Alphabet Weekends - Elizabeth Noble [27]
They shook hands formally. Miranda opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, searching, he knew, for the right thing to say. Failing.
‘They’re having a party for me, apparently. In the pub across the road. Thursday night. You’d be welcome.’
She looked doubtful. ‘Thank you.’
She wouldn’t want to be there any more than he did.
C for Canoeing
Rob and Serena had argued about C.
‘Surely it’s time for you to go cerebral, Tom. I mean, ballet was a pretty highbrow choice, wasn’t it? She’s sending you signals.’
‘No, she isn’t. She was trying to send him mad, making him sit through that. I reckon she was trying to put you off the whole idea, mate.’
‘But she did not succeed.’ Rob was making a paper aeroplane. He launched it and Serena caught it nonchalantly in her left hand, crumpling it up. ‘How old are you?’ she admonished him gently.
‘I only got away with it because Serena gave me some top tips on ballet.’
‘Hardly!’
‘You did. Not that I got to use most of my jargon, with Karl interrupting.’
‘But he got you out of another two hours of men in tights,’ Rob laughed.
‘It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Not sure I’d want to go every Friday night, but it was all right – if it kept a girl happy, who was going to keep me happy!’
The men laughed, and Serena suppressed a smile.
‘But don’t you think it’s time to pick something you know she’ll love? You pick another thing she loathes, like the abseiling, and she’ll definitely think you’re not the guy for her.’
‘No way, Serena. It’s far too early for that. Besides, she only thought she’d hate abseiling. It was a bloody triumph, I tell you. And not just for me, for her too. Trust me, I’m right about this… I’ve got to get her out of her comfort zone first. There’s no point in a bunch of girl dates – that won’t take her mind off Simon, and have her thinking about me in the right way, will it?’ Serena looked doubtful. ‘Besides, I’m having too much fun with the other stuff.’ He grinned. ‘Is there a martial art that starts with C?’
‘Don’t think so.’ Rob started typing at his computer. He was quiet for a few seconds, then he said, ‘What about copulation? Or cunn—’
‘Thanks, Rob,’ Serena interrupted sternly.
‘Girls like that, though. You certainly—’
‘Yep. Thanks.’ She was blushing. ‘If you two are going to degenerate, I think I might find I have something pressing to do back in my own office—’
‘Don’t go, Serena. Shut up, Rob. I’ll call on you if and when I ever, God forbid, reach the stage of needing advice on sex. Meanwhile, Serena is far more help to me than you are, even if she isn’t seeing things quite my way just at the moment…’
‘Is it just that you’re desperate to see me in a wetsuit, or are you really just a sadist?’
‘Bit of both. Although if I was really a sadist, we’d be doing this outside.’
‘You’d be doing it alone!’
‘Well, we’re not doing it outside, are we, and I’m not alone, am I?’
‘So why, exactly?’
‘Because Rob says learning the Eskimo Roll in one of these things is one of life’s little triumphs. Remember how great you felt at the bottom of that viaduct? And you do look pretty bloody good in a wetsuit, actually.’
It had been a while since he’d seen the contours of Natalie’s body quite so closely. She had this really little waist that made him want to span it with his hands. Her chest was big for her frame, and her hips weren’t as boyish as he remembered. She hadn’t done the zip all the way up on the suit, and he could see a shadow of cleavage, which he found quite exciting.
‘It’s got a bloody tutu!’ Natalie flapped the neoprene frill round her hips.
‘A splash skirt.’
‘I feel like one of those hippos in Fantasia.’
Why did women always see themselves like that? She was slight, for God’s sake. But the girl just