She took another carrot stick. It was still two and a half weeks until her appointment. She wanted to find out the truth aboutthe secretnow. Maybe she should think about pulling a sickie and going during the day.
The second Georgie saw Raf emerge from his front door on Friday evening, all big and handsome in his navy tracksuit bottoms, grey hoodie and puffer, her heart rate stepped up. And when he opened the car door and squeezed himself inside, well… She could barely speak.
‘Hello,’ she managed.
‘Hello.’ He always sounded as though he was on the brink of laughter. She looked round at him and his eyes were crinkling again and now she wanted to laugh too. And all they’d done was say hello.
‘I remember now,’ he continued. ‘This car was designed perfectly for me.’
‘I moved the seat back for you.’
‘Yeah, loads of room.’ He laughed and stretched, whacking Georgie on the shoulder with his arm and his head on the car ceiling. ‘Whoops. Sorry.’
‘No worries. I think you’ve probably just broken my collarbone, nothing else.’ She smiled and put the car into gear, keeping her fingers to herself, and pulled away, trying very hard not to think about where he’d touched her shoulder.
‘So, how much skating experience do you have?’ he asked. ‘And how advanced do you need to be by the end of the year?’
‘I’ve been quite a few times but I haven’t ever really progressed beyond holding the penguin. And I need to do a successful jump as part of a routine.’
‘Wow. What kind of a routine?’
‘I did not specify that, so the routine will be basic. I’m also thinking that the routine and the jump could involve me holding on to something at all times. Like I could just hold on to the side of the rink and jump.’ Georgie thought for a minute. ‘That would actually be quite hard though, wouldn’t it?’
‘It’ll be fine. It’s all just a matter of confidence.’
‘I mean, confidence andsomeability.’
‘You’ll befine.’
‘How’s your no caffeine resolution going?’ Georgie asked. They didn’t need to talk about ice skating any more. ‘I’m seeing lots of virtuous decaf coffee photos on the chat.’
‘I’m still on fire. Although if I’m honest, I don’t even need to keep my resolutions anyway because my secret is not a big one. So I’m just laughing at the rest of you, basically.’
‘Hmm, good to know. So is it weird to have moved back after so long?’ Georgie regretted the question as soon as she’d asked it because they all knew that the reason he’d moved to New York in the first place had been to escape his grief after his wife had died. Noah had once, when he’d sunk a good five pints, said that he thought that Raf hadn’t just wanted to escape his own grief but also that of his family and friends. So probably in moving back he couldn’t help thinking about the past.
‘You know, it felt like the right time. I mean…’ He paused and Georgie stared at the road ahead, waiting. ‘Yeah, so, basically, all good.’
Yep, fair enough; of course he hadn’t been going to talk about his wife to her – they barely knew each other. A couple of weeks of text banter did not a deep and meaningful relationship make.
The rest of the journey passed quickly, and relatively safely apart from when Raf made Georgie laugh so much about a divorce client he’d had to turn down she nearly hit a bollard. By the time they arrived at the rink she wasn’t even really too over-aware any more of his gorgeousness and proximity to her, she was just enjoying herself.
‘Do you think you can tell a lot about someone from their socks?’ Raf asked her when they were changing into their skating boots.
Georgie looked down at herMinionsones. ‘I don’t needto justify my footwear to you, but I couldtell you that I haven’t had time to do a lot of laundry this week—’ the resolutions were making her even more ridiculously busy than usual ‘—and Beth very sweetly bought these for Max for Christmas and he didn’t like them so I’m wearing them.’
‘Or you could just admit that you’re a hugeMinionsfan?’
Georgie nudged him hard in his (very lovely and firm) side and then wondered what she was doing.
She looked down at his feet (clad in nice, non-Minionsocks) and opened her mouth to ask if he thought you could tell a lot about someone from their (large) foot size and then thought better of it. Nothing to do with her, anyway. Obviously.Reallyobviously.
‘Georgie?’
‘Mmm?’ She bent down to hide her face under her hair while she did her boots up.
‘Were you thinking something obscene?’
‘No, I was not.’ She totally had been.
