Page 80 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
‘Alice?’ repeated Nile patiently and I blinked and came back to reality again.
‘Sorry, I just had another idea for the book. Did you say something?’
‘Nothing important. Howisthe book coming along?’
‘A bit quicker now, though of course I’m constantly having to break off mid-sentence. If Jack isn’t interrupting me, then I’m chasing up equipment and fittings, not to mention sussing out my catering suppliers and … well, all the million and one other things on my lists.’
‘Just as well Bel and Sheila have till next Easter to get their heads round it all for their waffle house,’ he said. ‘And at least now Sheila’s realized she needs to employ someone else to run it for her.’
‘If my tearoom is a success, then I’m sure Tilda can manage it, and I’ll only have to do some early morning baking – I enjoy that – then go back to the flat and write unless I’m needed. But at first, of course, I’ll have to be there most of the time.’
We studied our menus while we talked, and when our delicious- looking starters had been set in front of us, he said, ‘I’ve finished thefirst of your novels and it was … a bit of an eye opener. I can see it owes a lot to old fairy tales and I know the earlier versions were quite horrific, but yours sets them in a contemporary world and gives them a lot more horror and some very unexpected twists.’
‘I don’t know about unexpected: half of my plots seem to end up reworking what happened to me in various ways, though I suppose most novelists do the same. The abandonment theme, and finding out you’re really a princess and all that.’
He smiled and the soft light of the candle made his eyes gleam like silver against his olive skin. They held mine and I found somehow I couldn’t look away.
‘Tonight you’remyprincess, though I won’t imprison you in my tower, Rapunzel, because after reading your novel, I’m afraid some hideous comeuppance would be on the cards,’ he said softly.
I was still staring mesmerized into his eyes and I’m not sure what I would have replied, if anything, had Henry not appeared just then and said, ‘I’m not interrupting anything, am I? Only Nico told me a customer had brought me something – I love the flail!’
‘Great, isn’t it?’ agreed Nile. ‘I know where I can get you a couple of really ancient scythes as well, if you don’t think they’d be too Grim Reaper.’
‘No – they’d literally give a bit of edge to the place!’ Henry said, grinning.
Then we told him how wonderful his food was, which was the perfect truth, and asked after Eleri.
‘She’s blooming,’ he said, and added that she hoped to see me again soon, though I expect he was simply being polite.
But he obviously thought Nile and I were a couple, because after he’d gone back to the kitchen the waiter brought over a bottle of champagne, courtesy of the house, and then, after our main course, the other waiter, Nico, suddenly appeared with a violin and gave us a table-side rendition of ‘O Sole Mio’.
Jack would havelovedit and probably sung along …
I felt hideously embarrassed because everyone looked at us, but Nile seemed amused and played up to it, first holding my hand across thetable and then edging around the bench seat until he was sitting close enough to put his arm around me.
‘What are you doing?’ I hissed.
‘We can’t disappoint them,’ he said. ‘Relax and get in the groove.’ Then he poured me another glass of champagne, so I didn’t so much relax as go limp. He was driving, so I’d already had more than my fair share.
When it was time to leave, Nile insisted on paying the bill, since he’d invited me. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, so finally I left him to settle it while I went to the cloakroom. I wasn’t entirely in command of my legs and I felt a bit weird, so it was a relief to find I looked fairly normal in the mirror, though a little flushed and glittery-eyed.
I returned to find Nile by the door, looking a bit like a stag at bay and with the bunny bride draped all over him.
‘It was always you I really loved, Nile,’ she sobbed into the lapels of his lovely suit.
‘But we only went out for a few weeks, Chloe, and then you left me for Gareth,’ he protested, looking even more hideously embarrassed when he spotted me.
I shrugged myself into my coat and walked on past and out of the door, just as two of the hen party started peeling Chloe off him.
‘You know you adore Gareth and he thinks you’re the best thing since sliced bread,’ one of them was saying. The country must be littered with Nile’s exes, which reinforced my determination not to weaken and become one of them.
The moment the cold air hit me, so did the full effect of the alcohol and I reeled. Nile must have escaped right after I left, because suddenly his arm came round me just before I fell over.
‘Hold up,’ he said. ‘You should have waited for me – you’ve had too much champagne.’
‘There’s no such thing as too much champagne,’ I informed him. ‘And I left because it was all a bit embarrassing in there.’
‘Tell me about it!’ he said ruefully. Then he began to steer me in a straighter line towards the car.
