Chapter 28 Jacob
Jacob
Jacob woke up in the little single bed with a heavy weight pressing down on his legs. For a moment he had no idea where he was, then remembered. A little digital alarm clock on the bedside table said eight-thirty, and he had a sudden moment of panic before remembering that today was Saturday.
Neither of them had realised they had no work in the morning until late; then to celebrate this sudden revelation they had decided to watch a Christmas film in the living room, a wholesome and relaxing romantic comedy for which neither of them had managed to stay awake long enough to see the end, although the assumption was that Vanessa Hudgens would end up with the guy who had travelled through time from a future where there was no Christmas, probably sharing a first kiss beneath the Christmas tree.
The thought of this happening and what he ought to do if and when it did, kept Jacob on edge for the first part of the film, but after Charlotte fell asleep first, he was able to relax.
After waking during the credits, Charlotte showed Jacob the spare bedroom downstairs, then groggily said goodnight and headed up to bed.
He tried to roll over. Whatever was pressing down on him shifted with him, then suddenly clambered up over his body.
Conjuring images of the beast from the deep, Jacob opened his mouth to scream, only to find it met with a flapping, slobbering tongue.
Trying to minimise the sliming, Jacob put his arms around Harry and tried to ease the dog away from his face.
He had just managed to get the dog under control when a light knock came on the door.
It opened and Charlotte’s face appeared.
Her hair was sticking up in clumps but she still looked as lovely as the morning sun.
Jacob let his guard down just a little too long as he stared at her, and Harry moved in for a savage tongue slime right across the middle of his face.
‘Oh, was he looking after you?’ Charlotte said.
‘Something like that.’
She gave a little laugh, light and airy. ‘I made bacon and eggs,’ she said. Then, as Harry’s foot slipped into Jacob’s groin, making him wince, her smile dropped. ‘Oh, goodness. You’re not vegan are you?’
He shook his head. ‘Full fat, full meat.’
‘Great.’ She patted her leg. ‘Come on, Harry. Let Jacob get dressed.’
Charlotte had laid out a breakfast spread that would have made any grandmother proud.
Triangular slices of toast stood in a wire rack, next to a knob of butter on a plate.
Orange juice filled a glass jug, coffee two mugs.
She had set out a line of miniature cereal boxes and there were two plates laden with bacon and fried eggs.
Beans in a tub, ketchup on a little flowery plate.
Jacob couldn’t help but smile. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘It’s like being in a B all he could think about was the beautiful blonde teacher with the easy manner and the kind smile.
He remembered a quote he had read from Einstein about relativity, something about a moment touching a hot plate could feel like an eternity, but an hour in the presence of a pretty girl could feel like but a moment.
Good God, the time dragged, as he waited for four o’clock. It was like each passing second was a ponderous, drawn-out exercise in time taking the mickey. When he let his vision blur as he stared at the wall clock, it seemed to become a laughing, mocking face.
And of course, when four o’clock did roll around, and he met Charlotte on the corner of Sycamore Park, time suddenly seemed to jump on the treadmill and start galloping at high speed.
They had fish ’n’ chips beneath a bus shelter in the snow, picking a spot with a view of the church and all its Christmas lights, and afterwards Jacob could barely remember how they tasted.
Charlotte held his arm as they walked up to the cinema, then the film—a generic action thriller chosen after they each threw a snowball at the listings board outside Brentwell Cinema, and both managed to hit the same title—was over in a moment, and they were walking back towards the taxi rank in the square by the church.
Jacob wanted a thousand things. He wanted to hold her forever, wanted to take her home, wanted to introduce her to his mother, marry her, live happily ever after.
In the end, what he did was help her into a taxi, and promise to call in a couple of days.
Tomorrow he had to meet his mother, and Charlotte typically spent Sundays preparing for the school week, plus she’d made arrangements for lunch with one of her grandmother’s old social clubs.
He held her close, breathing her in, until the taxi driver snapped that the meter was already running, and that Jacob ought to let go of her in case she turned into a pumpkin at midnight.
She climbed in, waved goodbye, and he wondered whether he should have tried to kiss her, regretting that he hadn’t.
He watched the taxi go, feeling a lurch in his heart as it took her away, then slowly lifted a hand to wave.
Still buzzing from their date, he was too alert to go home so soon.