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‘Oh, sure. OK. Will you be all right getting home?’
I put my empty glass on a nearby table and pulled on my coat. ‘Course.’
Rory, whose voice was getting louder and more boisterous as time went on, tried to drag Jack into some sort of debate he was having with Nathalie about who had directed some obscure foreign film and Jack held up his finger to indicate he’d be a minute.
‘I’ll walk you out,’ he said.
I said goodbye to Rory and Nathalie, who barely stopped ranting long enough to acknowledge me, and followed Jack out of the bar and onto the street, where lots of people were gathered for post-performance drinks, despite the cold. I wrapped my coat around myself.
‘Thanks so much for the ticket,’ I said. ‘It was lovely to do something different.’
He nodded. ‘If I get any more freebies I’ll definitely let you know.’
‘OK.’
‘Not that it needs to be free. I mean, we could just pay for a ticket like normal people.’
I laughed.
Jack pushed his hair off his face with the heel of his hand. ‘How are you going to get back?’
I nodded my head towards the entrance to Finsbury Park underground. ‘I’ll jump on the tube, I think. It’s too cold to hang around waiting for buses.’
A gust of wind sent my hair flying across my face and Jack reached out and tucked it behind my ear, so that for a few, delicious seconds he was almost cradling my face in his hand. It was so unexpected that I didn’t know how to react. Part of me wanted to put my hand over his and keep him there, but then I knew that if I did that we’d have crossed a line and that things couldn’t go back to the nice, safe, uncomplicated way they had been before.
Jack dropped his arms to his sides, as though he’d realised the same thing; that this wasn’t what we did. Good, we were on the same page. It was better this way, for both of us. Desperate to get back to some sort of normality, I flicked my eyes away and looked through the window into the bar. Nathalie was looking in our direction, glaring at us with a face like thunder.
‘Nathalie seems nice,’ I said, although I didn’t really mean that, so I didn’t know why I’d said it.
‘She can be,’ he replied.
I got the sense that she was still interested in Jack, although maybe it was just her competitive streak coming out. Not that she needed to feel threatened by me.
‘Listen, were you serious about helping me with my lines?’ said Jack. ‘Only, rehearsals for the play start in a couple of weeks and I want to get on top of things. Go in really prepared. I really feel like this could be a turning point for me.’
‘Of course. Any time. Just let me know.’
I meant it, too. When it was just the two of us it was fun and easy and I was always happy to help an actor in need.
He nodded. ‘Great. Well, then. Have a safe journey home.’
My feet didn’t seem to want to move. In a way, I could have stayed there all night, chatting in the cold, but what would that have achieved? I felt around in my pocket for my Oyster card.
‘See you soon,’ I said, giving him a half-wave over my shoulder as I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other and walk in the direction of the tube.
