10. CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 10
C lara sat next to Sadie, at a table with six other doctors, their regular pub quiz team. She hadn’t mentioned to her best friend that Taylor might join them, as she didn’t want to look like an idiot if it didn’t happen.
She tried desperately not to check her phone again to see the time or if Taylor had texted her, and attempted to concentrate on the conversation flowing around her. Laughing in the right places. Defending herself when she was on the receiving end of some good-natured teasing about something daft she had done at work.
Even while she tried to pretend she wasn’t waiting for Taylor, her eyes kept flicking to the door. Her heart skipped a beat every time it opened, just in case it was him walking in. And every time it happened, she gave herself a stern talking to. Mentally reminding herself that this was not a man she could develop a crush on. Well, who was she kidding? She definitely had a crush on him, however ridiculous that made her.
A big man with a full, bushy beard was the next person to make his way into the pub. His eyes darted around, obviously searching for someone. Clara dropped her gaze from him and back to her friends, a small wave of disappointment washing over her. Maybe Taylor wasn’t coming.
She tuned back into the conversation at the table. They were laughing hysterically over their potential team names. A few of them had argued that they should keep the same name every week, but it had been decided that the choosing of the team name caused far too much entertainment to constantly keep the same one. This week they were deciding between the ‘Code Blue Crew’ or the ‘Suture Superstars’.
Clara rolled her eyes. They couldn’t be the ‘Code Blue Crew’, as it wasn’t a big town, and the chance of one of them having resuscitated a relative of someone in the pub seemed pretty high, making the name seem very heartless.
“Suture Superstars. We can’t be the other one,” Clara called across the table to Mike, who was doing the writing that week.
“When did you last do any suturing?” Mike, who was a surgeon, teased her.
“And when did you last go to a Code Blue?” she fired right back, a wide grin pulling at her cheeks.
“I’ll have you know I’ve been to many Code Blues,” Mike claimed, pulling himself up straight and giving her a broad smile.
“Yes, you have. Although just being present in the theatre doesn’t count. How many have you run?” Clara watched him open his mouth before she added. “In the last ten years?”
Mike grinned again and tipped his head to her. “Okay, she has a point.”
Laughter spread around the table, which trailed off as their eyes swivelled to just by Clara’s shoulder.
She realised someone was standing next to her. Turning in her seat, her eyes travelled up, and up, and up. Until she got to the face of the tall man with the large beard, who had walked in the door a moment before.
A small frown tugged at her eyebrows before she started with surprise when her eyes met those of the man. A very familiar pair of bright blue irises stared back at her from behind black-rimmed glasses.
A flush immediately rose up her cheeks, and she dropped her gaze, trying to compose herself, pinching her own thigh to stop any wayward thoughts.
“Hi,” Taylor said and lifted a hand in acknowledgement to everyone at the table.
“Hi.” Clara hesitated before she gestured to Taylor. “Everyone, this is T—“
Taylor cut her off smoothly and interjected quickly, “Tom.”
She blinked in surprise. Even his voice sounded different from normal.
“Tom. This is my friend, Tom. He’s going to do the quiz with us,” Clara informed them.
She didn’t mention him pretending to be a medical student, as it would lead to questions he couldn’t answer—simple questions like, what year was he in? And what medical school was he attending?
“Hi all,” Taylor greeted them, smiling warmly at everyone, but his normally megawatt smile was hidden by his bushy beard.
“Right, we need to find you a chair.” Clara jumped up and peered around the room.
“I’ll go find one.” Using his superior height, Taylor spotted one and headed off.
Sadie grabbed Clara’s hand, dragged her back down onto the seat next to her, and leaned over to whisper, “Is that Taylor?”
Clara’s eyes darted to follow the tall man, who was at another table asking about taking a chair.
“Yeah.”
“What’s he doing here?” Sadie hissed.
Clara shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
“Thirty-second summary?” Sadie demanded, leaning in further as Ethel, usually known as Hel—because she wasn’t a ninety year old nanna, thank you very much—sitting next to Clara on the other side, gazed at them with interest.
“He’s been in theatre with me every day. We finished at two am Monday, so he stayed in my spare room. Then Tuesday, he stayed over again as he was too tired to drive.”
