Angel Kiss - Laura Jane Cassidy [23]
‘Six sixty-seven each!’ I said. I loved maths. Maths and music were my two favourite subjects.
‘Eh … yeah,’ he muttered. We handed the woman our money.
‘David lives up near Nick,’ said Colin. ‘You’ll get to meet him when he gets back.’
‘Testing, testing,’ Joe’s voice echoed through the hall’s speakers. ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the G. A. A. club’s annual table quiz. As usual there will be ten rounds and prizes will be given for the teams who come first, second and third. Alec McNamara, your local accountant –’ Joe pointed to the man seated next to him – ‘will be keeping the scores tonight.’ Alec gave a nod to the crowd. A black calculator and a row of sharply pointed pencils were positioned neatly on the desk in front of him.
‘Please write your table number clearly on the top of each answer sheet, and hand them to the lovely Mary Reynolds at the end of each round.’ Mary gave a little wave to the crowd. ‘The best of luck to everyone,’ said Joe. ‘We’ll be starting shortly.’
Nick shuffled about in his seat, and for a split second his leg touched mine. It’s amazing how electrifying a touch can be when it comes from someone you really like.
Nick saw that Colin was holding a pen and had resumed his doodling, so he placed the bundle of paper in front of him.
‘You can write the answers,’ he said. ‘We’re table four.’
I watched as Colin began to print the number four clearly at the top of each sheet.
‘Right, round one,’ Joe’s voice hushed the crowd. We huddled together like a guerrilla group preparing to go into battle, each of us displaying that fiercely competitive streak that surfaces in even the most placid of people during the marvel that is the table quiz.
‘Question one.’
We leaned in closer together.
‘Who is the Roman goddess of love?’
During these huddles my head was dangerously close to Nick’s. I noticed how long his eyelashes were.
‘A haematologist specializes in the study of what?’
And how a freckle touched the centre of his top lip.
‘If you have myopia, what would you suffer from?’
And how there was hard skin on his fingertips from playing guitar.
‘Jacki … Jacki!’ Colin whispered loudly as he tugged at my arm.
‘Oh, sorry.’ I’d been entirely absorbed in my own thoughts and hadn’t heard the question.
‘Do you know what it is? Which spirit is used in a bloody Mary?’
I realized that I would have to stop thinking about how close I was to Nick and focus on Joe’s questions. After all, I did want to get at least a few questions right, or Nick would think I had no general knowledge.
‘It’s vodka,’ I whispered to Colin.
At the interval tea and biscuits were served. We seemed to have done moderately well in the first half, though not as well as I’d hoped. The questions were far more difficult than I’d anticipated. And of course I was distracted. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes off Nick for more than a few seconds.
‘I’m going to get tea. Does anyone want anything?’ I asked.
Nick shook his head.
‘I’ll have a cup of coffee,’ said Colin. ‘A caramel frappuccino if they have it,’ he added with a smile.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ I said with a laugh.
The refreshment table was at the back of the hall, so I started to battle my way through the crowd.
‘Is Lily coming tonight?’ an old lady in front of me asked her grey-haired companion as they approached the table. They were walking slowly and the two kids behind me were pushing so much I came uncomfortably close to the old ladies’ perms. The smell of hairspray filled my nostrils.
‘No, she didn’t feel up to it. She misses Jim terrible, God rest him.’
‘He died very sudden, didn’t he, Molly?’
‘Oh yes, very sudden. It was quite a shock to us all … Can’t be easy for her, what with Beth’s birthday coming up and everything. Two teas, please, Angela.’
Beth. There was that name again.
‘What would you like, love?’ said the lady behind the table as I approached.
‘A tea and a coffee, please,’ I said.
She poured them into two paper cups.
‘How much is that?’
‘Nothing. It’s free,’ she said.
Pleasantly surprised,