I shook my head in defeat. 'Ah, you got me,' I said. 'Free alcohol is my weakness. I'll come.' Phil grinned, doing a little fist pump. I laughed, settling into a warm smile. 'Thanks, Phil. It's so lovely of you to invite me. And we will have a blast. I'm not so sure about matching outfits, though.'

'What! Are you kidding? We'll look great! We should go shopping later.' He looked down at his watch, then back to me. 'Actually, what about now?'

I shrugged. I wasn't used to spontaneous plans, but hey, I was in London. It was the time to be as spontaneous as possible. 'Why not?'


We were at out fourth shop, and Phil had found a snazzy pale-pink top he really liked. He picked it off the shelf and waved it in front of him, and I gave him finger-guns. I know. Kill me.

'Looks snazzy,' I told him. 'And I'm glad it's not black like the last one. Or we'd look like we were going to a wake. Not exactly very festive.'

This meant I was also wearing light pink, which I was alright with. It had never been my favourite colour seeing as it was so stereotypically girly, but as long as we found something without ruffles I was going to be happy. 

We dug through the racks of dresses, and I pulled out this slinky-looking thing in a pale, shimmery pink colour. It was almost exactly the shade as Phil's shirt, which was perfect, since we'd decided to be obtrusively irritating pricks and go with the matching outfits. 

'I'll try it on quickly,' I told him, ducking into a change room. 

I tugged the dress on, adjusting the strappy shoulders and the front so my bra wasn't hanging out. I stood back, admiring it in the mirror. Yep, this is the one. I stripped off and changed quickly back into my jeans, and then met Phil outside. 

'Did you like it?' He asked, and I nodded, so we headed over to the checkout. Phil, being the gentleman he was, offered to pay, but I slammed my debit card down and slid it over, eyeing him off. 

'Are you sure? I don't mind-' 

'Philip,' I said, glaring at him. 'I'm paying. Deal?'

A small smile twitched at his lips. 'Deal.'

Afterwards we walked side by side, bags hitting each other every now and then, and Phil told me about this new couch he'd bought for his room. He told me I absolutely had to see it, so we caught a cab back to his apartment. As we walked up the stairs I glanced around, by bag hitting my hip as we walked.

'Wow, so I finally see the famous Howell-Lester residence,' I said as we reached the apartment door. 'You do realise I know where you live now. I can stalk you twenty-four-seven!'

Phil grinned at me. 'Well, at least you don't have to stalk anymore. You can just come on over and call it 'friendship'.'

I laughed, knocking Phil gently in the arm with my fist. 'Oh, look who's come out to join us. Sassy Phil has emerged.'

Phil gave me a little eyebrow-wiggle that made me let out a snort of a laugh. 'Sassy Phil is always waiting, just beneath the surface.'

I followed him in, the door shutting quietly beneath us. I looked around curiously - it felt strange, like when you leave the house and you come back into your room and knew you mum had changed things around a little. I recognised everything, but it was from new, strange angles.

'Do you want a cup of tea?' Phil asked, and I nodded, so he put the kettle onto boil. As it was boiling he led me into his room, which was surprisingly clean considering he wasn't expecting to have people over. My room usually looked like the radioactive aftermath of WWIII unless someone was specifically coming over.

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