“He’s stayed in your spare room twice?” Sadie’s voice rose a little, and Clara shushed her.
She debated lying to her best friend for a moment and saying yes, but she realised she would tell Sadie eventually, so she might as well get it out of the way.
“One of the registrars stayed over the second night, so I made him sleep in my bed.”
“With you?” Sadie’s voice was a high-pitched, hoarse whisper.
“No.” A blush rose up Clara’s cheeks as this time she lied.
Sadie stared shrewdly at her friend. “Lie.”
“Okay, I slept on the sofa. Well, I didn’t sleep; it was so painful. Then, partway through the night, he found me awake and insisted we share.”
“Oh my god,” Sadie gasped and clutched onto her hand, about to ask more when Taylor’s deep voice spoke behind them.
“Ladies, would you mind if I squeezed in next to Clara?” Taylor smiled broadly at Sadie and then Hel.
“Absolutely.” Sadie chortled, moving her seat over so Taylor had to sit between her and Clara. Waggling her eyebrows subtly when Taylor’s back was to her.
Clara rolled her eyes and tried to ignore her friend’s antics as Taylor slotted his chair in next to her and sat down, his leg brushing up against her thigh.
Glancing down, she noticed that while his leg was pressed up against hers, it wasn’t touching Sadie’s at all.
This little fact didn’t escape Sadie either, who did another little eyebrow waggle.
Ignoring her friend, she leaned toward Taylor and dropped her voice so only he could hear her, although out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sadie straining to listen in.
“That’s a very impressive ferret stuck to your face.”
Taylor snorted with laughter, which made Clara grin. It was nice to know someone as famous as him could accidentally snort when they found something funny.
“Thanks. His name is Bruce the beard. I keep him for all special occasions that require me to be incognito,” Taylor chuckled, stroking his hand over the realistic-looking hair stuck to his face.
“And that’s often?” Clara spoke without thinking.
For a second, she had forgotten he was someone far more special than her, that other people would indeed be very interested in him, and that incognito was necessary.
“Don’t answer that dumb statement,” she muttered, shaking her head.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he reached forward, grabbed a chip off her plate and popped it into his mouth, chewing thoroughly before he spoke.
“I’m starving. I haven’t had fries since before I filmed—“ His eyes flickered around the table, and he immediately clammed up when he realised Sadie was also listening with interest.
“This is Sadie. She introduced us,” Clara said, gesturing in her friend’s direction, who gave him a little wave.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t recognise you without the hat and mask,” he apologised, holding his hand out to shake Sadie’s, who took it with a broad grin on her face.
“Lovely to meet you too,” she breathed, smiling up into his eyes, not letting go of his hand.
The time stretched on and on until Clara cleared her throat.
Sadie dropped his hand, mumbling, “Your eyes are very blue.” Then she blushed bright red, clearly having fallen under the handsome actor’s spell.
Clara pretended to be horrified. “Sadie, what about George?”
“Oh shit, of course. George. My husband. The love of my life. Yes. Well. I may need to leave if I keep on embarrassing myself. Sorry,” Sadie apologised.
“It’s absolutely fine,” Taylor reassured her, laughing and reaching out to pinch another chip.
Clara glanced around to make sure no one was listening before she asked, “Which movie?”
“Hmm?” He chewed on his chip, eyes closed in ecstasy.
“Which movie was the last one you had chips before?” she prompted. Unable to control her smile, when she saw Sadie sway toward Taylor a little and immediately stop herself, pulling her phone out of her handbag and bringing up a photo of her husband, who Clara thought was very handsome in his own right. With his dark brown hair and warm chocolate eyes that always held a twinkle of mischief. They had two beautiful kids who looked like the perfect mix of their parents.
Taylor finished his chip and opened his eyes. “Superman. As you can imagine, the suit left nothing to the imagination.”
“And they kept making you take your shirt off,” Clara blurted before she could stop herself.
Her hands flew to her mouth in embarrassment, and Sadie made a strangled sound as she tried to suppress her giggle.
But Taylor only guffawed with laughter again, agreeing, “Yup, they did. And the suit clung in all the right and wrong places. I was put on a very, very strict diet, which, in the last few days, I have obliterated thanks to you.”
