Giggling, she pushed his hand away and lowered her voice when Enid looked interested at the change in atmosphere. ‘You will not.’
‘But you still have his number, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘So ask him. Text and demand an answer. What’s the worst he could do? Ignore you?’
‘He could reply and I might not like it.’
‘Then I’ll meet you in the city, get you horribly drunk and you can take it from there.’
Her insides did a loop-the-loop at his suggestion of taking her out.
‘Come on, Amelia, get the closure you deserve.’ He nodded towards the phone she’d left on the table in case Kyle called.
With a deep breath she picked up the phone, tapped out a quick message asking for an explanation and pressed send before she could change her mind. With a nervous laugh she put it face down on the table again as though by hiding the display she could avoid his reply when, or indeed if, it came.
‘Well done. Feel better?’
‘In a weird way I really do. I should’ve done that a long time ago.’
‘No, wouldn’t have worked, you weren’t ready. But now, you are.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
‘Whoever you were when you were with him, I get the feeling it wasn’t the same girl as the one sitting opposite me now. Am I right?’
‘I suppose you are.’ He barely knew her yet he was spot on. Connie had said something similar to her when she and Paul first broke up. She’d said that he was always trying to turn her into the person he wanted, the type of girlfriend who complemented him, rather than let her be a person in her own right. At the time Amelia thought her sister was being dramatic and she was too devastated to really consider what she meant. But now Amelia saw that perhaps Connie had made a really astute point. And it had taken Amelia thousands of miles and a stranger to point it out, for her to really get it.
‘So what’s the other reason?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You said there were a couple of reasons for you needing this break.’
Sitting opposite him this close made her nervous, but she’d shared so much already, she may as well confide everything now. ‘I got into a bit of trouble at work.’
‘And what is it you do?’
‘I’m a youth worker.’ She waited for Enid to wipe the table next to them, wondering whether she was attempting to eavesdrop and feed the local gossip mill.
‘I’m not surprised, you’re a bit of a natural.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far, especially these days. My problem lately is that I get too involved in my cases.’
‘I would’ve thought that was a prerequisite.’
‘Calling a kid’s mother unsavoury names wasn’t exactly in the job description.’
‘What did you call her?’ The corners of his mouth twitched in amusement when she reiterated what she’d said. ‘I can see why she and your boss may have taken exception.’
‘I shouldn’t have shot my mouth off but I was frustrated. I guess that’s one of the drawbacks of the job. So much is out of your hands and even if a kid shows all the signs of reordering their life and turning themselves around, all it takes is a parent to start calling the shots and ruin all the hard work. I’m not saying it’s all parents, but a few don’t seem to understand that their kid has potential, they can have a better life. And when I see them deliberately sabotaging a kid’s efforts and making them feel awful about themselves, well, I get pretty annoyed.’ She took a deep breath when she realised she was getting agitated all over again.
He smiled. ‘You do ramble when you’re nervous.’
‘What makes you think I’m nervous?’ But she already knew her cheeks had coloured inside out of the cold, in front of this man who was a pleasure to be with.
‘Your job sounds tough.’ His eyes never left hers when she braved looking up.
