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Solo smiled. “For another day, right.”
“So, now I’ve bared my soul, how about you? Who broke your heart, Dr J?”
He stared into his pint for long moments. “I had a long-term girlfriend since university.”
She’d known as much. He was rebounding. “Did it end recently?”
“Roughly nine months ago.”
“What happened?”
He shrugged. “We grew apart. I guess we were like Judith and her boyfriend. Comfortable. We’d been together a long time.”
“So was it you or her? Who broke it off?”
He was stroking patterns in the condensation on his glass, his head averted. She saw a muscle tic in his jaw.He’s not over her,she thought.
“Her. But I could see the sense of it.”
“Very magnanimous of you.”
He gave a downturned smile and she just couldn’t leave it there. “Was there another guy involved?”
“Nope.”
He was lying, you didn’t need a degree in social work to tell that. Suddenly, she didn’t want to play this game anymore. There were sharp little needles stabbing into her chest.
“I see,” she said. “You know what, two G&Ts on top of yoga and I’m pooped. I think I should go home.”
“Yes. Right. I’ll walk with you.”
“Nice of you to always offer, Dr J, but I’m quite capable…”
“You think I want to sit here drowning my sorrows on my own?”
She felt her shoulders sag. “I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to have another heavy conversation.”
“Maybe we should do something fun for a change?” he ventured.
Her heart betrayed her by bumping hard against her ribs. “What— you mean now?”
“No, not now, over the weekend, maybe? I don’t know, maybe we should go somewhere, out into the bush, explore a bit.”
She sighed and gathered up her belongings. She wanted to say it was too confusing, all this advancing and retreating. Like some kind of weird dance that neither of them knew the steps to.
“Oh, I don’t know… you know how I don’t date—”
He finished for her “—work colleagues. Yes, you told me already.”
Which was a joke really, after the other night, and they both knew it.
As they made their way onto the street, Solo moved ahead, walking backwards in front of her, arms spread wide. “Come on, we enjoy each other’s company, what’s to lose? I’m only here for a short time, we’re good together”—he waggled his eyebrows and she couldn’t help laughing—“and we’re both walking wounded apparently, so…”
She tilted her chin. “Speak for yourself. My wounds are long healed, thank you.”
“Okay, scarred then. And both big, grown-up people; we know the score. Why not enjoy some no-strings time together?”
Why not indeed? She had no logical argument against it. At the end of his locum, Solo would go back to Sydney, and she’d… she’d go back to being a party girl. Yeah. No strings attached, a free spirit.
