Chapter 6
ARTICULATE – USE WORDS CLEVERLY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR PARTNER IS TRYING TO TELL YOU.
The next few days followed a similar pattern, with Soli barely catching Xavier for two minutes over his morning coffee before he left for work and then him coming home at random times in the evening, regularly texting her to let her know he wouldn’t be back in time for supper and to eat without him.
As her anxiety grew about how they would fare at the impending party, her focus frayed, making it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the marketing she had planned for the cafe.
So, when Friday night came around she crossed her fingers that Xavier would be back at a reasonable hour and finally willing to give her a bit of his precious time so she could finally put her mind at rest.
But when he walked in after nine o’clock he only poked his head into the sitting room, where she’d been trying to distract herself by half watching TV and half checking social media, and said a curt ‘hello’ before excusing himself to go up to his office.
Having sat on her own, fretting, as she drained a large glass of wine, Soli suddenly found she’d had enough of being ignored.
Springing up off the sofa, she ran into the hallway, where Xavier was already mounting the stairs, his long legs making short work of the winding staircase.
‘Xavier!’ she shouted, determined to get his attention before he disappeared on her again.
He stopped climbing and turned to look back down on her with a frown of surprise.
‘Look,’ she said, throwing up her hands in exasperation, ‘I appreciate you’re busy, but how am I supposed to convincingly pretend I’m your wife – someone that loves you and knows you intimately – if you won’t even talk to me?
’ She held up both hands, palms forward.
‘Can you please just give me half an hour of your time? Is that really too much to ask?’
He was looking at her now as if completely stunned by her outburst.
‘I’m sorry to snap,’ she said quickly, worried that she’d gone too far in her agitation, ‘but I’ve reached my limit of pretending not to mind you treating me like a piece of furniture.
’ She tried to smile but her mouth refused to play ball.
Instead, to her horror, her muscles began to tug downwards at each side and her throat constricted painfully as she fought back tears.
But she wasn’t going to cry. No way. She was going to be an adult about this.
‘If you really want us to appear like a proper couple you’re going to have to let me in a bit,’ she pointed out in a measured tone.
A muscle in his jaw flickered, but after a few seconds of seeming to seriously contemplate what she was saying he gave her a curt nod of agreement.
‘Okay, then. And how do you propose I do that?’
She moved to the bottom of the stairs and leant on the newel post, looking up at him, a mixture of excitement and relief surging through her.
‘There’s this game I’ve played at a party which helps you get to know the other guests better.
First of all, you have to look into each other’s eyes for three minutes – to begin to feel more comfortable with that person in a physical sense. ’ She paused, gauging his reaction.
‘Go on,’ was all he said, walking down one step towards her.
‘Then we ask each other a set of questions which are meant to give us some insight into each other’s lives – how we see the world, what makes us feel good and bad. Personal self-disclosure, I think it’s called.’
‘Right.’ He seemed less certain about this, but he hadn’t said no, so she decided to forge on.
‘The shared vulnerability is supposed to make us feel closer and help us trust each other more. I appreciate this is a bit of an ask at this early stage, but I think it’ll be a great way to get comfortable with each other pretty quickly, especially since we don’t have a lot of time to do that, what with you being so busy at work. ’
She tried to keep her scepticism out of her voice about how busy she thought he really was, as opposed to how he’d probably been using it as an excuse to avoid her, but from the twitch in his eyebrow she could tell she’d failed.
‘Okay, Soli, fine.’ He rubbed his hand over his jaw. ‘I guess we should do this now since Hugo and Veronica’s party is tomorrow.’ He walked down the rest of the stairs to where she stood. ‘Where do you want to do it?’
‘The sitting room would be good. Somewhere we can sit comfortably.’
‘Okay. Lead the way,’ he said.
She ignored the weariness in his voice, determined not to give him an excuse not to go through with this. Hopefully once they started communicating properly, he’d start to relax around her.
In the sitting room she chose the three-seater sofa and sat down on it, patting the cushion next to her to encourage him to sit close by.
He followed her suggestion and turned to face her, laying his arm along the top of the sofa and looking anything but excited about the prospect of doing this.
‘Okay, I’m going to set the timer going, then we have to sit looking at each other’s faces, particularly the eyes, until the beeper goes.’ She shifted in her seat, trying to ignore the wave of heat rising up her neck at the thought of actually doing this now with Xavier.
