Bewitched in Budapest (Xcite Romance) by Justine Elyot Page A

still complete on the deal. We can re-book the wedding. Your mum’s still got the dress. Might need a new cake though.’
    ‘Listen, Dave …’
    ‘We’re meant for one another, Ruby. I know that scares you, but it’ll be OK.’ He looked over at János and twitched. ‘And can that man please leave?’
    János tilted his head at me. ‘Is Ruby’s choice.’
    ‘No, stay,’ I said. ‘There’s nothing more to say. I don’t want to marry you, Dave. I don’t want to get back together. I just can’t.’
    ‘Rube, I think it’s a nervous breakdown,’ contributed Jodie unhelpfully. ‘Don’t you think, Dave? After all those years of being sensible and steady and all that, she’s cracked.’
    ‘I tend to agree with you, Jodie – for once.’ Dave gurgled unattractively at his imagined witticism. ‘I’ve made no secret of the fact that I thought you were a bad influence on Ruby in the past – but I’m going to let bygones be bygones now. I can’t thank you enough for getting in touch with me. It seems I was just in time. I think Ruby was about to do something very stupid.’
    He stared hard at János.
    ‘No,’ I said, following an instinct to stick up for him. ‘I wasn’t. Marrying you would have been very stupid, because my heart wasn’t in it. I’ve spent years prioritising my head over my heart. Well, now I’m going to stop that. I’m going to do what I want, be with whom I want. That’s not you, Dave.’
    ‘Anti-depressants will sort you out, love. I’ll make an appointment with Dr Greening when we get home.’
    This was enough. My patience wore through.
    ‘Home?’ I thundered, not quite sure which words were going to tumble out of me next. ‘What home? I’m not going back to England. I’m going to stay here.’
    What?’ squeaked Jodie, but János smiled, nerving me to carry on ranting.
    ‘Maybe not exactly here, in this exact flat, but I’m staying in Budapest. And I’m going to get accounting work, and I’m going to help János with the costings for his new bar. He has a passion that drives him, a need to transform his neighbourhood, and I want to be part of that, in whatever small way I can. And, more than that, I want to be with him.’
    ‘What?’ This time both Jodie and Dave chorused the word.
    János grasped my hand and squeezed it, beaming down at me with dazzling effect.
    ‘If he wants to be with me,’ I said, more quietly, looking up at him. He kissed my hand, put his arm around my shoulder. I felt that we made a wall, beyond which the world could not encroach. We stood together, invincible.
    ‘You’ve known him five minutes!’ spluttered Dave when he could speak again. ‘You really have gone mad, haven’t you? I’m going to call the men in white coats. Jodie, what’s the emergency number?’
    But she shook her head.
    ‘That’s taking it too far, Dave,’ she said. ‘I’m starting to think I was hasty. Perhaps we should just leave them to it.’
    My head was too full of swooping giddiness to take much more in. I had taken an enormous risk – declared a future for myself that depended on somebody else’s consent, a somebody else I had known for a matter of a few days. Maybe Dave was right and I needed my head examined. But I didn’t think so.
    There would be red tape, there would be logistics to consider, there would be papers to sign and queues to stand in and long, long discussions to be had.
    But it could be done. Happiness could be mine.
    And, it seemed, János thought so too.

Chapter Six

    THE PARTY ENDED AFTER four o’clock in the morning. 
    Once the last gypsy violinist had packed up his instrument, the bar staff had washed and dried the cocktail shakers, the creators of the sculptures that dotted the courtyard had downed their last glass of pálinka, we said farewell to our guests and the ruin disgorged its hip young clientele into the Budapest night.
    Though “ruin” didn’t seem the right word any more. János and his local builders had