Chapter 25
Monday’s Bruce-sitting went by without incident.
Getting him to comply was surprisingly easy now that Renee had shared her top tips.
Nora spent all evening wondering how Jay was getting on with Tasha.
When he finally walked in at almost midnight she was curled up on his sofa watching Aquaman and switched it off quickly.
Jay would only rant about the naffness of it but Nora quite liked it.
Mainly because it starred a half-dressed Jason Momoa – what was not to like?
‘How’d it go?’ she asked as Jay appeared in the living-room doorway and Bruce went to greet him. Jay looked tired but still every inch the film star, having put in contact lenses and dressed up specially to meet Tasha. It was a big change as she was used to seeing him in his trackies.
‘It went OK. I guess. Bit weird really.’
‘Did you show her the ear-wiggling too soon?’ she asked with a grin.
He pretended to look shocked. ‘I’d never do that before a third date. What do you take me for?’ He flopped on to the sofa. ‘The thing was it was me, Tasha and Tasha’s PR, Anastasia.’
‘Oh,’ said Nora, feeling quite pleased and then feeling a little guilty that Jay’s date hadn’t turned out to be one at all. She changed her expression to one of consolation. ‘That’s a shame. Did you and Tasha have any time together?’
‘Only when Anastasia went to the loo.’
‘Not a great night then?’
‘It was nice enough. Food was good. And they have lots of plans for publicity for Undercover Bullets so that’s cool and we got mobbed by photographers when we left the restaurant.’
‘Is that good?’ asked Nora.
‘It’s all publicity,’ said Jay, who was fussing Bruce without looking as if he was worried about losing fingers.
‘Look at you, throwing caution to the wind.’
‘Sometimes you have to take a risk.’
How true that was.
Jay had been quiet at the start of Crafting and Cocktails on Tuesday evening but after a couple of Renee’s newly perfected Espresso Martinis he perked up. But when he checked his phone for the umpteenth time, Nora had to say something.
‘Is everything OK?’
‘Hmm.’ It took him a moment to pull his eyes away from his phone. ‘Just some weirdos on social media. There seem to be more and more of them for some reason.’
‘Is it the paparazzi photos?’ Pictures of Jay and Tasha leaving the restaurant had been all over the internet.
‘Yeah, I guess that’s what it is.’ Jay put his phone away and went back to his knitting.
‘That’s why Liza Minnelli used to love Monaco. No paparazzi allowed.’ Renee laughed. ‘It’s a bloody good job really given the things we got up to.’
Renee began telling a story about Jackie Stewart winning the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix but Nora found she was distracted. Jay had something on his mind, and it hurt her to see that it was troubling him.
Wednesday whizzed by as Nora was meeting Liam after work in the pub they used to like to go to when they were dating, the Anne of Cleves.
It was in Burton Street and had an olde-worlde charm without being kitsch.
Nora was first to arrive so she got herself a Diet Coke and pondered whether to sit in the corner by the fire like they used to do.
Was that too obvious? Then again, the odds of him remembering were probably slim and too obscure for even her to work out.
She was standing by the bar with her drink in one hand and a gift bag in the other when Liam walked in.
He’d always been handsome but a few years had made a big difference.
His hair was shorter and neater but his boyish good looks were now more chiselled.
He had matured and so had his dress sense.
A crisp white shirt under a casual jacket looked good on him and a huge improvement on the tight T-shirts he’d favoured when they’d dated.
‘Hey, Nora.’ He put his arms out but immediately seemed unsure of what should happen next. They gave each other a peck on the cheek in an uncoordinated fashion. ‘What are you drinking?’
‘Diet Coke. But I’ve already got one.’ She raised her glass as evidence.
‘OK. I’ll join you. Did you want any peanuts? Do you still like peanuts?’
‘I do but no thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ll grab a seat.’
‘The one by the fire is free,’ he said, pointing keenly. It seemed he did remember. This was a great start.
When Liam took off his jacket and sat down she could see he’d kept himself in good shape. She put the gift bag on the table and pushed it towards him. ‘I probably should have done this a lot sooner. But anyway, there you go.’ She pointed awkwardly at the bag.
He peered inside. ‘A sticky willy!’ he said, possibly a little louder than was necessary as it made the woman at the next table spin around. She didn’t hide the fact she was checking them out in a very judgemental manner.
‘Because I killed yours and I’m sorry,’ Nora said. ‘Better late than never and all that.’
