Lisa kept her voice hushed and attempted to be discreet. ‘I’m Lisa Blake.’
‘Pardon,’ the man frowned, tipping his head, tryingto hear her the way Jack sometimes did.
‘I’m Lisa Blake.’
‘Eggs and bacon?’ the man asked.
‘I’m Lisa Blake,’ she repeated more firmly.
‘What, luv?’
‘I’M LISA BLAKE!’ Lisa shouted in exasperation opening her fleece in a flasher fashion to reveal the name on her T-shirt.
The man’s eyes goggled. ‘Whey hey, so you are,’ he said laughing, before regaininghis composure and noticing Lisa’s stern expression. ‘Oh, of course. Right. Hold on.’ He walked over to the phone and returned with a notepad. ‘It’s a message from Dom,’ he began. ‘“Sorry, I can’t make it. I’ve been called away on an emergency. I never meant to leave you stranded and will be in touch soon. So don’t say your goodbyes and hold on to that, Rose.”’ The man looked up from the pad andpassed her the piece of paper that also had a number on. With a confused expression, he added, ‘Whatever that means.’
Lisa felt completely humiliated, not only had she been stood up, the fact she had shouted her name meant she had drawn attention to herself; all eyes were on her. And to top it all, Dom had left a stupid cryptic message that she suspected had something to do with the filmTitanic, if her memory served her correctly. She felt like a fool. She thanked the man, spun on the heels of her walking boots and tried desperately not to make eye contact with any of the onlookers as she began to stride back to her van.Called away on an emergency, indeed; motorbike needs a polish, does it?
‘But wait, there’s more,’ the man called after her.
‘It’s OK,’ Lisa calledback, having no intention of returning to the kiosk. She couldn’t believe it; she wasn’t sure she had ever felt so embarrassed – stood up and publicly humiliated in one. She started ranting to herself, ‘Honestly, why make the date if he wasn’t going to keep it? Not that it probably ever was a date – oh, Lisa Blake, you are such a fool!’ But as she reached her van she heard the man’s voice overthe tannoy once more.
‘This is for you, Lisa Blake.’
Lisa stood glued to the spot dreading what on earth was coming next. But as Celine Dion’s voice burst out over the tannoy with the theme toTitanic, she couldn’t help but smile.
