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‘I really have,’ he said solemnly.
I was still attempting to decipher his meaning when he took the mood and flipped it. ‘Besides, you slipped out of the coffee shop without saying goodbye.’
I was glad the hospital grounds were dark enough to conceal my blush. ‘I’m sorry about that. I know it was rude of me, but I was anxious to get back to Hannah.’
Finn’s expression turned serious once more. ‘I’m sorry, I should have asked that first: how is your friend doing?’
‘I think she and the baby are going to be fine,’ I said, feeling as though a heavy weight I hadn’t even known I was carrying was suddenly lifting from my shoulders.
‘Well, that’s terrific news,’ he replied with a grin. Something happened to Finn’s face when he smiled, or maybe it just happened to the people around him. Either way, it ignited a sensation I’d never experienced before. It made me inexplicably want to run both to and away from him.
His fingers lightly touched my elbow, guiding me towards a pathway that I could already see would take us to the multi-storey car park. ‘I remembered you saying earlier that you’d left your car at the park-and-ride, so I thought you might like a lift back to it.’
‘That’s really kind of you, but I can just as easily call an Uber.’
Finn came to a stop, his face half hidden in the shadows thrown by the boughs of a tree. ‘I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. I shouldn’t have just assumed you’d be happy to get into a car with someone you scarcely know. The last thing I want to do is make you feel uncomfortable.’
He did. For a great many reasons. But none of them were the ones he was worrying about. He’d probably have been truly shocked to know that far from being someone I hardly remembered, he’d actually lived on in my memory for a very long time.
‘No, it’s not that at all,’ I said, and even to my own ears I could hear how flustered I sounded. ‘I just don’t want to take you out of your way this late at night.’
‘You don’t know that it will,’ he argued reasonably.
He was right. I had no idea where he lived. Or anything else about him, come to that. And yet he felt so much more than a stranger to me.
‘Why don’t we just call this part of the service the coffee shop extends to all its best customers?’
I laughed then, as with unspoken agreement we headed into the shadowy car park. ‘Except that I didn’tpayfor the cakes, remember?’
‘Well then, you can buy our first dinner together,’ he said easily, as he pointed his key fob into the car park and a dark-coloured sedan squeaked back at him. He made it sound like a foregone conclusion that we’d share a meal at some point in the future, but I couldn’t see that happening somehow.
Even so, my pulse was skipping along faster than usual as I buckled myself into the passenger seat of his car. This man was no stranger; I knew his name, I knew where he worked, and I’d already told Hannah that I’d run into him that afternoon. All things considered, accepting a lift home with Finn was a fairly low-risk activity. So why did it feel as though I was doing something incredibly dangerous?
Fortunately, journalists aren’t known for long or awkward silences, and with two of us in the car it was inevitable that before long we’d both come out with questions blazing.
‘So how have things worked out for you atGlowmagazine?’
‘What prompted your change of career?’
We laughed as our questions collided.
‘You first,’ Finn said, his eyes on the road as he moved into a stream of fast-flowing traffic.
‘What makes you think I got the job or that I still work there?’
Finn didn’t strike me as the type who was easily fazed, but he looked momentarily thrown by my reply. I studied his profile and swear I caught the moment when the lie he was going to tell me was suddenly discarded.
‘I’ve read a few of your pieces over the years. You’re good.’
I fidgeted in the passenger seat. I was normally better at accepting compliments, at least those about my work, but his praise made me uncomfortable.
‘I wouldn’t have had the job at all if you hadn’t walked away from it. Whydidyou do that, anyway?’
‘Hey, I thought I was the one asking the questions first.’
I said nothing, knowing from experience that was the surest way to get someone to open up. Finn really ought to have remembered that from his previous career.
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ he said eventually. ‘The job atGlowwas never mine.’
