Holly had summarised after a moment. “Did you get Alex’s number too?”
“No, but he’s going to add me on Facebook.”
“Okay.” Holly had dropped her voice conspiratorially. “I think he might fancy me or something,” she’d admitted.
Nadia had laughed. “What makes you think that?”
“Well, he ditched his friends and full-on stalked us to Bison.”
“We’d invited him!” Nadia had protested. But maybe, on reflection…
“Has Alex added you yet?” Nadia was pulled back to the present and looked up to where Holly was leaning through the doorway part-way into her bedroom.
“What’s it matter to you? I thought you weren’t interested,” Nadia teased.
Holly rolled her eyes. “Please, I’m not. You know me. I like a bad boy!” That was the understatement of the century. “And Alex is hardly a bad boy.” But that was another one.
“Hey, he’s quite sexy in a suit-and-tie sort of way,” Nadia shrugged. “And he’s got gorgeous eyes.”
“I hadn’t even noticed,” Holly admitted. “And I don’t know why you did, when you had Matt’s, your future husband, eyes there to be looking into.”
Nadia rolled her eyes. “Okay, I guess Matt's eyes were alright too.”
“I wonder if your kids will have his colouring or yours?”
“Hols, please.” Nadia gestured at her laptop. “He hasn't even poked me on Facebook yet. Children aren’t exactly imminent.”
Holly squinted at the laptop screen. “Who actually still pokes on Facebook?” she asked, incredulous.
“I think it’s been so long that it’s actually acceptable again now, it’s retro or something,” Nadia told her, authoritatively. “Maybe I should poke Alex,” she decided.
Holly laughed. “Okay. I’ll see you when you get back from 2006.” She saluted dismissively as she slipped back into the hallway.
Alex
This was the first summer Alex was really spending time with Lila. Sure, there'd been parties and beach days and road trips in the warm weather throughout the three years they'd been in the same group of friends at university, but it wasn't quite the same thing. He'd had Alice back then, and that had blocked him from ever getting around to thinking about Lila in the way he did now. And last year, her relationship with Rory was too new, but this summer everything was much more comfortable. Including her attire.
“God.” Lila exhaled heavily and rolled her tank top another inch up her stomach. “It’s so hot.” She sank down further into the sofa cushions. “Are there any windows left that we can open?”
“Nope, we’ve got them all,” Alex told her apologetically, staring anywhere than at Lila, who seemed to consist of an impossible amount of naked arms and legs, bare creamy skin from all angles. He took a distracted sip from his glass of coke, which had hit room temperature in the space of five minutes. It was the very last from Rory’s litre bottle, but, well, you snooze you lose – literally.
Lila blew strands of hair from her face listlessly. “I wish Rory would just get up. It can’t be any hotter outside.”
“Well, if he really drank another tray of those shots after I left, I doubt we’re going to be seeing him this side of three o’clock, to be honest.”
Lila made a cross noise. “I might just go home, you know. What’s the point of me just hanging around here?” Alex must have allowed his hurt to flash on his face as Lila’s expression immediately softened. “Aside from obviously getting to hang out with you. But you know what I mean.” She smiled sadly. “Sometimes I feel like it’s you and me who are the couple.”
She did this, sometimes – he could swear it was on purpose. She created little openings by saying things like that, looked at him through her eyelashes as if she was expecting something. He wished he could work out what it was that she wanted from him. It was too much to hope it would be the same thing that he wanted from her. There'd been once or twice at uni where he'd gotten the feeling she was interested in him. But maybe that was just the arrogant sort of guy he'd been back then.
“Come on.” Alex got to his feet. “If we’re going to just doss around and waste our Saturday we might as well do it in the sun on the Common. Grab your flipflops.”
Nadia
Matt appeared to be wearing the same Lacoste polo shirt he’d been wearing the night they’d met in Bison. Of course, it was entirely possible that he owned more than the one – did they come in double packs as standard, she wondered?
Realising belatedly that Matt had asked her a question and was waiting attentively for her response, Nadia stalled for time by taking a large drink from her wine glass.
“Oh, totally,” she decided to go with, relieved when Matt just nodded enthusiastically.
“I know, right?”
As far as first dates went, it was a smidgeon underwhelming; it was mostly down to her to be fair. Not wanting to just assume that Matt would be bankrolling the refreshments – but unable to afford anything much – Nadia had suggested the Bankside All Bar One, where she knew you could always get a voucher for a sharing platter and a bottle of plonk for under eleven quid. The so-called Sauvignon was acidic and warm as bath water against her teeth – her own fault for ordering the house white and not insisting on an ice bucket. She swilled down another mouthful. She had a bit of drink envy. Matt was drinking a nice-smelling fruit cider from a slim-necked, fat-bottomed vintage bottle. Ironically, he’d said that he thought men drinking wine was effeminate.
What was she doing here? This was hardly the right time to start dating somebody, even if they were tall, gorgeous and conveniently named…
Her thoughts had wandered again; she forced them back to what Matt was saying just a moment too late.
“So what about you?” he asked with a wide smile. Shit! There was no fudging around that one. Sighing she put her wine glass down.
“I’m sorry, I just got totally distracted. What was the last thing you said?”
Matt’s smile grew wider. “Only the very last thing?”
“I’m sorry,” Nadia repeated. “It’s so loud in here.” Lie. Maybe if you were half-deaf. Matt’s smile grew all the wider.
“Here, let’s do this, then.” He stood and dragged his chair from opposite her to next to her, reaching back to scoot his pretty cider bottle closer along the table. The scraping of the chair legs across the floor tiles drew attention from several tables over. Nadia saw a glossy city type in a fluffy pussy-bow blouse appraise Matt before dipping her head in closer towards her two friends to comment. They all then proceeded to stare across at them over the rims of their wine glasses.
Whereas she was normally pretty comfortable in herself, at that moment Nadia felt exceedingly rumpled next to Matt’s Lacoste-clad glory. She wasn’t sure how people who lived in year-round hot climates managed it, but the minute it got above twenty-four degrees she turned into a limp-haired, flush-faced state. She had agonised over the fact that the only clothing she could bear to put on her in this heat were linen sun-dresses, scantily short and pretty much see-through in the right light (which she very much hoped the bar didn’t have). Still, Matt had greeted her with an appreciative look, told her she looked nice, and had kept his eyes politely on her face all night, ignoring the temptations of her loose spaghetti straps or mid-thigh hemline with aplomb.
Pussy-bow and her friends continued to look over shamelessly. Nadia very much hoped they were just fascinated by the gorgeous, perfect-looking couple and not wondering what the hell a godly stud like him was doing with a minger like her. My hair’s not actually greasy; I did wash it, she