"Excuse me. You."

Kristoff turned from where he was arranging his things for the reading. "Yes?"

"I'm looking for Anna Rendell, is she here?"

"She's on at four."

The other man tutted exasperatedly. "I'm not here to hear her talk about unicorn magic shit. I'm her boyfriend. Is she here or not?"

Boyfriend. Had Anna mentioned a boyfriend? He was definitely, 100% certain that that was something he would have remembered.

"Uh, hi," he said. "I think she said something about going to Starbucks, but I'm sure she'll be back soon, she usually -" listens to me read, Kristoff nearly said, but stopped himself - "hangs around the bookshop."

"Oh, for god's sake," the other man said, and turned on his heel and walked off.

"You're welcome," Kristoff muttered to himself. Well, that had been...weird.

Anna got back at five to two. "Here I am!" she said cheerfully. "I couldn't miss your reading in Reading. Ha! Anyway this one is yours," and she handed him a takeaway coffee. "And I got a cake for me then I felt bad I didn't get you one but probably I can cut it in half -"

"Thank you. And it's okay, you eat the cake."

"I will!"

"And your boyfriend was here looking for you a few minutes ago, I'm not sure where he went -"

"What? My boyfriend? Henry was here?"

"He didn't say his name."

"Chestnut hair, about so tall, very shiny shoes?"

"Yeah, that was him."

Anna sighed. "Oh, fiddlesticks. Right, I'd better - hang on. Sorry. I just need to call -"

And then she was gone, fumbling with her coffee and her cake and her phone.

So you thought the pretty girl was flirting with you, did you? You thought she liked you.

Kristoff told his brain to shut up. Okay, all right, he had maybe thought that, a little bit. But now that he knew her he could see that Anna would probably be that friendly and bubbly and pleasant with anyone. It wasn't personal.

Anna had missed his reading after all. She hadn't come back to the bookshop until quarter to four, then there had been the rush of getting everything ready for her reading, then there were children everywhere. Kristoff hardly had a chance to talk to her, and he spent the time rehearsing the words 'you didn't tell me you had a boyfriend' in his head, trying to make it sound conversational rather than accusatory.

But as soon as the last little girl had left, clutching her signed book and colouring sheet, Anna came up to him.

"Kristoff, I'm so sorry, but I said I'd have dinner with Henry tonight - is that okay?"

"Of course, sure."

"You said you like eating by yourself, right? I'm so sorry, but, you know…"

"I'll be fine. Have a nice time."

"OK. Okay, thanks. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess. Oh, can I put my things in your car?"

"Sure, leave them here and I'll do it."

"Thanks. See you tomorrow," and she was gone.

Kristoff didn't know if she'd come back to the hotel that evening. They'd been able to check in before going to the bookshop so he knew her room was next to his, and he knew she'd left her suitcase there, though he supposed she might have come back for it. In the morning he'd have to ring her and find out where she was so that he could drive them to Oxford, but where she spent the night was none of his business.

He really did need to get out more and meet more people, this was ridiculous.

But seriously, with the volume of words that came out of Anna's mouth, how had 'boyfriend' not been one of them?

There were so many people coming and going, doors opening and shutting, footsteps in the corridor. He'd never be able to tell if Anna was one of them, not that he was listening for her, because he was not.

"Good morning!"

A plate and mug were put down, the other chair at his breakfast table was pulled out and then Anna was sitting opposite him, smiling. "Morning," Kristoff said. "Good night? I mean, good evening?

"Mm?" she pulled a face. "It was alright, I think he might finally have got the message…where did you eat?"

"Here, they do a buffet thing."

"God, really?" She picked up her croissant and tapped it against her plate. "I hope it was better than their breakfast."

"It was - certainly food."

"You should put that on Trip Advisor. 'The restaurant certainly serves food' - oh, wait, I forgot to get some juice, be right back."

Wait, what had she said? He'd finally got the message? What message?

"What message?" he said when Anna sat back down.

"Hmm? What?" she stared at him for a minute, then said "Oh! Yeah. Henry." She sighed. "Why are some men like that, god."

"Like what?"

"We went out a few times, like a month or two ago? But he wasn't, I don't know. Not for me. But he kept calling me and pestering me and I saw him earlier in the week." She broke open her croissant and started applying copious amounts of Nutella. "Which apparently made him decide that he was my boyfriend, even though I definitely did not say that."

"I didn't think you'd mentioned a boyfriend."

"Well, no, last week I hadn't even seen him in ages - but, anyway, like I said, I think he's got the message now. I hate having to actually put my foot down, you know? Why can't people take a hint so I don't have to straight up say, I don't want to see you again, ever, at all. Mm." She took a bite of her croissant. "This is why I don't buy Nutella! I'd just eat it all in one go."

"I'm glad," Kristoff said. "I'm glad he's not your boyfriend."

Anna raised her eyebrows.

"I mean," he continued hurriedly, "because he seemed like a bit of a dick."

"You know when you meet someone, and they seem really nice, then you realise that was just their company personality and they're actually completely different?"

"Yeah, I know."

"That's why I liked when I met you. You were kinda grumpy and annoyed with me so I knew you weren't putting it on."

"I was not grumpy and annoyed -"

"If you say so. But it's okay. I'm pretty annoying. But you're warming to me, I can tell." She grinned at him, and turned back to her breakfast.