Page 27 of Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop
Noah gave Nina a sweeping, assessing glance that started with her suede open-toe shoes and travelled upwards, lingering in the places that Nina wouldn’t have expected him to linger, then settling on her face. He smiled as if her face was especially pleasing though Nina was pretty sure she’d chewed off her lipstick – she’d been planning on doing a quick repair job on the train before she’d bumped into him.
‘I’d definitely have remembered you if you looked likethis,’ he said and his tone was appreciative and entirely male in a way that threw Nina off-course. Was he flirting with her? No. She surely wasn’t his type; he certainly wasn’t hers, though at this very moment, Tom’s idea that Nina should do a little light flirting with Noah was quite appealing. Not to discover Noah’s agenda but because Nina liked to be both giving and receiving of flirtation.
‘Well, back then I had buck teeth, braces and bee-sting boobs. Then when the braces came off and puberty finally kicked in, I spent most of my waking hours straightening my hair and making sure that I had plenty of midriff on show, thanks to my huge collection of cropped T-shirts and hipster jeans. Even in winter.’
‘And how did you go from that to this?’ Noah asked with another long look at Nina, his eyes heavy-lidded, so she felt another twinge in her stomach, though this twinge didn’t make her feel panicky or sick. It was the good kind of twinge.
Obviously the scene at her parents’ house had unsettled her. And now Nina was dragged back to the past. To Worcester Park. And the girl she’d once been. ‘Like I said, a lot of things have changed.’ It was time to switch it up. Forget about that girl, be the woman she’d become. ‘What about you? Any teen fashion no-nos lurking in your closet?’
‘Oh, too many to mention. I was a late bloomer.’ Noah shrugged modestly. ‘Also, I eventually realised that pocket protectors and the huge glasses I used to wear weren’t doing me any favours. It was quite a revelation.’
‘I can imagine,’ Nina said carefully, because she didn’t want to blurt out anything tactless about Noah’s former look and the bottle-top glasses and give the game away. ‘Once you get past the pimples and all the hormones, puberty is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, though the acne was hard. You couldn’t tell where it ended and where my freckles began,’ Noah said and Nina’s eyes were drawn to his face, which was blemish free, though he still had freckles, mostly over his nose and forehead.
‘I like freckles,’ she declared truthfully. ‘Sun kisses, aren’t they? When I was going through my Doris Day phase, I even drew some on with brown eyebrow pencil.’
‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t really see you as a Doris Day,’ Noah remarked as the train began to slow down as they approached Waterloo.
‘This is why my Doris Day phase barely lasted a week,’ Nina said over the announcement that they should check that they had all their belongings with them before they left the train. She gestured at Noah’s collection of Tupperware. ‘I was going to suggest that you leave those behind but I guess they might get blown up as a suspicious package.’
‘So true,’ Noah sighed, standing up and gathering his Tupperwared vegan fare. ‘Also, if I don’t return the Tupperware, I’llwishthat I’d been blown up.’
It was perfectly natural to fall into step with Noah once they got off the train to walk towards the ticket barriers. ‘Well, I hope you’ve still got room for that Scotch egg,’ Nina said and actually she was feeling quite peckish herself.
Although they’d only been living together for a few months, Verity always made sure she was home from Johnny’s to spend the evening with Nina after she got back from her trip to the family home. Not that Nina liked to share much about her Worcester Park life, but Verity seemed to sense that all was not well and that Nina needed company and a takeaway as she watched something trashy on TV.
‘I always have room for a Scotch egg,’ Noah said happily. He patiently waited as Nina hunted for her ticket. ‘Though now I think I fancy a steak.’
‘God, you’re really desperate to purge the memory of that nut roast,’ Nina said with a laugh.
They were on the concourse of Waterloo station. Unbelievably it was only three thirty but it felt later, though Nina could see the weak afternoon sun streaming in from one of the street entrances.
‘I’m going to walk home along the South Bank and stop off forsteak-friteson the way. There’s a really good French restaurant on Bermondsey Street if you fancy it?’ Noah asked so casually that Nina barely registered what he was saying as she began the hunt for her Oyster card.
Then it registered. ‘Oh!Steak-fritessounds nice but … Very and I have this whole girls’ night in thing on a Sunday after I’ve been to my folks,’ Nina said.
‘Right,’ Noah said and his face set in a sudden and determined expression. ‘Just to be clear, that was me asking you out. On a date.’
‘Oh!’ Nina exclaimed again. ‘OK.’ Was it OK? They were worlds apart … and he was her employer’s husband’s bestie … and the navy-blue wardrobe left a lot to be desired … and there was the UTTER DISTASTER of the secret she was keeping from him … but sharing a four-seater with Noah hadn’t been an ordeal. In fact, it had been a welcome distraction, otherwise she’d have sat there stewing and seething about the argument she’d just had with Alison, so that her mother would have managed to ruin Nina’s entire Sunday.
Also, now Nina felt an obligation to genuinely be nice and charming to Noah, if only to make up for the vile way her own brother had treated him. It was a way to redress the balance, to pay penance, show Noah how to have some fun because he’d certainly never had any when he was at school.
‘So, that is OK, then?’ Noah prompted, his face quite pink though he still looked quite resolute. Nina did actually like a certain steely quality to her men.
‘Yeah, it is OK,’ Nina decided.
‘Dinner then, this week coming. Is Wednesday evening good for you?’ Noah persisted and Nina realised she’d been half expecting/half hoping that they’d swap phone numbers and play a little text tennis and nothing would ever come of it. But no. Noah was going to lock this date down. Again, she had to give him props for being so to the point. She was heartily sick of men who wouldn’t even commit to a vague plan to meet for a drink, as if Nina was going to get the wrong idea and start picking out engagement rings. ‘I’m working on another project this week so I won’t be at Happy Ever After,’ he clarified.
Nina opened the calendar on her phone, though she knew that she was free on Wednesday. If she really wanted to bail, she could invent some longstanding other engagement for Wednesday. ‘No, Wednesday’s fine,’ she heard herself say, because apparently she didn’t want to bail. She’d ponder that later tonight.
‘Great. I’m working in Soho …’
‘I’ll come to you,’ Nina said quickly, because this was justonedate, a sympathy date, and she didn’t need any of her friends to know about it. ‘Shall we say eight o’clock outside the Cambridge Theatre?’
‘Perfect.’
And then it was back to being awkward so that Nina died a little inside at the thought that she’d just committed to a date with Noah.