Clara held her hands up, exclaiming, “What did I do?”
“Yeah, what did she do?” Sadie echoed, her eyes sparkling with happiness as she watched her best friend and the actor flirt.
“Since I met you. I’ve consumed several bacon sandwiches, a lot of toast, noodles, Thai food and ice cream. Basically, carbohydrates and sugar. My trainer and nutritionist would have total fits,” he chuckled, then reached out and grabbed another chip, popping it into his mouth and chewing happily.
“Okay. Fair point. Maybe you should stop eating my chips.” Clara glared as Taylor grabbed another one and ate it.
“I will. Actually, I’m going to go and order my own. And a pint of beer. Because stuff them,” he declared triumphantly.
This time, it was Clara’s turn to snort with laughter. “And they won’t make you take your clothes off in a movie where you play an anaesthetist.” She chuckled until she saw his eyebrows raise. “How are they going to manage to make you undress?” Clara’s mouth again worked quicker than her brain. And she cursed at herself for letting that slip out, especially when Sadie’s eyebrows wiggled.
“There’s a sex scene. So they’ll be making me strip.” Taylor clammed up, and Clara realised that the word sex had made a couple of the other doctors lean closer and try to tune into their conversation.
“Right, so you want a burger and chips. And what do you want to drink?” Clara got to her feet, addressing the rest of the table. “I’m going to the bar. Does anyone need a top-up?”
A couple of the men waved their pint glasses at her, but most declined. They weren’t big drinkers, as most of them had to be at work the next day.
“I’ll go,” Taylor said, catching her arm as she went to leave.
“No. It’s all good; they bought me a drink earlier, so I owe them,” Clara said breathily.
She knew she should pull her arm away from him, that her standing there with his hand on her was giving Sadie even more ammunition for teasing, however she couldn’t bring herself to step out of his warm grip.
“I’ll come and order my food then,” Taylor said.
Much to her disappointment, Taylor let go of her arm and stood up, towering over her as he gestured for her to lead the way.
“You don’t need to. I can get you a burger,” she insisted as they weaved between the tables.
It didn’t escape her notice that a lot of eyes followed Taylor, female and male.
“I promised to buy you dinner to thank you for allowing me to follow you all week. I’m not making you get food for me,” he insisted, shaking his head and taking up position next to her at the bar.
“I told you it’s fine, and you brought food over last night. That counts as dinner,” Clara replied as she leaned over the bar, trying to make eye contact with the pretty young blonde bartender who seemed more interested in flirting with the men at the other end of the bar than coming to serve them.
“What’s the pub quiz on?” Taylor pulled her attention back to him.
“Absolutely no idea. It changes every week. Last week, it was Disney. And I have to say, we were woeful! We came last by a longggggg way.”
“You’re a bunch of smart people. How could you have done that badly?” Taylor didn’t sound convinced.
“Oh, trust me. It was awful. It turns out a bunch of doctors don’t have that much free time to watch the back catalogue of Disney movies. Anyway, the quiz master, Ron, announces the topic just before they start. I think it’s so you’ve already paid to do the quiz and can’t bail when you realise that you’re going to lose!” Clara tried again to make eye contact with the bartender, who still ignored her.
She elbowed Taylor and gestured along the bar.
He frowned at her, “What?”
“Can you get her attention?” Clara requested, pointing down the bar. “The quiz starts in five minutes, and it would be nice not to still be standing here when that happens.”
“Sure.” He leaned forward so he was clearly visible over the top of Clara’s head. “Would it be possible to order some drinks?” He spoke politely and grinned broadly.
Which despite the beard, stunned Clara, as his Hollywood smile was that little bit whiter and that little bit smoother than she was used to. If she was truthful to herself, the last time a man had smiled at her and stunned her was when she first started seeing Jack.
She had been infatuated with him and thought she would never see a smile as perfect as his. But with time, the smile had turned into a snarl, and she dreaded seeing his face, unsure what kind of mood he would be in and what she had done to annoy him that day.
It was only when the bartender arrived and asked what Taylor wanted to drink that she realised she was staring at him and should probably stop. Her eyes didn’t move, and she reminded herself that there was a table of her friends and colleagues behind her, who were likely watching her stare and simper at Taylor. The thought of embarrassing herself made her eyes fall back to the bar.
