Chapter Eight
A series of text messages had pinged back and forth between Lucy and Alex all weekend and well into the following week. Alex had suggested going to watch some comedy at the famous 99 club in Leicester Square the following Wednesday night. He had booked tickets and suggested that they meet before the show started to have dinner. Lucy was thrilled at the prospect of a second date and was buzzing all week on a tremendous high. Lettie and Simon stared at her enviously, shaking their heads from time to time and quipping that they wanted the old grumpy Lucy back, she was far less nauseating. Lucy told them both to shut up and continued humming happily to herself, suddenly finding her job much less painful, walking from meeting to meeting with a spring in her step.
‘So, how was it?’ Jack asked, sidling over to her at the coffee machine. Lucy felt the usual rush of excitement in his presence.
‘It was great, thank you,’ smiled Lucy. ‘Not that it’s got anything to do with you!’
‘Who is the lucky man?’
‘His name is Alex.’
‘Alex?’
‘Yes.’
‘And what does he do? This Alex?’ asked Jack in a slightly mocking tone.
‘He’s a lawyer,’ said Lucy.
‘A lawyer indeed? Very nice! And… will you be seeing him again?’
‘I certainly hope so. He’s lovely,’ she said, adding ‘and, what’s more, he’s single!’ Lucy looked at him pointedly, determined not to show him how much she wished that he was single too.
‘Yes, yes. That certainly helps,’ he acknowledged with a rueful smile. She noticed that he had dark bags underneath his eyes. Her heart went out to him as she allowed herself to imagine once more that he truly was unhappy in his relationship. So what if he was unhappy, a voice popped into her head. It was absolutely not her concern.
As Wednesday evening approached, her excitement levels almost reached bursting point. She found herself daydreaming about Alex’s handsome face, his curly eyelashes, that angular jaw, his strong, big hands touching her here, there and… she had to constantly wrench her attention back to the task in hand. Sometimes her daydreams morphed from Alex into Jack, and back again. She marvelled at the powers of physical attraction, at how she could be so drawn to such different men at the same time. But there was no doubting she couldn’t wait to see Alex again and was slightly worried that she might pounce on him uncontrollably and rip his clothes off the minute she did. It had been a long time since she had been physically intimate with a man, and she had missed it. She would have to exercise some serious self-restraint.
At five thirty on Wednesday she met Claudia for a pre-date drink outside her office. Claudia was an even darker shade of olive with her Maldivian tan and looked radiant despite the come-down she was apparently experiencing: a combination of post-wedding anticlimax and post-honeymoon blues. She grilled Lucy for every detail of their date, read every single text message between Alex and Lucy and then declared that she was satisfied, this was definitely love, saying howexcitingit was that her best friend was going to marry Dan’s friend and live happily ever after and have lots of babies. Lucy told her to stop getting carried away with herself, allowing a very secret, deep part of herself to scream‘I know!’silently whilst the rest of her tried its best to remain calm, with realistic second date expectations.
‘How is the forbidden work crush?’ asked Claudia. She was the only person that Lucy had dared tell about Jack. ‘Hopefully meeting Alex has put paid to that?’
‘If only… I know it’s ridiculous and I am disgusted with myself, really I am, but I still can’t help it. There’s just something about Jack. He’s so confident and so good at what he does and he flirts with meallthe time which doesn’t help.’
‘Do you flirt back?’
‘I am trying really hard not to. I keep bringing up his wife and I’ve even told him about Alex.’
‘Good. I’m glad to hear it. He shouldn’t be flirting with you at all. It’s so unfair. His poor wife!’ said Claudia.
‘Don’t!’ said Lucy. ‘I feel guilty enough already. I should never have encouraged him,’ she said.
‘Why did you then?’ she asked with a slightly accusatory undertone. Lucy supposed she was sticking up for married women now that she had joined their ranks.
‘It started as harmless banter, or so I thought. And he’s way more senior than me, so I hardly thought he meant it…’
‘How has his seniority got anything to do with it?!’ asked Claudia. ‘He’d hardly be the first man to have an affair with a junior at work… it’s the old cliché of a man and his secretary!’
‘Look, Clauds, nothing’s going to happen, I promise. Hopefully if things work out with Alex, then he’ll get the message loud and clear that I’m taken and give up!’
‘Yes, thank god for Alex,’ agreed Claudia. ‘The whole thing sounds like an absolute recipe for disaster.’
Feeling slightly exhausted by this mini-interrogation, Lucy expertly deflected the attention away from herself and back onto the honeymoon, listening with envy about the five-star treatment that newly-weds receive in the Maldives. Rose petals scattered on the bed and in the bathtub, your own private sunbeds overlooking the sea, sun downers on little glass-bottom boats to look at the tropical fish swimming below. All in all, it sounded like paradise.
They chatted happily over their white wine spritzers until, before she knew it, it was time for her to go. She checked her make-up in her hand-held mirror, applied some bright pink lipstick to ‘make her eyes look naughty’, as Granny Annie always said, and set off for Leicester Square, kissing Claudia goodbye.
Lucy loved that feeling of London as the summer began. Now they were in the month of July, the weather was starting to get warmer. She walked through the streets watching the tourists admire the beautiful majesty of the buildings and parks and feeling extremely fond of her city. At Leicester Square she wove her way through the masses towards the comedy club and saw Alex leaning against the wall, holding two tickets in his hand. He looked up as she approached him, smiling warmly at her, and enveloped her in a massive hug. The peppery smell of his aftershave combined with the touch of his skin made her stomach lurch like a car being jumpstarted; he briefly kissed her on the lips and said, ‘Good to see you, Luce.’
‘Hi Alex. Good to see you too. I’ve just been having a drink with Claudia,’ said Lucy. ‘She sends her love.’
