Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
ANDY
A ndy watched with some amusement as the slender figure that was being eaten by the old sofa in front of the museum struggled to break free. The poor woman wasn’t having much luck. The piece of furniture seemed intent on keeping hold of its prey, and she was getting more flustered by the second.
‘Hey!’ he said, coming to a halt a few feet away from her, just as she managed to regain her feet.
‘Hi,’ she said, flipping long strands of hair back out of her face as she pinned him with a smile.
Wow.
Okay, so it was safe to say that Andy hadn’t been expecting to have the air knocked out of him by a beautiful stranger before he’d had his morning iced fruit slice!
Andy glanced away quickly as she did her best to yank her cardigan into place and hoik her slim jeans back up where they belonged.
‘So… erm… have you tried wiggling it?’ he said.
‘I beg your pardon?’ said the woman.
‘The key!’ gasped Andy. ‘I meant the key!’
‘Oh, erm… right, of course,’ she said. ‘No, I didn’t. But seriously, it’s not going to make any difference. It’s really stuck… it won’t turn at all and… well, I’m not even sure if this is the right key and—’
‘It’s the right key,’ said Andy gently, cutting across her flustered explanations. ‘Give it a go.’
He wasn’t sure why she’d just turned such a sweet shade of pink. After all, he was the one busy making a total prat out of himself. The woman shot an indecipherable look at him and he watched as she turned away and slotted the key into the lock.
‘Like this?’ she said, giving it an exaggerated wiggle. ‘Oh!’
Sure enough, the key turned on the first try, and the heavy old door swung open without a sound. Mainly because he’d oiled it the last time he’d taken a bunch of stuff inside.
‘It’s just old,’ said Andy. ‘It can get a bit grumpy sometimes.’
‘I know the feeling,’ muttered the woman, looking even more pink as she turned to face him again. ‘I’m so sorry to drag you up here on a fool’s errand!’
‘It’s fine,’ Andy shrugged. ‘I mean, it would have been annoying in about an hour when the fruit slices are ready. I’d hate to be dragged away from the important part of the morning. Oh – I’m Andy by the way.’
‘Cath,’ said the woman. ‘And… fruit slices?’
‘My sister’s a genius,’ said Andy seriously. ‘You need to try them. They’ll change your life. I know I’m biased because it’s Heather… but I swear they’re the best thing I’ve ever tasted.’
‘I’ll have to pop down to the bakery later then,’ said Cath.
‘Before they’re all gone,’ said Andy seriously.
‘Well… I think I’d better deal with things here first,’ sighed Cath. ‘What on earth is all this stuff anyway?’ she added, pointing at the boxes and the settee.
‘Historical artefacts,’ said Andy with a shrug. ‘The museum’s full of things like this.’
‘It is?’ said Cath, looking horrified.
‘Sure,’ Andy nodded. ‘People like to have a good turf out… and they don’t want to throw away anything with historical significance, so they bring them here instead.’
‘Seriously?’ said Cath.
Andy could swear that the pink blush had just paled by several degrees.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘It’s one of the reasons the council have had such a hard time finding someone to take over running the place. It’s full of junk and it’s falling down. They’ve only really got the funding to cover your position… so the repairs just get shunted further and further down the list. But… you know all this, right? They showed you around on your interview?’
Cath shook her head.
‘They didn’t?’ said Andy, suddenly feeling like he wanted to reel all his words back into his mouth and swallow them.
‘This is the first time I’ve been up here,’ said Cath.
‘Since you moved in?’ said Andy.
‘No. Ever,’ said Cath. ‘They did my interview online.’
‘But… Ruth did a video or something?’ said Andy.
He remembered hearing something about it. There had been some chatter about it down at the Dolphin and Anchor and rather a lot of giggling about “convenient camera angles.”
‘Mmm,’ said Cath. ‘I could never get that link to work for some reason.’
‘Well… deep breath,’ said Andy, forcing his voice to sound as light and cheery as he could. He wasn’t going to take the blame for scaring off the new curator before she’d even seen inside the museum! ‘How about I help you move the sofa and get the rest of this stuff inside while I’m here?’
‘Really?’ said Cath. ‘You don’t mind?’
‘Of course not,’ said Andy. ‘I’m not going to abandon you just because you’ve got the door open.’
‘Well… thanks. That’d be great,’ said Cath.
The beaming smile she shot in his direction promptly made Andy feel like he’d been thumped in the chest again. Out of instinct, he raised his hand to run his fingers through his hair—only to discover he was still wearing his hard hat.
What a prat!
He quickly grabbed the peak of the less-than-flattering item of headgear and yanked it off, ruffling his hair to get rid of the flat ring he knew would be there.
What was this woman doing to him? One smile from her and he seemed to be morphing into an image-conscious teenager, keen to impress the girl. Well… he wasn’t off to the best of starts, was he? So far, he’d managed to tell her to wiggle, and then frightened her half to death about her new job.
Smooth, Andy! Seriously smooth.
His only excuse was that he was thoroughly out of practice around beautiful women. Or… any women, really. He hadn’t dated anyone for months. Actually, make that years.
But what was he thinking about dating for?! Cath was probably married, for heaven’s sake. And no, he wouldn’t glance at her ring finger to check.
‘You… erm… you coming?’ said Cath, snapping Andy back to reality.
‘Er… sure,’ he said. ‘Shall we start with the sofa?’
‘I was thinking… shall we start by turning the lights on inside?’ said Cath.
‘Good plan!’ laughed Andy. ‘Sure you’re up for this?’
‘Not sure I’ve got much choice in the matter now,’ said Cath with a shrug. ‘I’ve signed the contract.’
Andy nodded and led the way.
‘The bank of light switches are just around here to the right,’ he said, moving slowly along the hallway and hoping he didn’t trip over any concealed "artefacts”. ‘Here we go,’ he added, coming to a halt in front of the gloomy patch of wall. Reaching up, he went to flick on the first row of switches, only for his hand to press down on top of Cath’s fingers.
‘Oh, sorry!’ she gasped.
‘My fault!’ muttered Andy. ‘You go ahead. It’s the top two rows you want, and then the middle two switches on the fourth.’
‘Okay… I… okay…’ said Cath.
‘I’ll run outside and start bringing in the boxes,’ he muttered, practically jogging away from her before he could do anything else to embarrass himself.