It Started With a Kiss Read Online Free PDF

tonight? Birmingham is a beautiful city but a little lonely …’
    ‘It’s tempting, but I can’t, I’m afraid. Have to get my Christmas shopping done, you know how it is …’ She linked her arm through mine and we walked away, leaving the gawping German youth behind us. ‘OK, after that thrilling encounter I need a coffee.’
    We made our way slowly through the crowds, pushing through the flow of people to the very coffee shop where I had made my devastating confession to Charlie. I was thankful that the large leather sofa at the back of the coffee shop was available so I didn’t have to sit by the window where everything had changed.
    Wren arrived with two enormous cups of frothy cappuccino and two slabs of sticky chocolate cake. ‘Caffeine and sugar – just what you need!’ she announced, unwinding her long black scarf and removing her coat before sitting beside me. ‘So, he’s real, then.’
    ‘I told you he was real. At least now you believe me.’
    ‘I do. Actually, I’m starting to think that maybe he might not be a psycho after all.’
    ‘Well, thank you. What changed your mind?’
    Wren leaned back, her elfin frame almost disappearing into the sofa altogether. ‘I was thinking about it as we were retracing your steps: he was the only one to help you put the toy display back together and even when you said you were fine he still followed you to make sure. If he was some idiot after a cheap thrill, I doubt he’d have been so committed. And he was obviously memorable enough for the ladies at the bauble stall to remember him – albeit vaguely. I just can’t work out why he didn’t stick around.’
    ‘I told you, he was called away.’
    ‘Yes, but who by? Can you remember whether the voice was male or female?’
    ‘Male.’
    ‘Right. So, best case scenario: mate. Worst case scenario: boyfriend .’
    I spluttered into my cappuccino. ‘Come off it, Wren, he wasn’t gay.’
    ‘How do you know? I mean, good looking, well dressed, tidy … He might have been kissing you for a bet or having a quick “swing the other way”… OK, OK, I’m joking. But he could have a girlfriend or, worse, a wife .’
    I twisted to face her. ‘Then why did whoever called him away let him kiss me?’
    She shrugged and speared a large chunk of chocolate cake with her fork. ‘Maybe that’s why he was calling him away …’
    I didn’t want to consider the possibility, yet I found myself trying to recall whether I had seen a ring on his left hand as he helped me retrieve the scattered stock from the damp pavement. Frustratingly, I couldn’t. But he couldn’t be married, could he? The way he looked at me, the way he kissed me – it was as if he was seeing a woman he wanted to be with for the first time. I felt … cherished , strange as that sounds; it was as if he were cradling a precious jewel he had no intention of letting go.
    But he had let me go, hadn’t he?
    Wren pushed her curls behind her ears. ‘Anyway, forget all that. Tell me about the kiss .’
    So I told her, replaying the detail of our brief encounter that had been on ceaseless repeat in my mind all night and throughout today: how I felt so utterly safe in his embrace, how soft and warm his lips were on mine; how the whole city seemed suspended in time around us; and how I never for a moment questioned what was happening because it felt so right …
    ‘Like you were coming home, eh?’ Wren finished my sentence with a wistful look in her eyes.
    I nodded. ‘That’s exactly how it felt. And I know it sounds cheesy but it didn’t feel contrived or cheap at all. I was just sharing this amazing moment with someone my heart knew. Does any of this make sense?’
    She smiled. ‘Absolutely, hun. Although personally I wouldn’t have let him leave after a kiss like that.’
    I felt my shoulders drop as I took a slurp of frothy coffee. ‘I know. I’ve gone over and over it in my mind and I still can’t work out why I didn’t just hang on to him