Page 31 of Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop
Nina nodded along, even though every time he mentioned school, her stomach would clench and she’d have to put down her burger and take a large gulp of her drink.
She so desperately wanted to say she was sorry, apologise for what Paul had done, but it was a first date, their only date, a non-date, and it was best to keep the mood light and fun.
‘Did you go to Harvard straight after Oxford?’ she asked and hoped that the change of subject would mean no more oblique references to her brother and the horrible things he’d done to Noah.
‘Not straight after. I was still only nineteen so I decided to take a couple of years out, do some travelling, paying my way as I went. Started off in Thailand …’
Noah had been everywhere. Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, all over South-East Asia, then Goa and India before getting on a long-haul flight to explore South America. He’d trekked through the jungle in Peru, narrowly avoided being kidnapped in Colombia, had inadvertently taken psychotropic drugs in Bolivia and had got to Rio just in time for Carnival.
‘You have had some adventures,’ Nina breathed. She was a creature of passion and spontaneity but to be honest, the furthest she’d ever travelled and the biggest adventure she’d ever had was the time she went to Mykonos for a hen weekend and had ended up in hospital with two broken ribs and a broken toe from falling off a podium in a nightclub after too many shots.
‘I was young and completely wet behind the ears, so the adventures found me, but I did discover that I was a bit of an adrenalin junkie. White-water rafting, bungee jumping, being suspended from a great height with a zipline. I never feel more alive than when I’m facing certain death, I suppose,’ Noah said with a wry smile. He pushed away the bowl of chips that he’d been dipping into. ‘Talking of certain death, if I eat anything else then I’m a goner.’
‘Tell me about it.’ The waistband of her jeans felt as tight as a tourniquet. Nina had been mindlessly eating the onion rings and laughing as Noah had kept her entertained with tales of his many near-death experiences while travelling. ‘Could go another cocktail though.’
‘Me too,’ Noah agreed. Once the waiter had taken their drinks order and cleared the table, Noah, after a little prompting, brought Nina up to speed with the last ten years of his life.
After Brazil, he’d met up with a friend from Oxford who was living in San Francisco and had helped him with his tech start-up, then he’d been headhunted by Google who’d paid for him to do his MBA at Harvard. Then after six years at Google, he’d decided to go it alone.
‘I’m not a big fan of routine. I much prefer being my own boss,’ he told Nina, who, if Posy was anything to go by, didn’t think being your own boss was that great. It seemed to involve a lot of responsibility and having to fill in VAT returns every three months or so.
‘But what is it that you actually do?’ she asked as yet more Old Fashioneds arrived. ‘Apart from harassing hard-working employees with your iPad?’
‘If I were you I’d take me to a tribunal,’ Noah said again with another smile because both of them had that glow that came from a lot of good food, four whisky cocktails each and a conversation that had managed to remain almost free of any awkward moments. ‘Specifically, I work with businesses to find a solution to a particular problem, whether it’s not being able to retain staff or how to sell more romantic novels. It’s much easier as an outsider to come in and see the bigger picture.’
‘That makes sense, I suppose,’ Nina said and she was all good to go with some more questions but Noah held up a hand.
‘Anyway, that’s quite enough about me,’ he said firmly. ‘I don’t want to be that guy on a date who only talks about himself. I want to know what you’ve been doing since you left the mean streets of Worcester Park.’
Working a series of unsatisfying jobs and dating a series of unsatisfying men – compared to what Noah had packed into the fifteen years since their paths had crossed, it didn’t seem that impressive.
Oh God, what am I even doing with my life?It wasn’t a new thought. On the contrary it was a very old, much-visited thought that Nina usually had after binning or being binned off by either employer or boyfriend. And she usually had it when she was on her own, in the dead of night, unable to sleep, not in public, not when she was on a date. She really needed to find a direction in life, if only not to have more of these excruciating conversations on first dates.
‘There’s not much to tell,’ she said breezily, because now was not the time to give in to her angst. ‘Got some tattoos, a couple of piercings, endured a few hangovers – that’s about it.’
Noah was not to be put off. ‘I’m sure that’s not it,’ he said. ‘Posy said that you’d always worked in retail. What was your last job before Happy Ever After?’
Nina couldn’t help but pull a face at the thought of where she’d worked before she worked at Happy Ever After. And where she’d worked before that and so on and so on.
‘God, was it that bad?’ Noah asked in response to Nina’s facial contortions.
‘Yeah,’ Nina sighed. ‘It wasn’t retail – Posy just assumed it was and I never denied it – it was more … um, service industry, I think?’
‘My mind is racing with the possibilities …’ Noah widened his eyes. ‘Service industry could mean anything. Were you an arms dealer? Did you run an illegal drinking den? Cat burglar?’
‘I was a hairdresser!’ Nina admitted grudgingly. ‘Colourist mostly, some cutting and styling.’
‘That’s probably why your own hair looks so good,’ Noah said, with a nod at Nina whose hair was still a very sherbet pink and currently arranged in a French twist, the front section quiffed and pinned back. ‘What made you decide to swap hairdressing for bookselling?’
There was no judgement in Noah’s voice. He sounded as if he were genuinely interested to hear what had prompted Nina’s career change, and it was rather a leap: to swap her scissors and her foils for books and bookmarks.
‘Well, like I said, I left school after my GCSEs, which I aced by the way,’ she added a little defensively. ‘Then it was a done deal that I’d go and work for my aunt who has a salon in Worcester Park, Hair by Mandy – maybe you know it?’ she said, knowing full well he would.
‘My gran goes there. I think you’ll find it’s Hairand Nailsby Mandy,’ Noah corrected her and Nina smiled.
‘You must never forget the “and Nails”,’ Nina said gravely because Mandy went ballistic if any of her staff did.
‘I still can’t believe we’ve never crossed paths before,’ Noah said, shaking his head. ‘You must have done my gran’s wash and set at least once while you were there.’
