Page 3 of Summer at Harbour View House
‘To be honest, if any of my exes from the last ten years called me up and offered me a place to stay, I’d offer them a memorial shag in payment. Better than a hotel.’
‘Would you really?’
‘It would depend how much weight they’d put on.’
‘I always thought you were a strong, independent woman.’
‘Not by choice. You enjoy your chance.’
‘What are you going to do?’
Natasha sighed. ‘I’m not sure. There’s a week left in the school term. I could probably justify taking it off considering the circumstances, but I never realised I actually cared so much about my class until I was faced with abandoning them a week before they break up. I need to find somewhere else soon, though. I can’t afford to stay in a hotel for more than a few days.’
‘Brad has a two up, two down. Do you want me to see if you can have his sofa for a few days? It’ll save you some money.’ Hannah, struggling to hold a serious look, suddenly grinned. ‘But you might need to drink yourself to sleep. We could be making a bit of noise upstairs.’
‘I’ll be all right.’ Natasha lifted her glass, surprised to see it was already empty. ‘At least I will be in a minute. Do you want another?’
‘Perhaps you should slow down a little.’
‘I’ll be fine. The woman who sits next to me at work thinks I’m an alcoholic anyway. I might as well live up to her expectations for once.’ She got up and went over to the bar, ordering another double vodka. Perhaps she ought to slow down. After all, she didn’t drink that often. But it wasn’t every day that your house burned down. Picking up another wine spritzer for Hannah, she went back to their table.
Hannah, however, looked crestfallen.
‘I just texted Brad,’ she said, holding up her phone as though to prove it. ‘He said he’d love to let you stay on the sofa, but he’s just this evening spilt a cup of coffee down the back, so he needs to get it reupholstered.’
Natasha just blinked as though she were passing through a fleeting dream, then shrugged. ‘Really, I’m fine with the hotel. And when term ends, perhaps I’ll go back to my parents or something. A few weeks at home will give me a bit of breathing space to figure out the whole living situation.’
‘You mean, remind you while you moved out in the first place?’
‘Something like that.’
‘It must be awful being single at a time like this. No one to gee you up, look after you.’
Natasha waved a hand, almost knocking her drink off the table. ‘As you say, I’m a strong, independent woman.’
‘Do you think I’m weak?’
‘No, of course not. You had your own flat, didn’t you?’
Hannah twisted the end of a plait, and for a moment Natasha thought she might start to chew on it. ‘Well, yeah, but Brad was paying for it.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yeah….’
‘Why?’
Hannah wrapped the plait around her finger and tugged on it, jerking her head sideways like a puppet with a tic.
‘He thought it would be good for me to learn to be independent before we made a bigger commitment,’ she said.
‘It sounds like he was paying to keep you at arm’s length.’
‘Oh no, he said I could move in eventually, but he wanted to give me time to learn to be myself.’
‘That sounds … odd.’
‘You think so?’
