‘It’s getting warm already, isn’t it?’ She wafted the glossy magazine she held and ran her eyes over his face. The colour remained there.
He smiled a little more. ‘Yes, it is. Going to be another hot one.’
‘Maybe we could get together for a trip to the beach later. Take a dip in the sea and… cool off.’ She smiled. Frankly, if Charlie didn’t burst into flames there and then I wouldn’t have been at all surprised ifIdid.
‘Oh, that sounds lovely,’ he said, ‘but we’re actually off out today, along the coast.’ He squeezed me against him, his arm around my waist.
We are?
Charlie’s neighbour gave a smile as she turned herself a little more, bodily excluding me from the conversation. I was glad of the sunglasses, as I was currently looking far less presentable than I generally managed. Wasn’t that always the way? On days you felt good, you wouldn’t see anyone. But get a day when you felt like death on the back burner, you could almost guarantee you’d run into someone you knew. And it was even more likely to be someone you would much rather have run into when you were looking your absolute best. Like an old boyfriend, an ex-schoolmate who was always snotty to you, or a smoking-hot neighbour of your smoking-hot male friend. I mean, it wasn’t as if Charlie and I were dating, so there wasn’t that aspect, but still…
‘I didn’t know you were heading out last night. You should have called on me. We could have had some fun. Although it looks like you might have had some without me.’ She leant in and whispered the last bit as though I weren’t there. Her eyes half closing as she smiled and pouted at Charlie, all in the same movement. Quite the achievement. And then my brain caught up and my mouth dropped open as I realised she’d just referenced my walk of shame! I knew it! This was exactly what I meant! Well, not exactly. I hadn’t expected to be confronted with it quite so directly.
‘Last-minute thing. You know.’
Wait! What? Charlie, no!
As I made to move Charlie almost imperceptibly tightened his hand on my waist, keeping me pinned there. Fine. But he better have a hell of an explanation for making me out to be someone he just picked up by chance last night.
‘Another time.’
Charlie nodded.
‘Bye, Charlie.’
‘’Bye, Elaine. Have a good day.’
She turned back and let her gaze drape over him from head to toe. ‘Thanks,’ she breathed.
Charlie kept his hand at my waist and began moving us down the path towards the street, heading over to where his car was parked. A resident’s parking tag showed in the windscreen.
‘Wow.’
‘Yes. She is a bit.’
‘Even you must be able to see that this one wants to get you into bed.’
He gave me a look and opened the passenger door for me. ‘Yes. Thank you for that.’
‘So, I guess you don’t feel the same way?’ I asked, when he got in.
‘No.’
‘She’s stunning.’ I paused, thinking of how she’d signalled with that incredible body that I, most definitely, wasn’t part of the conversation. ‘If a little rude.’
‘Part of my objection,’ he said as the engine awoke with a burble and Charlie manoeuvred the sleek car out of the parking space and pulled up to the junction with the main road.
‘I don’t think hooking up with her would be anything to do with manners, Charlie.’ I laughed.
He turned his head to the right, looking for a gap in the traffic that was now building as people trekked to the seaside to take advantage of a Sunday with great weather. After a couple of minutes he pulled out, the throaty engine sucking in the warm air of the morning and growling in pleasure.
‘You know I’m not really the hook-up type, Libs.’
‘Really?’
He glanced across at me. The clear gaze was hidden behind a pair of D&G sunglasses but I could still see his frown. ‘You must have worked that out.’
‘Well, you just made me do the walk of shame and rubbed it in her face. So apparently you do hook up sometimes.’