‘Are you ready?’ she asked him.
‘As I’ll ever be,’ he drawled.
‘Okay, then, I’m starting the timer – now,’ she said, tapping on the screen of her phone.
Turning to face him and settling her body into a comfortable position, she fought back a ridiculous urge to giggle, knowing it would spoil the exercise before they’d even started, and took a breath, locking her eyes with his.
He nodded as if resigned to letting this happen and looked back at her with that shrewd, intelligent gaze of his.
Soli swallowed, suddenly acutely aware of every breath she took, every facial muscle she moved. It was intensely intimate, having him looking at her so thoroughly without a break, but she was determined not to look away.
All the hairs on her body stood up and a hot tingle rushed over her skin as the seconds ticked by slowly, but she still didn’t look away.
He really was an immensely attractive man, she mused as she gazed at his olive skin with its five o’clock shadow and his long, dark lashes that almost brushed his cheeks every time he blinked.
She became aware of some strange feeling building inside her, something that made her pulse jump in her throat, but before she had a chance to figure out exactly what it meant the timer went off, making them both jump.
‘Sorry, I didn’t realise I’d set the volume that high,’ she said, flustered and grabbing for the phone with fumbling fingers. Finally managing to turn it off, she turned back to him and shot him an apologetic grin.
‘Well, that was fun,’ she joked.
His mouth actually twitched up at the corner at that, which she considered a personal victory. Of sorts.
‘At least we’ll be able to describe each other’s faces to an outsider in detail now too,’ she said, acutely aware of a telltale wobble in her voice.
‘You know, I hadn’t realised your eyes had yellow flecks in them; I thought it was just a lighter shade of green.
Oh, and how did you get the small scar by your lip?
It’s so tiny I hadn’t noticed it till now. ’
‘I fell off my bike here in the garden when I was eight,’ he said, lifting his hand to touch the scar she’d mentioned, almost absently. ‘Aunt Faith bought it for my birthday, and the front brakes were really fierce. I went right over the handlebars.’
‘Ouch!’ she said, with a grin.
‘Precisely,’ he agreed, his mouth twitching upwards again.
Yes, progress! It seemed the forced intimacy had opened something up a crack between them. She just needed to press her advantage now and get him talking to her some more.
‘Okay, then, now we’ve done that let’s move on to the questions. I’ll ask you some first, okay?’
He began to frown, but seemed to change his mind. ‘Sure. Fire away.’ Shuffling back against the sofa cushions, he crossed his arms in front of him and gave her his full attention.
Soli felt herself flush again under his gaze, but tried not to let it distract her.
‘What would be a perfect day for you?’ she asked as a starter question.
‘Hmm.’ He rubbed his hand over his jaw again, but in a thoughtful manner this time.
‘Well, I rarely get the chance for a lie-in, so I’d have one of those.’
Soli tried hard not to picture him lying naked and rumpled in bed. And failed.
‘Then I’d have a long, lazy breakfast and perhaps a walk across the heath. Maybe have a swim in the lake and a picnic lunch.’
From the faraway look in his eyes now, she got the impression he was actually enjoying thinking this up. The thought of it warmed her.
‘In the afternoon I’d go and play tennis then head out for a slap-up meal in town.’
‘Wow, that all sounds great,’ she said with a grin. ‘And when was the last time you spent a day doing things like that?’
This seemed to stump him. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had a day like that. I’ve always been too busy with work or had other social engagements.’
‘Oh. What a shame.’
‘Yes, I guess it is,’ he said, shrugging his shoulder.
There was a small pause where neither of them said anything.
‘When was the last time you sang in front of someone?’ Soli asked, to fill the silence.
‘Never,’ he said with a shake of his head.
‘Really? Never?’
‘I’m not really into performing,’ he said with finality to his tone.
‘Oh. Okay, then,’ she said, recognising his need to move on.
‘How about this: if you could choose one ability that you don’t already have, what would it be?’
‘To predict the future,’ he said with confidence.
Soli thought this was interesting. It clearly pointed to a need for complete control.
‘What are you most grateful for?’
He paused infinitesimally before replying, ‘My health, wealth and happiness.’
Glib, but okay.
‘What would you never joke about?’
‘Money.’ There was no pause before that answer.