‘Athletics, mainly. And a bit of badminton and tennis.’
‘Have you ever done any dancing? Like ballet or something?’
I don’t know where all these questions were coming from. Probably because I’d never really thought about what he was like away from work. Or more likely, I was avoiding talking about my failure with Jess today.
‘Why do you ask?’
‘Something about the way you move.’
‘I do a bit of yoga.’
That made much more sense. Why had I said ballet? And now I had an image of him and his muscular legs in tights and a codpiece. What was wrong with me?
‘So what happened with Jessica today?’ he said, deftly changing the subject. He really didn’t like talking about himself. ‘I take it she isn’t winging her way to Marcie’s place with a bunch of flowers and her most profuse apologies.’
‘No, unfortunately.’
‘Go on.’
‘I rushed it – I dived in and was shocked by her reaction. She implied that there’s more to the story than Marcie has told us. Or rather, more to it than I know.’
I paused, checking if this rattled him. His face remained impassive, but didn’t it always?
‘I’ve told you what Marcie has told me.’ He sounded genuine, but what did I know? ‘Why did you have to rush? Did she have to go somewhere?’
I squirmed. ‘No, I wanted to get it out of the way before Simon arrived. He doesn’t approve of me raking all this stuff up. Especially now that he and Jess are seeing each other.’
Nick nodded. ‘How do you feel about that?’
I smiled tightly. ‘They’re two consenting adults, what difference does it make what I think?’
‘Because you’re in love with him.’
Heat scorched my cheeks. I took a sip of my tea, hoping the mug would hide my reddening face. ‘No I’m not. We’re best friends, that’s all.’
Most of that sentence was true.
He finished his espresso and stared into the distance.
If he was going to impart some romantic wisdom he could piss off.
‘I’ve been thinking these last couple of days,’ he said. ‘Reflecting, really.’
‘About what?’
‘I’m quitting as Marcie’s publicist.’