“Thanks. I’ll take a house burger and fries. A pint of the stone and wood IPA, and,” he turned to Clara, “I’m paying for whatever she’s ordering.”
Clara huffed loudly, about to object, when he spoke again.
“And she isn’t allowed to complain about it.”
She hesitated for a moment before sighing and saying, “Thanks. I’ll get you the next drink. I’d like a lemon, lime, and bitters, please,” she requested, smiling at the pretty bartender, who wasn’t even looking at her; instead, she was just staring at Taylor, a flirtatious smile on her face.
“And what are your friends having?” Taylor asked Clara.
“You don’t have to buy them a drink. I’ll get them.”
Taylor sighed and leaned in close to her ear while the bartender was distracted getting their drinks.
“Please don’t make me be that person and tell you how much I made last year. Because it will make me sound like an arrogant asshole. And I try to reserve that type of behaviour for when I’m on a film set.”
“Are you a diva?” Clara stared at him with wide eyes, trying to keep a straight face,
“No, I’m not a diva. My mum would kill me if I tried to pull that sort of stunt.”
“You’re a momma’s boy?” Clara teased, gently pushing his arm where it lay on the bar beside hers.
“No. I just have a healthy respect for the woman who has all my baby photos in a box under the bed. More to the point, all of the photos of me as a teenager.” He shuddered.
“Your mum would release them?” Clara’s eyebrows rose in question.
“Not normally, but if I start acting like an idiot, I can guarantee a few of them will find their way out. Likely one from the curtain bangs period of my childhood. Basically, I know better than to act the fool.” He smiled gratefully at the bartender as she placed their drinks down. “And we’d like—“ He elbowed Clara.
“And two more pints of the stone and wood, please,” she begrudgingly said. Even though she knew the disparity in their wealth, she didn’t want to seem like she was taking advantage of him.
“See, that wasn’t so hard to accept someone being nice. You should only hang out with people who are nice to you; you’re a pretty great person, you know that, right?” Taylor said softly.
Clara’s eyes snapped up to him, and she opened and closed her mouth as she tried to work out what to say.
Taylor didn’t seem to notice her bewilderment as he paid for their drinks and his meal, then loaded them all onto a tray before gesturing for her to walk in front of him over to the table.
When they got back, Taylor made his way around to the two men who wanted pints to hand them over and introduce himself.
Clara sat down, and Sadie reached over and clutched onto her arm, hissing, “He likes you.”
Clara shook her head in denial. “He’s just grateful.”
“Nope,” Sadie disagreed, shaking her head, a knowing look in her eyes. She would have said more, but the quiz master spoke.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our weekly pub quiz. My name’s Ron, and I’ll be your host tonight.”
Quiet settled around the pub.
Taylor rushed back around the table and sat down next to Clara, his thighs pressing up against hers again as he squeezed into his too-small space.
“We have a fantastic evening ahead of us, with a quiz I’m sure you’ll all love,” Ron continued.
Clara leaned over to Taylor, whispering in his ear, “This bit is tradition. He always drags the title of the quiz out as long as possible to keep us all guessing.”
As soon as she said that, people around the room started calling out topics.
“Politics,” was yelled from one corner to groans from the rest of the room.
“Not today, keep guessing,” Ron shouted.
“World War Two.”
Clara rolled her eyes at the next suggestion, again leaning into Taylor and whispering, “That’s Brian; he asks for that every week. And every week, the quiz master says—“ She let the pause hang in the air.
“No way, Brian. Guess again,” Ron called.
“Disney?” Clara yelled, a laugh in her voice.
“Ahhh, I see someone’s been studying after their dismal performance last week and wants another go,” Ron joked, pointing at them.
The whole table of doctors cracked up laughing, shaking their heads and yelling that it had better not be Disney again.
“Let me play you a little song. It might help you guess the topic,” Ron hollered, then reached over and pressed a button on his control deck.
A familiar tune rang out through the room; it was the theme tune of Superman.
Clara, without thinking, turned to Taylor, gripping his arm, her eyes the widest they had ever been.
