Four’s A Crowd
ROMANTIC SHORT STORY WRITTEN BY JACQUI COOPER
Euan did seem to like Rosie – rather a lot – but his mates always seemed to be getting in the way…
Rosie Burns was fourteen years old the first time Euan Fraser asked her out. He’d waited around after French class and approached her the moment she was alone.
“Rosie? I was wondering… that is… would you like to go to the school dance with me?” he mumbled, looking at his feet.
Would she! Euan was gorgeous, all dark-blond hair and dreamy green eyes. He didn’t know it, but she’d been scribbling his name in her schoolbooks for months, surrounded by little red hearts and arrows.
Rosie’s heart was honest-to-goodness fluttering, and she was steeling herself to give a cool, nonchalant “yes”, when his two best friends rounded the corner.
“What’s going on here?” asked Kyle, looking from Rosie to Euan.
“Are you chatting up our Euan?” asked Sean suspiciously.
To Rosie’s astonishment, Euan threw her a wild look and then shrugged.
“Yeah. She just can’t leave me alone. Get lost, Rosie Burns,” he said and sauntered off, Kyle and Sean following in his wake. He didn’t even look back.
Rosie was left speechless, wondering what had just happened.
She didn’t speak to Euan after that. Not for a very long time. Not even when he sent her a Valentine’s card a few weeks later. Well, she thought the card was from him. She supposed it might have been from Kyle. Or Sean. Because she’d noticed all three of the friends watching her on occasion when the others weren’t around, then quickly shifting their gaze when she caught them.
The next time Euan asked her out was some years later. He had just finished his second year at uni and Rosie was midway through an engineering apprenticeship when their paths crossed in the queue at the cinema.
“Rosie!” Euan looked gratifyingly pleased to see her.
“Euan.” Rosie’s greeting was less enthusiastic because she’d never forgotten what he’d done that day at school. But she had to admit he was still gorgeous. And the way her heart skipped at his smile could not be ignored. Especially as she was between boyfriends now. She’d heard on the grapevine that Euan was single, too.
“Are you here by yourself?” she asked, casually flicking her recently highlighted hair over one shoulder.
“I’m with Kyle and Sean,” he admitted. “They’ve dragged me along to see the new sci-fi film. They’ve gone to the bar while I get the tickets. What about you? Are you on your own?”
Mmm, the years had only improved him. Nice smile, too.
“I’m here with my housemates,” she said. “Susie and Carly want to see the new romcom, whereas I’d much rather watch the action movie.”
“That was my first choice too!” said Euan immediately. “Maybe we could come back and see the film together sometime? I mean, it would be a shame to miss it when we’re both so keen –”
Kyle pushed through the crowd.
“Euan! The queue’s too long at the bar. We’ll miss the start if we wait any – Hello, who’s this? Well, well, well. If it isn’t Rosie Burns.”
“Still stalking our boy?” asked Sean, appearing behind him.
“Hi, guys,” said Rosie without enthusiasm. She turned back to Euan. “You were saying?”
Face pink, he shook his head.
“Forget it. It doesn’t matter. See you around, Rosie.”
Grrr. What was wrong with him?
Their paths didn’t cross again until a wedding, years later. Rosie, unfortunately, now had a broken engagement behind her and the bride was keen to introduce her to one of the groomsmen, making a big point of the fact that he was single, too.
Rosie recognised Euan immediately.
As if she would ever be interested after the way he had treated her.
Neither Kyle nor Sean were at the wedding. Rosie and Euan, seated at the same table, got on like a house on fire. He turned out to be a surprisingly good dancer, too. And at the end of the evening, he asked her out.
Of course, Rosie hadn’t forgotten his past record, but he still had those dreamy eyes, so she didn’t have to think too hard.
They arranged to go for a meal at a local restaurant, but Euan stood her up. Well, the next best thing – he cancelled by text because, apparently, something urgent had come up.
Rosie had been prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, except for the fact that her brother told her he’d seen Euan huddled in the pub that evening… with Kyle and Sean.
That was it as far as she was concerned. After three strikes, Euan Fraser was well and truly out of her life. She refused to take his calls and deleted his number from her phone.
But as chance would have it, their paths crossed one more time. Rosie was out with friends when familiar laughter reached her from the beer garden and she saw Euan, Kyle and Sean sitting in the sunshine.
Kyle was telling some tall tale, complete with actions and grand hand gestures. At the punchline, Sean laughed so hard he sprayed beer everywhere and Euan threw his head back, guffawing.
One of her friends brought Rosie a drink and looked to see what had caught her eye.
“Nice,” she said appreciatively. “Do you know them?”
Dammit – Euan Fraser still made Rosie’s heart beat faster!
“Oh yes,” she said darkly. “I know them. Excuse me a minute. There’s something I have to do.”
