Page 25 of Teacakes & Tangos
I smiled. ‘You’re quite weird, aren’t you?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘No, it’s good. Because it means you can sort of understand the weirdness in other people.’
‘Gee, that’s nice, isn’t it? Any more insults you’d like to hurl at me while you’re at it? So far, you’ve got me down as weird and a “charmer” which has definite negative connotations. Plus, I’m merelymildlyfunny. Which suggests I think I’m funnier than I actually am. You certainly know how to wound a man.’
I chuckled. ‘Well, no one else has managed to make me laugh recently.’
‘Well, I guess that’s one thing I’m good for, then. I’ll cling on to that.’
‘Hey, do you remember that time we got stuck in the lift at work?’ I said suddenly.
His eyes opened wide with surprise. ‘I do, actually.’
‘You made a scary situation a whole lot better.’
‘Did I? I hope I was a gentleman,’ he joked.
‘Of course you were. You made me laugh, that’s all. I seem to remember that you’d just been dumped? And you were doing funny impressions of her?’
‘Dana.’ He gave a rueful smile. ‘We were happy for a long time but deep down she always thought she was superior to me. Every time we argued, it came out. I was punching above my weight.’
‘Really?’ I stared at him in astonishment. ‘But why on earth would she think that?’
He shrugged and looked away. ‘We just weren’t meant to be together in the end.’
I glanced at him curiously. The mention of Dana was triggering memories of what we’d talked about for that hour in the lift. I remembered Xander looking quite sad and saying, just before we were rescued, that Dana was always judging his family as inferior to hers. I’d been about to ask him why – but then the lift doors had opened and it had all been forgotten in the relief of being rescued.
‘You’re probably better off without Dana if she was that judgemental,’ I murmured, as Xander had gone a little quiet. ‘Loathsome Les wanted to mould me into his idea of the perfect woman. He even kept hinting that I should dye my hair platinum blonde, although obviously I wasn’t going to do that.’ Grinning, I shook my head at the idiocy of it all.
Xander made a face. ‘What a plonker. You really suit your dark hair.’ He peered closer. ‘It actually reminds me of autumn with those amazing coppery strands through it.’
‘Oh, thanks.’ I smiled at him, feeling suddenly shy. ‘So the platinum blonde look?’
‘Nah!’
We exchanged a grin and munched on our pastries for a while.
And after a while, I said, ‘You know, I keep thinking about that robbery and how weird it was how everything seemed to happen at the same time... the robber knocking Minnie into the road just as the speeding van was bearing down on her, and Dad diving into the road to save her. Do you think the van driver might have been creating some kind of diversion, to take attention away from the actual robbery?’
Xander frowned but didn’t reply immediately. But then, he did have a large mouthful of chocolate muffin to munch his way through.
‘They haven’t caught all the jewellery robbers, either,’ I went on. ‘I keep checking the news and it seems one of them is still on the run.’
Xander made a thing of chewing fast and then swallowing. Then he said, ‘I don’t think you should dwell on it. You’ve got enough to worry about with your dad... just concentrate on him.’
I nodded sadly. ‘I guess the less I think about what happened that day the better, really.’
‘Exactly.’ He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, rolled it into a ball and dropped it onto his plate. Then he leaned forward, arms folded on the table. ‘So... on to jollier topics. Have you heard about the grand opening of the new dance centre over on the Brambleberry Manor estate?’
‘Magic of Dance?’ I nodded, having read about it in the local newspaper. ‘It’s happening on Saturday, isn’t it?’
‘Yup.’
I sighed. ‘I’d decided I would go... until all this happened with Dad.’
‘Your mum and dad were dance champions once upon a time, weren’t they?’
