Page 21 of Teacakes & Tangos
I smiled and we exchanged numbers. Then I waved her off in her little red mini.
She seemed like such a lovely woman and was thankfully showing no visible signs of the harrowing thing that had happened to her.
But she’d got confused about her bank card, and she’d asked me the same question three times:Are you close to your father?
It had taken a real toll on Dad and me, watching my gran slip further and further away from us until she no longer knew who we were.
Of course, Minnie was a good decade older than Dad’s mum had been when she first started showing symptoms. Minnie looked to be in her eighties. So maybe her forgetfulness was simply a symptom of getting older?
Thinking of Minnie’s kind heart and her dazzling smile, I found myself really hoping that was the case...
*****
It was later that day and I was sitting in the bar of the Swan Hotel.
I was getting the distinct feeling I’d been stood up.
Glancing at my phone for the millionth time, I clocked that I’d been waiting in the bar of the Swan Hotel for exactly fifteen minutes past the time we’d agreed to meet – but ‘Stephen’ (GSOH, likes football and chickens) still hadn’t appeared.
I’d trawled through the responses to my online profile and narrowed it down to two ‘possibles’.
‘Gary’ looked nice and ‘normal’ in his photo – although since he’d posted only one picture, I couldn’t help feeling a little doubtful. It was probably the best photo ever taken of him, shot from exactly the right flattering angle when he was standing roughly a hundred yards away from the camera. It was also quite possibly a decade old.
Not that I was in any way cynical about the opposite sex these days. Why would I be? Being dumped by my fiancé thirteen days before our big white wedding was obviously something I’d taken completely in my stride. (Ha ha.)
My other possible match, ‘Stephen’, had caught my eye mainly because I’d found the ‘likes football and chickens’ mildly intriguing. Not the football bit, but the ‘chickens’.
Was he genuinely into ‘the good life’? Did he really have hens pecking away in a coop in his back garden? Or was it much more mundane than that? Had he actually meant to say ‘likes chicken’? Without the ‘s’? Which would obviously suggest that any future dates were likely to feature a well-known chain of restaurants beginning with the letter ‘N’.
I stifled a sigh, wishing I’d stayed in and watched TV, instead of faffing around getting dressed up for a date I didn’t even wantto go on... a date which Iwouldn’thave gone on – if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was doing it for Dad!
I’d promised him faithfully I’d get back onto the dating scene and I wasn’t about to back out.
So I’d sit there until ‘Stephen’ showed up and then maybe I’d have something interesting to report to Dad the next day...
But as the minutes ticked by and I sipped my cola, I was resigning myself to a no-show.
Lyndsay, my best friend, had texted me asking about Dad, and I’d told her there was no change and that I was sitting in a bar on my own, having possibly been stood up.
I’ll give him another 15 minutes then I’m leaving
She texted straight back.
Wish I could join you there but it’s date night and I don’t think Jon would appreciate me deserting him for you!
I ended with:No problem. I’ll just sit here feeling sad and unloved. LOL. See you soon!
Drumming my fingers on the table, I drank my cola in tiny sips and stared at the door.
‘Stephen-GSOH-likes-football-and-chickens/chicken’ hadn’t even texted me with an excuse. And he was now half an hour late. He obviously wasn’t coming. Not that I was particularly bothered. Maybe I’d go straight to the hospital from here and tell Dad about nice, normal-looking Gary...
Mind made up, I picked up my bag, left the bar and hurried out.
I was slightly distracted, thinking about buses and whether I’d be able to get to the hospital this late – there weren’t many buses running in the evenings – so I wasn’t looking where I was going and as I exited onto the high street, I bumped straight into someone walking past.
‘Whoops, sorry,’ I mumbled.
‘Whoa, are you okay?’ said a voice that sounded a little familiar. ‘Anika?’
