Page 72 of Winter at Wishington Bay
‘Hardly,’ he smiled, giving a small head shake.
I echoed the gesture to myself, but for a different reason.
‘What was that for?’ The question was quiet and calm but I could feel the undercurrent of tension, and I was pretty sure Nate could too.
I turned to face him. ‘What?’
‘That headshake. Clearly you have something to say so perhaps it would be best if you just said it.’ He held his body tense, its language defensive.
I gave a shrug, denying all knowledge of what he was talking about. He shifted his weight and held my gaze, not buying it in the slightest, his eyes remaining fixed on me.
‘OK, if you really want to know, I can see how Corinne got the wrong idea.’
‘Oh, you can?’ Again, the voice was calm, but I could see the fire building in his eyes.
‘Yes.’
‘And just how do you figure that?’
I gave a small head tilt, accompanying it with another shrug. ‘Just in the restaurant the last few times. You haven’t exactly seemed averse to her attentions.’
‘Yes, she’s always been very friendly in there. I don’t really know what else I’m supposed to do as no one else seems to want to wait on me. Would you have me ignore her all the time when she’s serving me?’
‘Not at all, but you can’t flirt and laugh and then be surprised when she expects more.’
‘I was not flirting!’
‘Really,’ I said, flatly, disbelief lacing my tone.
‘Yes, really,’ he fired back. ‘She suggested something at the beginning of the meal that time and I told her, as gently as I could, I really wasn’t interested. She laughed it off and said I’d got the wrong end of the stick and that she’d just been inviting me out to this thing tonight as one of a group. I have to say I was relieved. After that she was just really casual and friendly so I let it go and thought maybe getting out like that would be a good thing. Especially as you’d been such an advocate of it.’
He had me there. Bugger. Hoist with my own petard!
‘Anyway, as it turned out, that was obviously not what she had in mind at all but I didn’t know how to extricate myself without upsetting her.’
‘Maybe you should have just gone along with it,’ I shrugged. ‘You might have enjoyed it after all.’
‘I wouldn’t. And I wasn’t. Been there, done that.’
‘Done what?’ Flora asked, intrigued.
We both turned, having momentarily forgotten Flora was there.
‘Oh…’ Nate adjusted the beanie on his head. ‘Just…’ he looked round, but the shop was empty of customers.
‘Sorry, I’m a bit nosy at times,’ Flora smiled, giving his arm a squeeze. ‘George is always telling me off about it.’ She grinned sheepishly.
‘No, it’s fine.’ Nate smiled down at her. ‘Actually you remind me of my mum a bit. She’d like you.’
Seeing a chink, Flora pursued her question. ‘So, what did you mean? Been there done that?’
He smiled a little wider and looked over at me. ‘She’s persistent, isn’t she?’
I couldn’t help but return it. ‘That she is.’
‘I just meant the whole spoilt princess thing. That probably sounds bad and I’m sure Corinne is a lovely girl.’
Flora gave a small cough.
