Page 22 of Teacakes & Tangos
‘Xander!’
‘Well, hello. Fancy meetingyouhere.’
‘Yes. Hi!’ Xander had come to work at the bank about a year before all the redundancies, but he’d been in a different department, so we’d only ever chatted briefly in the canteen. Although now I thought about it, there was that one memorable time we found ourselves stuck in the lift at work for almost an hour. I couldn’t remember what we’d talked about all that time. I just remember Xander had made me laugh, despite the fact that he’d only recently broken up with his girlfriend. ‘So how are you?’
‘Good. I’m working as a financial advisor now. You?’
I shook my head, admiring the small tattoo of a flower on the side of his neck. ‘Still no luck with the job hunting.’
‘Oh, that’s tough.’ He looked genuinely sorry. ‘Look, give me your number and I’ll keep my ear to the ground, okay? Let you know if I hear of any vacancies?’
‘Aw, thanks!’ I smiled at him as we exchanged numbers. ‘That’s so nice of you.’
It was an iris, the tattoo on his neck. It had always intrigued me and I was about to ask him about it, when he smiled and said, ‘So where are you off to now?’
‘Er... home.’ I gave him a sheepish grin. ‘I’ve been stood up by someone I’ve never even met. He hasn’t even bothered to text me an explanation.’
‘Oh, no!’ He looked appalled. ‘Well, that’s just bloody rude.’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘You don’t looktooworried about it.’ He assessed my demeanour. ‘In fact, you seem... well, a bitrelieved, dare I say?’
I nodded. ‘I was. I am.’ I swallowed. ‘To be honest, I was only doing it to please my dad.’
‘Yourdad? Wow, since when did parents get the right to organise their kids’ love lives?’ he joked.
I grimaced. It probably had sounded a little weird. ‘The thing is... well, my dad happened to be at the scene of that robbery at the jewellers?’ I pointed along the high street. ‘In all the commotion, he was knocked unconscious.’ I shrugged. ‘He’s still in a coma.’
Xander stared at me in horror. ‘That was yourdad?’
I nodded sadly. ‘Did you hear about it, then?’
‘Erm . . . well, yes.’
‘I suppose you saw it on the local news?’
He was frowning, as if he couldn’t believe it.
‘The doctors have no idea if or when he’ll wake up. But I’m talking to him all the time and I knew he wanted me to... well, find someone nice to go out with.’
‘Right.’ He nodded. ‘So what happened to... Les, was it? You two were engaged, weren’t you, but then you split up?’
I gave a bitter snort. ‘Yes. He ditched me virtually on the eve of our wedding.’
‘God, that’s right. I remember now. I was talking to Lyndsay recently and I asked her about you and she said you were happily single now.’
‘You’ve seen Lyndsay since we left the bank?’
He nodded. ‘Bumped into her a few months ago and we had a chat.’
I nodded, remembering now that Lyndsay had mentioned bumping into Xander.
‘I hope you don’t mind me saying it, but I always suspected Les was a bit of an arse. I only met him once, at that works summer party, but he seemed... well, a bit full of himself? And now I know I was right because he left someone as amazing as you in the lurch.’
I burst out laughing. ‘Thank you. Yes, your instincts were quite right. Les turned out to be the biggest arse in the history of arses.’
He nodded, thinking about this. ‘That’s a whole lot of arses.’
