They chose a sharing platter of olives, hams, sun-dried tomatoes and focaccia to start off with and Georgie chose penne carbonara and Raf a beef and polenta dish.
‘I don’t want to go down the spaghetti-sauce-on-chin route,’ Raf said, twinkling at her.
‘Same.’ When she’d been choosing, Raf’s comments about spaghetti had been right at the top of her mind.
‘Wine?’ Antonio asked.
‘Just one small glass for me. I’m driving.’ Which was a very good thing or the way she was feeling right now she might just end upchuckingherself at Raf.
‘I will also have just one glass,’ Raf said.
Their conversation wound all over the place until during their main courses they were talking about skiing. Georgie and Max had skied for a week once, a couple of years before.
‘Max loved it, obviously,’ Georgie said. ‘Whereas if I’m honest I loved the après-ski a lot more than the getting-terrified-and-also-cold-and-falling-over-a-lot-often-quite-painfully daytime skiing.’
Raf laughed. ‘You sound like my… my late wife. Anna.’ He looked down at his hands for a moment and then back up at Georgie, right into her eyes.
Georgie felt as though she’d been punched in the stomach by his words; they’d brought her right back down to earth with an unpleasant bump. Clearly, and understandably, Anna was never far from his thoughts. Georgie should very much bear that in mind and not even begin to think that she could or should have any kind of romance with him.
‘You must miss her terribly,’ she said. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’
‘Yeah, but… Well, yes. But… also… I have to keep living. In the present. I can be happy now.’
‘I’m glad,’ Georgie said round the enormous lump now in her throat. ‘That you can be happy, I mean.’
‘Thank you.’ Raf cleared his own throat and then said, ‘Okay, so tell me your most embarrassing ski incident.’
Georgie laughed and launched into the story of when she’d mistakenly turned onto a black run from a green run and had to crawl back up because going down did not feel like an option.
Some time later – Georgie had no idea how long because, once the moment where Raf had mentioned Anna had passed, the time had sped by while they talked and laughed about everything and nothing – they were sharing a large bowl of tiramisu.
‘That isdivine.’ Georgie might just have groaned out loud but she didn’t care. ‘The best tiramisu I’ve ever tasted, I think.’ She put her spoon down. ‘I can’t eat any more, though. I might have to open the top button on my jeans as it is.’
Raf stuck his spoon back in and took another mouthful.
‘I am very fortunately greedier than you.’
Georgie couldn’t answer because her eyes, and mind, and whole body, seemed to be fixated on the way he was holding hisspoon and putting it into his mouth. His fingers were long and strong, and his lips were just… perfect.
Oh, crikey. He was looking at her looking at him. He finished his mouthful and smiled at her, very slowly. His eyes went to her lips and then to her hands on the table and then back to her lips, and he smiled some more.
‘This is… delicious.’ He very deliberately took another spoonful and then put it in his mouth.
Georgie couldn’t stop looking at him. She could hardly breathe.
‘Shall we get the bill?’ He put his spoon down and she found herself staring at his hands again.
‘Great!’ she said eventually. They should definitely get the bill, actually; they were the only two people left in what had been a very busy restaurant earlier on. Alotof time must have passed very quickly.
The cold air outside hit hard after the just-right warmth of the interior.
‘You’re shivering. Let me give you my coat.’
‘No, honestly, I’m fine.’ Georgie clamped her teeth together to stop them chattering.
‘Liar.’ Raf nudged her and then shrugged out of his jacket and put it round her shoulders.
‘You shouldn’t have,’ she told him, ‘but thatislovely and toasty warm.’ Andhis. She snuggled into it and had to try very hard not to breathe in his scent very deeply, in case he saw her do it. ‘You’re going to be cold, though.’
