk into the first part of the kitchen, partitioned off for the servers who don’t have to wear hairnets in this section.

She turns towards me and smiles. “Perfect timing, I was just inviting Gwen to my garden party this weekend. Wanna come?”

“Sure. What time?”

“Midday on Saturday.”

“Do you need me to bring anything?”

“You could bring some drinks if you want, but I’ll be providing them too.”

“Sounds good.” I realise that I haven’t seen Sian since last night when Adrian was here. “I didn’t know Adrian was your cousin.”

Her eyebrows raise in surprise. “Is that what he told you? We’re cousins?”

“Well, third cousins he said.”

She smiles. “Yeah, that’s us, not super related but you know. Anyway, he’s actually coming this weekend.”

I feel a flutter of excitement at the thought of seeing him outside of the restaurant. I start to reconsider whether I should go or not. At least here, at the diner, I have to behave. I have my boss breathing down my neck and I -usually- act professionally. But in a social setting at my friend’s house, I’m bound to let myself relax, which is probably not a good idea around Adrian, not when I’m so inexplicably attracted to him.

“Can I bring Jaymie?” I ask suddenly.

Gwen scowls and Sian frowns. “Sure.”

They could at least try to remain impartial at me bringing my boyfriend. Besides, if Jaymie is there, I’ll have to behave myself.

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✥⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

“Why is Sian randomly having a party? It can’t be a house-warming, I swear she moved into that house months ago.”

“It’s not a house-warming, it’s a just a get-together, she wanted an excuse to have some people round.”

Jaymie frowns at my reply. He likes people to have reasons to celebrate, apparently enjoying life isn’t a valid reason. He’s been funny about this event ever since I invited him in the week. Now that it’s finally come round to Saturday, he’s promised to drop me off and pick me up. He’ll stay for an hour but not much more than that because, in his words, it’s not his scene. He’ll make up some bullshit excuse about work, I know it.

“Right. Okay. You still cool with me leaving after an hour?”

“Kind of have to be, don’t I?” I retort sassily, he sighs in irritation.

“I’m sorry, Annie, but you know this isn’t my thing. I don’t know your friends well; I’ll have to stay with you the whole time feeling like a third wheel.”

I look out of the window, not interested enough to argue. “Yeah, I get it.”

“Annie?” He calls my name to get my attention, I give him a brief look. “I’m sorry, okay? You know I’d much rather spend the afternoon cuddling you on the sofa.”

“I know,” I reply tiredly.

That’s the problem with Jaymie, there’s no sense of adventure. He likes to stay in all of the time. I can understand wanting to stay in sometimes, but not all of the time. We have to leave the flat at some point.

We arrive at Sian’s house and her drive is full of cars, meaning Jaymie has to park on the street. I grab the bottle of Cava that I bought, and we knock on the front door. Sian answers and I don’t miss the way her smile drops at little at the sight of Jaymie before she recovers quickly.

“Hey! You made it! Come on in. Good to see you, Jaymie. How have you been?”

He nods awkwardly. “Good, thank you. How about you?”

“All good,” Sian grins. “Come on, everyone’s out back, we really lucked out with the weather.”

I follow Sian through the glass doors, Jaymie a shadow behind me. There are about fifteen people in Sian’s back garden, standing around or sitting on garden furniture, drinking, and talking. There’s a drinks table set up at the back next to a BBQ which is being manned by a woman I don’t know.

Without meaning to, my eyes immediately meet Adrian’s. He’s standing next to the woman running the grill, his hands casually in his pockets as he talks to her. Our eyes meet and I freeze. He stops talking midsentence, his lips pressing together before widening into a smile. I smile back and manage to get my feet walking forwards again.

“Do you want me to introduce you to everyone?” Sian offers.

I gratefully accept and we do the rounds. She introduces me to each of her friends, of whom only two I already know or have heard of. I forget everyone’s names pretty much as soon as I’m told them, but hopefully they’ll forgive me for asking again later. When we get to the grill, she introduces Adrian and the woman as Joanie. I don’t know her, but I’m envious that she and Adrian seem to be getting on well.

