AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She hesitated. ‘There’s nothing to be happy about, not yet. But thanks.’
I couldn’t stop smiling. Val was going to make an amazing mum.
‘And don’t worry,’ she said, ‘I’m not suddenly going to be obsessed with talking about ovulation cycles and nothing but ovulation cycles.’
‘It’s fine if you are.’
‘Anyway, enough about me,’ said Val, still being impressively restrained with the wine. I reckoned she could make one small glass last all night. I made a concerted effort to slow down so that she didn’t feel like she was missing out. ‘What’s going on with you and our extremely attractive American CEO?’
I groaned. ‘God knows. I agreed to go for dinner with him, but I just don’t think I’m that into it. But then – and I probably should have told you this before – that was kind of what attracted me to him in the first place.’
‘It was?’ said Val.
I looked at her sheepishly. ‘I might have thought it was the perfect way to get everyone off my back about dating. I thought someone like Tyler, who I couldn’t imagine actually falling for, and who lives thousands of miles away, would be the perfect way for me to stay in control of my feelings. A sort of no-risk dating situation.’
Val gave me one of her knowing looks. ‘You know what my therapist would say?’
I shook my head. ‘No, Val, please don’t.’
‘She would say,’ said Val, ploughing on, ‘that you were attracted to him precisely because you knew it would never work. That you’re displaying avoidant tendencies because of your past and sabotaging your chances of finding real love.’
‘Would she now?’
Val took a furtive sip of wine. ‘You don’t think there’s some truth to that?’
I pushed back my chair. ‘Maybe,’ I said, resigned to the fact that Val was onto me. ‘Look, I really need the loo.’
‘Don’t think you’re getting out of having this conversation by physically removing yourself from it,’ said Val too loudly as I bolted for the bathrooms. ‘That’s what avoidant people do!’
When I walked out of the ladies’ and into the bar it was absolutely rammed, what with it being 7 p.m. on a Thursday, the perfect evening for after-work drinks because even if you were hung-over the next day, you only had eight hours of work to get through.
As I squeezed past a group of girls at the bar, I felt a hand resting lightly on my waist.
‘Hello,’ said someone in my ear.
I was about to remove said hand and unleash at whoever it belonged to when I looked up and saw Jack standing there looking smarter than normal – he had a shirt on, albeit a black one – and there were two drinks on the bar next to him: a beer and what looked like a G&T.
‘Fancy seeing you here,’ I said, in that too-enthusiastic tone I used when I bumped into someone I didn’t particularly want to see but I wanted them to think I was ecstatic about it. I reckoned he’d been avoiding me since our drink at the pub. Who was I kidding? Since our kiss, more like. I’d been playing it over and over in my head, which annoyed me, because it had been nothing really, just a silly moment. I blamed the stormy weather – it did funny things to you, wasn’t that what they said?
‘You look nice,’ he said.
I looked down at my pale pink blouse and faux leather pencil skirt and was glad I’d made an effort this morning. I fiddled with the top button of my blouse.
‘I work on Kingsway,’ I explained. ‘This is one of our regular haunts. Well, the regular haunt we go to when we want to talk without being interrupted by cheesy nineties pop and a constant stream of people from the office.’
‘Ha!’ he said. ‘I see.’
‘What about you, what brings you here?’
Jack picked up the drinks from the bar. ‘I’m here with Nathalie, actually. She’s got some project she wants me to get involved with. A show she’s hoping to take to Edinburgh next year.’
‘That sounds interesting,’ I replied, spotting Nathalie waiting at a table in the corner. Maybe that explained why he’d felt weird about kissing me; he was probably in the process of getting back with her. ‘I should get back to my friend,’ I said, nodding in Val’s direction.
Val, I noticed, had perked up like a meerkat and was watching us with great energy and interest.
‘OK,’ said Jack. ‘And listen, I meant to pop round to go through that presentation with you, but I’ve been flat out with the Accident & Emergency thing and the pub. If I’m not back from Elstree too late on Monday, I’ll call in, if you like? Tell you how the job went. And you can show me your presentation.’
‘Sure. But don’t put yourself out.’
