Across the table Annie was still pumping Kit for information. It was part of her charm offensive. Ask them all about themselves, people love that. It disarms them.
Kit, however, Harri was fascinated to realise, wasn’t one to be swept off their feet by an extrovert taking a deep interest in them. In fact, Kit looked overwhelmed.
‘When did you know you loved cooking?’ Annie was asking, and Kit hurriedly drank from their glass before answering like they were on a quickfire TV quiz show.
‘Um, I don’t know, when I was at school?’
Harri couldn’t help sneaking looks to watch the situation unfold. Kit was pressed into the furthest corner of their chair while Annie was leaning towards them, her chin propped on her hand and her eyes alight. Harri had seen her like this so many times, but usually the subject of her interest was leaning closer and closer to her, flattered and drawn in, desperate to share themselves with a stunning Texan woman with a drawling voice like smoke and bourbon.
‘Are you… enjoying your holiday?’ Anjali broke through his thoughts. When he met her eyes, she looked a little desperate.
‘It’s been fabulous, thanks.’ He smiled, bobbing his head to make up for his lack of words. It was like he’d forgotten how to talk like a normal person. ‘Annie’s the bookseller,’ Harri added at last, and it cut his friend off mid-interrogation.
‘What’s that?’ Annie asked.
‘I was saying how you’re the natural when it comes to bookselling. I’m better in the cafe. You’re great at knowing what books people want. Always was.’
Kit and Annie only smiled politely, and it dawned on Harri he’d singlehandedly stopped the entire date in its tracks. Now no one had anything to say.
Thankfully Finan was back with their food, and everyone pushed it around their plates; everyone except Annie who hoovered up her steak pie with the blue cheese oozing out from a golden pastry lattice.
‘Oh my god!’ she said between bites. ‘Kit, you’re a genius!’
The chef accepted this with a shy grin.
‘You know Harri bakes?’ Annie said across the table to Anjali, sounding like a proud parent.
‘That’s… nice,’ said the accomplished, professional Anjali, clearly unsure how she was supposed to respond to the information that a grown man possesses a basic life skill.
Why did Annie have to go and say that?Like Minty said at the village meeting, you can’t force things, attraction just happens, and it clearly wasn’t happening for Anjali.
‘So you went to uni together?’ Kit asked, trying to rescue things.
‘We sure did,’ Annie grabbed at the topic. ‘No clue how we got as far as graduation; we missed so many classes to fit in work.’
‘And gigs, and hangovers,’ said Harri, before adding wickedly, ‘thanks to Annie. She’s a bad influence, this one.’ It sounded odd and overly familiar, even for them.
Generously, Annie scoffed at this. ‘Hardly!’
‘Oh yeah?’ Harri brightened. ‘Who was it that had to fake your doctor’s note that day you sneaked out to see Christine and the Queens when you were supposed to be in our Shakespeare final?’
‘Who was it came with me to see them?’ she challenged back, eyes shining. ‘Was it fake laryngitis?’
‘Glandular fever.’
‘That’s it! And because we missed the exam, we got to spend the summer in Wales having a blast… and doing our re-sits.’
‘Sucha bad influence,’ Harri said with a ‘tisk tisk’ and a head shake.
‘I regret nothing.’ Annie laughed, but it faded fast when she realised their dates were sitting courteously by, listening to them showing off.
Harri inhaled through his teeth, shooting his eyebrows up. ‘Soooo,’ he said pointlessly, unable to come up with another topic.
Nobody talked until Kit threw a lifeline, saying they were thinking of adopting a dog.
‘Really?’ Anjali’s face transformed with happiness, before launching into telling Kit all about the two fosters she had at the surgery at that moment, two elderly greyhounds, ex-racers, both needing a quiet life with beach walks and plenty of naps.
‘I had to stop Elliot taking them both,’ she said, and Kit laughed and remarked how Elliot and Jude had already rehomed three dogs. ‘That’s probably enough to be getting on with.’