Taylor stared back at her, initially serious, then his lips quirked up at the corners.
This was when Clara broke and began laughing, putting her hands up to her face, trying to stifle the noise. Which only led to a loud snort coming out. This had the effect of making her laugh harder. She stuffed her fist into her mouth and glanced over at Taylor, whose blue eyes were fixed on her and full of mirth.
“You snorted!” He chuckled, and his eyebrows went up.
“I know,” Clara chortled, nodding in agreement and then snorted with laughter again.
“We’re going to do well this week,” Sadie announced loudly before she, not so subtly, elbowed Taylor.
“As I’m sure you can all guess from that music, this week, our topic is Superman!” the quiz master announced with a flourish.
Much to Clara’s horror, she snorted again. “Sorry.” She covered her mouth with one hand and used the other to wipe at her eyes. Leaning into Taylor, she muttered, “Do you want to leave?”
“He can’t leave,” Sadie hissed. “We might have a chance of winning for a change.”
“No. It’s fine. I do have one question though,” Taylor’s voice was low and serious.
Clara nodded, but she was worried he was going to ask to leave.
“Am I allowed to answer all the questions, even if they’re about me?” he enquired, managing to keep a straight face.
Clara couldn’t help it; she snorted again, exclaiming, “Of course. We want to win. Just once!”
“Okay then.” He leaned back in his seat, smirking. Then, he leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table, speaking loud enough for only their team to hear. “I know a lot about Superman.”
Sadie put her hands over her mouth, biting down on her fist to smother her chuckling.
Mike replied, “Yeah, well, so do I.”
Clara rolled her eyes; Mike always liked to be the one who knew the most at the quizzes.
“Trust me on this one,” Taylor said and nodded.
Clara figured she should back him up, and she met the eyes of the other six doctors sitting at their table, agreeing, “You need to listen to him. If you do, we have a real chance of winning.”
“She’s right. He knows a lot,” Sadie confirmed.
“Like every week, we start with the picture round. These are all pictures of characters from the latest Superman movie. I want the character’s name and the actor or actress who played them,” Ron announced.
Mike jumped up and headed over to get their sheet.
Clara explained to Taylor. “We usually let him go first, or he’s annoying, and then the rest of us get to look at the pictures, and you can correct them.”
“No worries. I don’t want to upset anyone,” Taylor said, taking a sip of his pint, a look of satisfaction on his face as the beer passed his lips.
“Oh, he won’t be upset when having you here means we win,” Clara said loud enough for the rest of the table to hear.
“How do you know so much about Superman?” Hel interjected.
Clara swivelled her head to Taylor, raising an eyebrow at him, wondering how he was going to answer that question.
“I’ve always loved film. The science behind it and making movies. And I love superhero movies. The pure escapism of it, where there’s a hero who can swoop in and save the day from otherwise impossible situations. I don’t know.” Taylor shrugged. “It’s always appealed to me,”
“What job do you do?” Hel prompted.
Clara’s eyes widened, and she glanced up at Taylor, hoping he would think of something to say, but he was saved from answering as Mike had arrived back, making a fanfare about knowing at least four of the characters on the sheet.
Everyone leaned in to listen to him as he said the names out loud and began to fill them in.
“This one’s easy. Taylor Anders, Superman,” Mike declared, writing it down.
“Ummmm,” Clara started to try to correct him, but Hel broke in before she could.
“Oh my god. How can you get the easiest one wrong? That’s Taylor Anderson, not Anders. He’s the most famous man in Hollywood. Everyone knows that,” Hel chided.
Sadie helpfully started giggling again and stealing very unsubtle glances over at Taylor until Clara leaned across to poke her friend in the ribs.
“It’s definitely Anderson?” Mike queried, his pen poised over the paper.
“It’s definitely Anderson,” Taylor answered so dryly that Clara had to suppress another laugh.
They carried on through the photo round, with Mike getting the answers nearly right, the rest of them shouting him down, and Taylor stepping in to correct them when they were all getting it wrong.
When the round finished and they handed in their answers for marking, Hel held her hand out, demanding, “I want the photo page.”
“Why?” Mike asked, handing it down the table to her.
