‘So, tonight’s the night?’ Amy giggled, stopping in on her way home from work. She was sitting on my bed, watching me move hangers about as I tried to decide on what to wear.
I made a point of pretending not to know what she was talking about.
‘What do you think of this?’ I asked, pulling out a floaty summer dress that seemed to chime perfectly with the warmth of the evening.
Amy ran the delicate fabric through her fingers. ‘Hmm, it is lovely. But it doesn’t really say “rip me off and sweep me away into ecstasy”.’
I fixed her with a look. ‘Sweep me away into ecstasy?’
She shrugged. ‘I’ve got a very dramatic book on the go at the moment. There’s a lot of that going on in it.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘I see.’ I hung the dress back up. ‘Well, I’m kind of glad it doesn’t say rip me off because it cost a flippin’ fortune. Things could get expensive!’
Amy grinned. ‘Ooh! Sounds like you have some definite plans for this weekend…’
I pulled out another choice and held it up in front of her face, ignoring the insinuations of lengthy romps currently catapulting about in her head.
‘What about this one, then?’
‘Now that,’ she said, ‘is perfect.’
28
‘I’m going to be a bit late,’ Alex said, almost before I’d finished saying hello. He sounded a little out of breath and distracted and I could hear noise in the background over the line. ‘Sorry. I know it’s bad timing but something’s kicked off. Can I meet you at the restaurant instead?’
‘Of course. I’ll just get the bus in and meet you there.’
‘Great. I’m really sorry. Hopefully I won’t be too much later than we planned.’ I heard more noises in the background before he came back to me. ‘Got to go. I’ll see you later, babe.’
I made to return the sentiment but he’d already hung up.
Alex’s shifts often overran so I wasn’t worried. Thanks to everything going on in both of our lives right now, we’d actually had far fewer dates than most people who’d been going out for over two months would normally have done. I’d soon learned that his timekeeping wasn’t always the best, thanks to his job, and had adjusted around it. It wasn’t his fault and so it didn’t really become a problem. But tonight was supposed to be special. As Amy had hinted at, not so subtly, tonight might well be ‘the night’. Alex was off for a couple of days and, knowing that, I’d arranged to not work this weekend either, even though there were still a billion things I could be doing. This weekend was going to be about relaxing, being together, about us. That was the plan anyway.
Two hours later I was still sitting at the restaurant. Alone. It was a small, intimate affair, which, when there with a romantic partner, made it perfect. However, sitting at a table laid for two, when there was clearly only one of you, merely gave all the other diners a perfect view of you being stood up. The owner had kindly replaced the breadsticks after I’d gone through the first lot, but I hesitated in eating too many more. I had a feeling that his sympathetic refills might end up with me eating something close to my own bodyweight in bread if I wasn’t careful.
I’d had one text from Alex. It told me that he was still planning to make it, so I’d carried on sitting there. But after another hour with nothing from him, I was thoroughly fed up and close to the edge of livid. Even though I knew it was likely something out of his control, I was still the one sitting there like an idiot. I motioned the waiter over and requested the bill for the two glasses of wine I’d had. Glancing briefly at the owner, I saw a look exchanged between him and the server.
‘There is no charge, madame.’
‘Oh, no, really. I must pay for those.’
‘No charge,’ he repeated, smiling.
Horrified, I suddenly felt tears spring to my eyes. Their well-intentioned kindness was making me feel so much worse.
‘Thank you,’ I said, just so that he would leave and give me a chance to regain my composure. I’d had a stinking headache for the last half hour and now I just wanted to get home. I left a ten-pound note tucked under my empty wine glass as a large tip in lieu of official payment and, aware of the surreptitious glances of other diners, made my way to the door. I kept my head up and made it outside. The sticky warmth of the evening air hit me after the controlled coolness of the little restaurant and I made my way down the street. A flash to my right caught my eye and I turned to face the sea. Out on the horizon another flash lit up the water, followed by a far-off rumble.
‘Perfect.’
The darkening sky blotted out the stars and did a good job of reflecting my mood. Making a couple of turns, I headed towards the bus stop and checked the computerised arrivals board. There was one for the marina due in four minutes.
The rain now fell heavily from the sky as the wind whipped at it, the bus shelter’s roof proving insufficient protection from the forty-five-degree-angle torrent. I pulled my trench coat tighter around me, having long since given up any hope of keeping my hair or legs dry. I squinted against the rain at the arrivals board. It still said four minutes until my bus, even though I had now been standing there for ten. I gritted my teeth and silently cursed, turning to look up the road for my errant bus. As I did so, a minibus drove past, sending a plume of muddy puddle into the air. I jumped back, managing to avoid the worst of it. The van did a double toot, and I returned a very unladylike, but thoroughly deserved, hand signal. When I then heard another beep, I spun round, prepared to give them the same treatment, dropping my hand as I recognised the sleek shape now pulling to a stop in front of me. The window slid down silently and Charlie’s frowning face looked out at me.
‘Libs? What are you doing here?’
‘Waiting for a train. What do you think?’
Charlie said nothing. I ran my hand over my eyes, and back over my now soaked hair. My shoulders sagged a little. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.’