Carrying her drink, she marched up to the men’s table. They all looked up in surprise.
“Rosie?” said Euan.
“Hi guys,” she said sweetly. “Euan, I just had to come over and say thank you.”
“Er – for what?” he asked, puzzled.
“For our date, silly.”
“Eh?”
“You two had a date?” Kyle scowled at Euan. “I thought we’d agreed that none of us –?” Sean nudged him into silence.
“No,” said Euan. “We never –”
“It was so romantic,” said Rosie dreamily. Euan stared at her.
“But we didn’t –”
“And our first Valentine’s Day,” interrupted Rosie. “I’ll never forget it, the first time you told me you loved me.”
“But… I… I didn’t.” Euan shot a look at Kyle and Sean who were staring at him accusingly. “I mean, that never happened.”
“Our wedding was so special, too,” she continued in the same dreamy tone. “It was a shame you two boys refused to come. I never did find out why. Still, you made up for it when little Emily was born, then when Luke came along a few years later. You really came into your own. You were the best honorary uncles ever!”
All three men were staring at her, looks of utter confusion on their faces.
Rosie took another sip of wine.
‘‘We all got on swimmingly. You even came on holiday with us a few times. You were pretty much part of the family. Until, of course, that time…” She broke off.
“What time?” prompted Euan.
“You know.” She dropped her gaze. And her voice. “That time one of them made a pass at me.”
“One of them did what?” Outraged, Euan rounded on his friends.
Kyle and Sean looked equally shocked.
“No, mate, we didn’t. I mean… at least… I didn’t.” Kyle glared at Sean.
“I wouldn’t do that!” protested Sean.
“I know how you’ve always felt about Ros… er… about things.”
“Thankfully we were able to get past it,” soothed Rosie. “Though it took a while. Of course, it helped that by then I had more than a few single friends feeling their biological clocks ticking. Dinner parties at our house were like an episode of Blind Date. It was good to see you both finally settle down.”
“We did?” said Sean, cheered.
“Do you mean those friends over there?” added Kyle, eyeing with interest the group of women at the bar. “Maybe you could put in a good word now.”
Rosie ignored them, keeping all her focus on Euan.
“What a life we had together!” she continued. “We had our ups and downs, of course, but mainly each day was a joy. There was Emily’s graduation. The shock of Luke moving to Australia. We were so happy when he married a girl from home and moved back, especially when the grandchildren came along.”
“Rosie, I haven’t a clue what you’re talking –” began Euan.
She put a finger to his lips.
“Shush. Hear me out. Remember when we retired, and you tried to convince me you’d fallen in love with that old house, but I knew you really just wanted to live next to the golf course? I was happy enough to move, though, because then we could finally get the dog we’d always wanted.”
“A dog?” Euan scratched his head.
She nodded.
“Riley. A golden retriever. He was such a comfort to you when I died.”
“When you what?” Euan spluttered.
“I never thought I’d go first,” Rosie sighed. “You were so upset. But Riley helped. As did the family, of course. And you two,” she smiled at Sean and Kyle, “were there when Euan needed you.”
“Let’s get back to the bit where you fix us up with your pals,” said Kyle hopefully.
But Rosie had said her piece. She tossed her hair and raised her glass.
“So once more, I just wanted to say thank you, Euan. For a wonderful life. It was my pleasure to share it with you.”
With that, she turned on her heel and stalked away.
She hadn’t got far when Euan caught her arm and spun her around.
“What on earth was that all about?” he demanded.
“That?” said Rosie sweetly. “That was the life you passed up on, Euan Fraser. Because you preferred your mates’ company to mine.”
He shook his head. “I –”
“Yes?”
“We made a pact,” he said sheepishly. “The three of us. At school. We all fancied you and didn’t want to fall out, so we agreed that since we couldn’t all date you, none of us would.”
Rosie shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“You agreed? I didn’t have a say?”
“It made more sense when we were fourteen,” he admitted. “I was ready to break the pact when we were older, but then Sean had a bad health scare. He was in treatment for a long time, and we had to rally round.”
“Oh.” Rosie hadn’t heard anything about that. “I’m sorry.”
“He didn’t want anyone to know. He’s fine now. But…”
“Yes?”
“Everything you just said. The kids… and the dog…”
She held his eye and said nothing.
“I…”
“What?” she asked sweetly.
“I… I want it,” he blurted. “All of it. I want that life. I want you.”
“Oh?” said Rosie. “You’re finally going to make a date with me and keep it?”
“No,” said Euan and she saw determination enter his eyes. “We’ve wasted enough time. Rosie Burns, will you marry me?”
She laughed.
“With your track record? Not a chance. But luckily for you I’m prepared to start with dinner and take it from there.”
Read more romantic short stories:
Read A Romantic Break, See You In My Dreams, Back In The Day, plus many more in our archives.