“I’m never going to meet him in real life, so I’m just going to place this picture of Taylor Anderson next to me. And for the evening, he’s going to be my imaginary boyfriend,” Hel crooned, taking the paper and folding it over so Taylor’s photo was on top.
Sadie laughed so hard that she began to cough. Taking a sip of her drink only made it worse, so she excused herself to the bathroom to attempt to pull herself back together again.
Clara managed to hold it together better than Sadie, although not by much. Hel had no clue how close she was sitting to the object of her affection.
She balled her hand on her thigh, squeezing as tight as she could to keep control, starting slightly when Taylor’s warm fingers gripped onto hers. She glanced over at him to see him also trying to control himself with his teeth biting into his lower lip.
Clara leaned into him, whispering. “It’s not too late to make an excuse to run away.”
He shook his head, gripping her hand harder, murmuring, “No, it’s fine. This is the most fun I’ve had in a while.”
“Really?” Clara’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t you get to go to some amazing parties?”
Warmth spread up her arm from where he held her hand. She expected him to let go, but he showed no sign of releasing her.
“Sort of. The parties are incredible. I’ve been to some amazing places. The thing is, it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit down with a bunch of strangers and do something fun without everyone looking at me like I’m something special,” he confided in Clara, picking up his beer with his free hand and taking a sip. “This,” he gestured around the table with his pint, “This is real life, not the bubble I’ve lived in for the last few years.”
“The bubble must be pretty nice though?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining; I’m amazingly privileged. But you do lose something too, and now that everyone has smartphones, you don’t know when a picture of you will appear online.” He sighed and brushed his thumb over the outside of her knuckles.
Clara used her spare hand to pull her phone out of her bag and brandished it, declaring, “Right, I have access to Google. What’s the dodgiest photo? I need to know. For science.”
“For science?” Taylor chuckled, grinning down at her.
“Yup, for science,” Clara confirmed.
“Someone took a picture of me at a urinal,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
Clara sputtered, flushing bright red, and she dropped her phone onto the table, muttering, “Nope. I am not googling that.”
Taylor threw his head back and laughed.
She gave him a sidelong look. “Actually,” she drew the word out and picked her phone up again, opening Google. “I guess I could have a quick peek.”
“Nope.” Taylor guffawed and snatched her phone off her. “But,” he opened up the camera app, “we do need a selfie to immortalise the face ferret.” He held the phone out in front of their faces and leaned in until his bearded cheek touched hers.
Clara couldn’t do anything except grin broadly as his thigh pressed against hers and the skin of his palm warmed her hand.
Taylor took the photo and handed it back, whispering, “And if I see this photo on TMZ, I’ll know where it comes from.”
“How long have you two been dating?” Hel asked, nudging Clara’s shoulder.
Clara froze, having forgotten for a few minutes that she wasn’t sitting alone with Taylor; she was, in fact, at a table with people she worked with.
“Oh, no. Um, we’re not dating.” Clara forced out, her voice high-pitched.
“Hmm,” Hel commented but didn’t say anything else. Instead, her gaze travelled down to their still-linked hands.
Clara flushed when she realised that while they were chatting, they had somehow gone from him squeezing the outside of her hand to their fingers being entwined.
She pulled her hand away and busied herself with putting her phone back into her bag, not looking up to meet Taylor’s eyes, even though she could feel his gaze on her, burning into the side of her. She leaned slightly away from him so her thigh no longer pressed into his. Then berated herself for getting carried away and getting stupid ideas about a man who, even if he wasn’t famous, was way out of her league.
Luckily for her, Ron began speaking again. “I have the results for round one.”
The whole table listened intently, and a cheer went up from all of them when their score of ten out of ten was read out.
“How did we do?” Sadie asked, throwing herself back into her seat, her cheeks still pink from her choking fit.
“Ten out of ten,” Clara exclaimed.
“Yes,” Sadie hollered, holding her hand up to Taylor, who high-fived her. She then leaned across him for Clara to do the same.
When the questions for the next round started, Clara began to relax and forget about her embarrassment, her enjoyment of the quiz breaking through the awkwardness she felt. She darted a glance over at Taylor, and he looked so comfortable, as if he hung out with her group of friends every Wednesday night at the pub quiz.