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‘After you,’ he said, pushing open the door, then stepping aside so that Daisy could enter.

‘Wow,’ she said, feeling her jaw drop.

‘If you need anything, just ring down to reception,’ the man said.

‘Thank you, we will,’ Theo replied.

‘And your spa session is booked for 2p.m.’

It took Daisy a moment for the words to register.

‘Spa session?’ She turned around to look at the man, but he was already out of the door and closing it behind him. ‘Theo,’ she said, after a pause, ‘this is way too much.’

The four-poster bed had been adorned with a heart made of rose petals and a small brown bear, with a little paper tag saying that he was theirs to keep, sat in the centre. There was also a platter of chocolate-covered strawberries and an array of candles that had already been lit, sending tendrils of lavender-scented smoke into the air. Rather than the bottle of wine Theo had hoped for, it was a bottle of Champagne which sat in the wine cooler.

‘You really didn’t have to do all this,’ Daisy said as she leant in and kissed Theo, only for him to break away sooner than she had expected.

‘Yeah, about that,’ Theo said. ‘I don’t think I did.’ Rather than reciprocating Daisy’s excitement, he looked mildly concerned.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, I booked the hotel and everything, and told them I had just proposed, but this is pricey Champagne, and I know I didn’t book us into the spa. I was going to wait to see if you wanted to go first.’

‘You think the hotel did this?’ Daisy said, feeling her forehead crumple with confusion.

‘It seems a bit extravagant for a hotel to put on, even for a proposal,’ Theo replied.

Daisy looked again at the spread before them. The strawberries were perfectly ripe and she could smell the freshness rising from them, but it was only when she went to pick one off the platter that she saw the envelope propped up against the wine cooler.

‘It’s addressed to both of us, first names only,’ she said, picking it up and showing it to Theo.

She ran her finger beneath the seal and opened the envelope before pulling out the note. As she read it, warmth filled her chest and a light chuckle escaped her lips.

‘Here, have a read,’ she said, handing it to Theo. A moment later, he let out a light laugh that was remarkably similar to hers.

Wanted you guys to have the best weekend possible.

Enjoy yourselves.

Bex and Claire

P.S. We paid for all this from the money we took from the coffee shop this weekend. Sorry about that.

‘Enjoy ourselves?’ Theo said, placing the letter back down by the strawberries while raising an eyebrow. ‘Any ideas on how we can entertain ourselves in this gigantic room with its mammoth four-poster bed?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Daisy said, a smirk twisting up on her lips. ‘You’re going to have to let me think about that for a moment.’

47

Daisy didn’t want to leave the room, but the spa was beckoning and, just like the rest of the hotel, the experience was sublime. Built in the basement, with red brick walls and a variety of hot tubs and saunas, every little room and pool seemed to have a different scent, with each one more divine than the last.

‘Wow, I didn’t know how much I needed a massage,’ Daisy said as the pair sat in a pool together after their treatments. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt that relaxed in my life.’ Every muscle in her body had been scrubbed, moisturised and pummelled. And after a night out camping on the hard ground, it had been just the thing to work out the knots in her back.

‘I know what you mean. I could happily go straight back to bed and not get up till morning,’ Theo replied.

‘That sounds like a good idea to me.’ Daisy grinned. ‘We’ve still got half a bottle of Champagne left. And a couple of strawberries, too.’

‘We can’t spend the entire time in the room, you know,’ Theo said, arching one of his eyebrows as he spoke.