One Day in May - Catherine Alliott [172]
‘I’d do anything for you, Hattie.’
The words hung in the air between us. Suspended. His eyes were steady: didn’t waver.
And that should have been my moment. To cross the room, walk into his arms, as he surely would have opened them. My moment to let someone in again. And not just anyone. Instead, I got to my feet and moved carefully towards the front door.
‘Have you eaten?’ I plucked my coat from a hook, not looking at him. Put it on and opened the door.
‘No.’
‘Then let’s eat. And talk. I have a lot to tell you. There’s a great deal you don’t know about me, Ivan. You may not feel you’d do anything for me, once you know.’
He stood up: tall, blond and it seemed to me, dazzling. Filling the room. He attempted to look grave but his mouth twitched. ‘My, that sounds serious. Ominous, even. Yes, by all means let’s eat, and you can tell me all about yourself. I’d be surprised if it influences me, though. I think you’ll find you’re stuck with me whether you’re a closet vampire or not.’
I glanced up at him as we went out into the night. It occurred to me I would be very surprised if it influenced him too. As I straightened up on the doorstep from locking the Chubb, he smiled at me.
‘Spill your beans, Hattie Carrington,’ he said softly. ‘But it had better be good. I could have knocked us up an omelette apiece in the time it takes to order a couple of steaks – one rare and sophisticated for you, one common and burned to a frazzle for me, in Le Bistingo. But sure, you go à la carte, sniff that wine and toy with your artichoke hearts. After all,’ he jerked his head back to the bedroom window, ‘it might be a while before you eat again.’
Ditching my prissy demeanour, I threw back my head and laughed into the night. It struck me, as the sound combusted like a lightning bolt, that I hadn’t heard that sound from my own lips for quite some time. Joyous. Uninhibited. And it also struck me, as we set off down the road together for the future, matching each other stride for stride that although it wasn’t the meaning of life, it was surely the whole point?