Breathtaken (Marcus Butler)

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

When I awoke the next morning, Marcus was gone and the bed felt cold. I remembered him mentioning something about going to see his old college friend today, but I’d kind of assumed he’d have at least kissed me goodbye before leaving. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed like a trooper and took a shower before getting ready for the day. I had nothing in particular to do, although I was tempted to go shopping. My empty purse reminded me that I should probably think about getting a new job, but that didn’t deter me from calling Miranda up anyway. She answered after the first three rings.

“Well hello there, I was beginning to think we’d left you and Marcus behind in the Maldives,” Miranda joked, making me smile. We hadn’t really spoken since we got back from the holiday. We’d thought it best to give Miranda and Alfie some privacy after we basically invaded their honeymoon.

“No, unfortunately we also came back to the shitty British weather! How are you guys?” I asked in reply, grinning as I spoke. I’d missed talking to Miranda, a lot more than I thought.

“We’re doing alright thanks. It’s all a bit stressful with the moving around of my stuff into Alfie’s flat but we’re slowly getting there. What about you and Marky Butt Butt?” Miranda laughed at her own joke in response. I laughed, and told her we were also fine (which was a slight fib but I didn’t want to talk about that right now). We made small talk for a little while longer before Miranda agreed to meet me at the local shopping complex, but made sure I was aware that she would not be venturing towards River Island – not after last time, when she ended up spending an entire week’s worth of money that had been intended for groceries on a few tops and a skirt. I had to physically share everything I had in my cupboards with her for the remainder of the week, from Jammy Dodgers to a bag of rocket salad. It was funny at first, but then she insisted on scooping Nutella out of the jar and into a Tupperware box for her toast the next morning. Let’s just say, shit went down after that request.

*

No longer than half an hour later, Miranda and I were busy mooching through the sale racks in New Look. Neither of us were after anything in particular, however Miranda had mentioned something about Alfie needing some boxers because he’d left half of his behind in the hotel by accident. I’d laughed when she’d said it, just imagining both of us in the men’s department of every clothes shop casually browsing through the underwear.

“Hey, maybe you should get this for Marcus,” Miranda suddenly said from somewhere behind a rack of t-shirts. I could no longer see her through the mass of clothes, but I could tell that her voice was coming from around the corner. When I walked around to her, she was holding up a blue t-shirt that had an owl on it and the word ‘hello’ printed below, except with added vowels at the end. I think it was supposed to be an owl joke, but in fact the designers had subconsciously made a Marcus Butler joke as well.

“Isn’t that a ladies’ top?” I asked sceptically, laughing. Men’s tops didn’t tend to have glitter and v-neck styles. At least not on the same top.

“Oh, Marcus will never know!” Miranda brushed off, but she was giggling as well. I giggled again with her, disappearing behind the clothes rack to look at the skirt I had previously been eyeing up. It was quite cute, a skater style with little pictures of sweets from a bag of Liquorice Allsorts dotted around. It was cute, but it was also £35.

“That’s so cool, are you getting that?” Miranda asked, joining me. I shook my head and lifted up the price tag to her. She shook her head and shrugged, since it was always the typical situation that anything we ever fancied was totally out of our price range.