Sian attends to her other guests while I get Jaymie and I a drink. We hover by the drinks table, fruity cocktails in hand.

“See, this isn’t so bad,” I tell him, nudging his arm.

“It’s smaller than I was expecting,” he admits. “But I still don’t understand the point of it.”

“The point of it is to have fun with friends, Jaymie,” I reply to a bit more coldly than I intend to.

“Alright, sorry,” he mumbles, pouting because I’ve snapped at him.

I feel eyes on me and glance over to the grill, knowing it is Adrian that is looking at us. There’s a deep set frown on his face as he watches Jaymie and I. I could be reading too much into it, but I don’t think he likes my boyfriend.

At this point, who does?

I drag Jaymie around the garden, making conversation with as many people as possible so that I’m not stuck talking to him about his job or what we’re going to do next weekend because I honestly don’t know. The lack of spark in our relationship, made up for by complete ease and comfort with each other, means we stay in a lot and eat dinner in front of the TV.

Again, it’s not something I have a problem with, but I don’t want to do it every single weekend. I’d love him to be spontaneous, come home one day and tell me that he’s booked a surprise for us, even if it was just a restaurant booking instead of eating in. I’ve tried to do it before, I booked for the two of us to go on a cocktail-making course, but Jaymie was so sceptical about it, saying it was random and pointless, we didn’t even end up going.

It gets to exactly an hour since we’ve arrived, and Jaymie gives me an apologetic look. If I’m being honest, I feel relieved at the thought of him leaving, it’s hard to have fun when you have a fun-sponge right next to you.

“Would you mind if I headed off? It’s been an hour; it won’t look rude right?”

Like you care anyway.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I reply, trying not to sound too happy about it.

He kisses my cheek, leaning in too fast so his lips mush against my face, making me grimace.

“I’ll pick you up later, text me when you’re ready to leave.”

“Okay, thanks,” I respond without looking at him, already glancing around to decide who I’m going to talk to next.

“What time do you think it’ll be? In about an hour?”

My eyes meet Adrian’s, and I can’t look away. There’s metres between us but it feels like he’s right in front of me the way his eyes hold mine.

“Probably longer,” I tell him.

“Oh,” I can hear the surprise in his voice. “Okay, have a good time.”

I wave him away. “Bye.”

He starts to say, ‘I love you’, but I’m rude and out of patience and walk off before he can finish. The two cocktails I’ve had have made me care less about my boyfriend, which isn’t good. I know I’m not being a good girlfriend; I’ll feel more guilty tomorrow I know it.

Jaymie leaves and I walk over to Adrian, who is standing alone near the grill, which Joanie is cleaning after serving up burgers earlier. His smile has my stomach flipping before we’ve even started talking.

“Hey,” he says casually.

“Hi.”

“You look really nice, by the way,” he comments, gesturing to my dress.

I chose it specifically because it shows off both cleavage and leg while still being a classy summer dress, it’s one of my favourites. I’m glad that Adrian is finally seeing me in something other than my work attire.

“Thank you. So do you, I like that shirt.”

He’s dressed well, again. He always seems to be in nice clothes. Today it is a navy shirt, another muscle-fit one that hugs every inch of his chest.

And what a chest it is.

“Boyfriend gone?” He asks, his voice sounding tenser at the mention of Jaymie.

“Yeah, this isn’t really his scene.”

His eyebrows raise. “Oh? What is his scene?”

“Dinner in front of the TV,” I reply.

Adrian smirks. “And is that your scene?”

I shrug. “Sometimes, not all of the time.” I smile at him. “This is strange, seeing you out of the diner.”

“I know,” he grins back at me. “I like it, though.”

“So do I, it’s nice not having my boss watch me like a hawk.”

“And we can actually talk for once,” he says happily. “Do you want another drink?” He asks, nodding at my empty glass.

“Yes, actually. Thanks.”

We walk over to the drinks table together.

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✥⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