Page 25 of A Merry Little Christmas
We ate mostly in silence and I could tell he’d drifted off into his own mind again and was thinking about something else altogether. I might not even have been there.
I was aware of a couple on the next table having a quiet but determined argument, and with Caleb so silent, I found myself listening in. It was all quite depressing. Did the nagging and thearguments happen to all couples, once the romance had worn off?
At one point, the man raised his voice. ‘Iris! For heaven’s sake!’
The sound seemed to spring Caleb from his thoughts. He straightened up, looking quickly around the restaurant, and at the same time, he reached over and took hold of my wrist in an oddly protective gesture.
Our eyes met and in that split second, I felt I didn’t even recognise him. He’d gone somewhere I couldn’t follow.
He relaxed and let go of my wrist with a sheepish smile. ‘Sorry. I wasn’t sure what was happening there.’
‘I think you’re working too hard,’ I said softly.
‘Maybe you’re right.’
‘You’d tell me if something was bothering you, wouldn’t you?’
‘What?’
‘It’s just you seem a bit preoccupied these days?’ I said gently. ‘And I’d like to help if I can.’
He looked directly into my eyes then. Not in a romantic way, which was how I’d wanted the evening to go. It was as if he was studying me and trying to work out how to tell me something.
Then he smiled. ‘It’s work. I won’t bore you with the details.’ He reached for my hand. ‘Sorry for letting it spoil tonight.
I gazed sadly at the champagne in the bucket. It hadn’t even been opened. ‘Look, why don’t we skip dessert and you can get home and have an early night?’ I suggested, because he really wasn’t himself. ‘We can do this again some other time.’
He nodded. ‘I probably should get home. We can take the champagne with us, to be enjoyed at a later date.’
‘Okay.’ Disappointment was washing through me, although I was determined not to let it show. He’d agreed to an early night, alone, far more readily than I’d been expecting.
It seemed odd to be catching a train so soon back to Sunnybrook. After all the hopes and the big build-up to tonight – well,myhopes andmybig build-up – it felt sad to be travelling back early and in virtual silence. To say the evening hadn’t gone the way I’d hoped would be a vast understatement!
But these things happened sometimes. You couldn’t always be smiling and upbeat and having the time of your lives. There were always going to be times when your moods were out of synch.
Except... that had never happened with Caleb. In all the months we’d been seeing each other, I couldn’t recall a single evening like this, where we’d seemed so awkward with one another.
And now it seemed he wanted to cool things between us. He’d actually told me that. I swallowed hard as I stared out of the train window. It turned out I hadn’t been imagining the sudden and scary feeling of distance between us...
The taxi from the station dropped me at my door.
We kissed briefly but the painful lump in my throat and the emotional way I was feeling prevented me from suggesting another date for dinner. Caleb didn’t say anything, either.
I got out, hurried up the path and turned at the entrance door to wave.
Caleb in the back seat was leaning slightly forwards and talking into his mobile phone. I waved but he didn’t notice, and a second later the taxi pulled away. It seemed he’d already moved on from our dinner date.
My heart felt heavy as I climbed the stairs to my flat. Who had he been talking to as the taxi pulled away?
Maybe I was paranoid, but I had the strongest feeling it was Amanda...
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I wasn’t in a good head space the next day.
My evening with Caleb, which I’d looked forward to so much, had been a disaster. I’d been determined we’d get back on track, but it was beginning to look as if our individual tracks, far from being in synch, were starting to head in different directions.
I’d texted him first thing, just to ask how he was after our evening had ended so abruptly. But I’d heard nothing by lunchtime and, not wanting to sit around on my day off thinking about Caleb and wondering, I decided to do some Christmas shopping – just to fill in time, really.
