Page 11 of The Way We Are Now

‘Up for a laugh, I think?’ He smiled in my direction.

‘Always.’

‘Hmm, I’ve seen her around a lot. Very mobile, I think?’

‘Mobile? Well, she does have her own little Mini.’

‘A yellow one?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’ Goodness, he had been taking note of Fliss. All her hard work at hunting Theo Mandeville down appeared to have borne fruit. I’d be reporting back to her the minute I got through the door. So why then was I feeling something akin to disappointment that it was Fliss he was talking about? Fliss he so obviously had the hots for?

‘OK.’ Theo said nothing more, concentrating on the road ahead until he needed to ask for directions to our student house on Kirkstall Lane.

‘You know,’ he said conversationally now, as we finally turned onto my street, ‘you and I have met before.’

‘Before the NMIB episode?’

‘NMIB?’ Theo pulled up in front of the red brick terraced house I was indicating. ‘Is that something to do with the National Union of Miners? I believe your dad’s a miner,’ he added, almost politely.

‘Naked Man In Bath, actually,’ I said, staring. ‘How on earth do you know that my dad is a miner?’

‘You told me.’ Theo smiled. ‘Actually, told is a huge under-exaggeration. You yelled it at me.’

I continued to stare. ‘I don’t know what on earth you’re talking about.’

‘Back in October. At the beginning of the autumn term. I’d just started my course here; was determined to take everything in. A friend and I got caught up in a little demonstration you were talking at.’

‘Oh?’

‘I believe Scargill had got wind of the fact that Margaret Thatcher was considering closing ninety-five pits…’

‘With a loss of one hundred thousand jobs,’ I interrupted hotly. ‘Yes, I did get up to speak at that meeting. The miners had to opt for an overtime ban – the only thing they had to try to fight off the threat of closures.’

‘Someone from the crowd heckled you,’ Theo said. ‘Wanting to know what the hell it had to do with you anyway.’

‘Someone?’

‘The bloke I was with actually.’ Theo looked uncomfortable. ‘Anyway, you thought it was me who’d asked the question and you came down on me like a ton of bricks.’

‘And it wasn’t you who’d shouted it?’ I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

Theo put up both hands. ‘Honestly, not me.’

‘And are you still friends with the bloke who did shout it?’ I knew I was being judgemental again, but I kind of liked this man and hated the idea of his hanging around with mindless idiots.

‘Do you not think one has the right to be friends with any number of different people?’ Theo asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘Well, put it this way.’ I was warming to my theme. ‘I could never see myself having a relationship with anyone voting for Thatcher.’

‘I wasn’t talking about actually having a relationship with someone.’ Theo gave me a searching look and, once more, I couldn’t help but think how utterly gorgeous he was.

‘So,’ I said, slightly embarrassed at where the conversation was going. ‘I hear you’re pretty much royalty.’

Theo burst out laughing at that and shifted his weight in his seat. ‘Sorry, just sitting on my crown. And would that bother you?’

‘Bother me? Why on earth would it bother me?’

‘What about your friend?’