Page 59 of Pride and Privilege

Don’t hate me. Forgive me. Trust me. Be my friend. Stay at the flat. Don’t let me have ruined everything…

She followed him into the flat, steps slowing, glancing from the worn little rugs on the polished wooden floor to the antique patterned wallpaper to the brass lampshades to the spindly little tables and crowded bookcases and pictures and oddities and plates covering the walls. Her gaze landed on a row of vintagepinball and arcade machines along one side. There was a huge monstera plant in a blue and yellow Chinese pot by her side. She reached out, toyed with one of the big glossy leaves.

“So… You have a secret life as an antique dealer?”

He smiled. “No.”

“You’re actually possessed by the spirit of an ancient spinster aunt?”

He breathed a laugh. “Nowthatis uncannily on the nail.” He looked around the room, at the battered leather sofa near the old Victorian fireplace, the kilim rugs, embroidered cushions, silk cushions, Moroccan leather footstool… “This was my aunt’s place. My great aunt Mabel. She lived here for decades with her friend, Sarah. Well—they used to split their time between here and Sarah’s farm in Norfolk. Sarah died a few years ago and Mabel chose to move to one of our houses in the country.” He picked up a cushion, plumped it unnecessarily. “Too heartbroken to remain here. Too many memories, I guess.”

“Sarah was her…friend?”

He gave a squinting smile. “Lover. Life partner. But in the days before such things were openly OK.” He tossed the cushion back down. “One of those family secrets everyone knows but never talks about. Anyway. Aunt Mabel offered the place to me when I started my MBA in London and I…” He shrugged. “I like it. I’ve been here ever since.”

“And your flat?”

“Investment property, mostly.”

“And a place to take girls.”

He flushed. She was smart. Smart enough to see right through him. “This place doesn’t exactly scream macho city bachelor.”

“And that’s the impression you want to give people, is it? Macho city bachelor?”

Too bloody insightful by half.

He turned away, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “It’s just easier. Less complicated.”

“Than being you?”

“Yes.”

She paused, gave him a little respite as she walked further into the room. She scanned the bookcase, took in the view from the Crittall paned window, though it showed little but the lights of the house across the road, then went over to the row of vintage game machines. “Interesting aunt,” she said wryly.

He gave a small laugh. “Ididadd a bit of my own touch. Got rid of the taxidermied animals. The lion skin rug.”

She pulled the lever on one of the pinball machines, let it spring back. “Added some macho bachelor stuff?”

“Nerdbachelor stuff.” He nodded to the flat screen TV on the wall. “And all the modern conveniences.”

She turned, leant back against the pinball machine, head tilted as she looked at him. “So why not stay here? When you offered me your flat? This is where you normally live, right?”

Shit.

“The flat is closer to work.” By approximately seven minutes. “And I…”I want to be where you are.“I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be completely alone there. Some people get nervous, alone at night.”

“And the nights you don’t come back to the flat…”

“I come here.”

“Why?”

Because the yearning gets too bad and I don’t trust myself around you.

“Spare socks,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. Then merely nodded. Looked away.

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