‘You didn’t need to,’ he said, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off the plant since he’d been presented with it.
‘I was a bit of a dick about the whole thing. I think I was going through an angsty emotional phase at the time and you took the brunt of that. I thought about apologizing so many times but never got around to it.’
‘Me too.’ That had gone a lot better than she’d dared to hope.
Hours flew by. Conversation had quickly turned to reminiscing and the awful lot of shared history they had.
They’d quickly settled back into easy chatter.
Memories bred memories as they opened doors to shared jokes and funny stories.
They had been friends before they had dated, which made it a double blow when they’d split up.
That was something she didn’t ever want to go through again.
Making friends had always been hard for Nora, and life had frequently shown her that letting people get close made you vulnerable.
They still shared the same sense of humour and ended up laughing so hard it hurt, making the nosy lady from the next table tut and shake her head a lot.
More soft drinks were consumed and they shared a bag of peanuts just like they used to do.
When the landlord called time they both checked their watches in disbelief.
The evening had whizzed by and Nora’s tummy muscles had had a good workout from laughing so hard.
Liam’s eyes widened. ‘Getting chucked out of a pub, that reminds me of—’
‘Sasha’s birthday do at the White Hart when you walked out with their flowerpot on your head and nobody stopped you,’ said Nora, finishing his sentence before getting the giggles again.
When the laughter faded they held each other’s gaze.
That had been the night they had first kissed.
Looking at him now, the details of that kiss were suddenly clear in her mind.
It wouldn’t have taken much for her to hold his face in her hands once more and kiss him.
His features were so familiar and yet he had changed and she wanted to get to know him all over again.
Liam blinked and the moment was gone. ‘We’d better get going. But it has been so, so good to catch-up. It’s been too long.’
‘It has.’ Was that it? Were they going to part ways?
If they did, it was likely they’d not meet for another few years.
Nora was in a quandary. She wanted to see Liam again but only if he wanted to see her.
Unfortunately she didn’t have much time to work it all out because Liam was on his feet and getting ready to leave.
Nora grabbed her bag and followed him into the car park.
‘I’m parked over there,’ said Liam, squeezing his key fob and making an Audi a few cars away beep and flash its lights.
She sensed his hesitation. ‘I can’t believe how quick the evening went.
We literally only talked about the good old days, which makes us sound ancient.
I didn’t even ask you about what you’re up to now.
’ She knew he was working as an accountant and was single from their text messages but not much else.
‘That means we’ve got stuff to talk about next time,’ he said.
She pointed at him for no good reason. ‘You’re right. We’d best get something in the diary.’
‘I’ll message you.’ He scanned her up and down. ‘Take care, Nora.’ He gave her a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek before striding off to his car, leaving her pondering.
As soon as she got in, Nora updated her spreadsheet and called Dixie to tell her all about her evening. She was still hunting down snacks with her head in the fridge while she relayed everything that had happened, and her friend made the right noises in the right places as all good friends should.
‘Oh dear. That was a friend-zone goodbye,’ said Dixie when Nora reached the end of her story.
‘I know, right?’ Nora didn’t feel any better having her thoughts confirmed by Dixie but it was lovely to hear her voice.
‘And he said “Take care”. I say that to my nanna after a visit to Bosnia because I fear she might have a fall or choke on a Werther’s Original or something before the next time I see her because I don’t see her very often. ’
‘Ouch. That doesn’t imply he wants to rip your clothes off or settle into a long-term relationship,’ said Dixie.
‘Exactly my thoughts.’ Nora bit into a large lump of cheddar and shut the fridge door with her bum.
‘What now?’ asked Dixie.
Nora walked through to the living room and flopped on to the sofa, making one of Oliver’s eyes swivel in her direction to watch her thoughtfully chew her cheese. ‘I think I’ll wait for him to make the next move.’
‘Good idea,’ said Dixie firmly.
‘Unless he doesn’t call me, then I’ll probably message him in like a week or so.’
‘Oh, absolutely you should,’ said Dixie. ‘I’ve sort of done the same thing. I hadn’t heard from the grumpy-message person so I’ve left a note under the wiper.’
Nora needed a moment to process what Dixie had said so she munched on a bit more cheddar. ‘Isn’t it a good thing that they’ve stopped leaving angry notes on Elsie?’
‘It definitely is. Although, when I didn’t hear from them it was a bit like they’d ghosted me, plus I felt everything was up in the air and I wanted clarification or closure or both.’
‘And leaving a note for someone who wants to evict you will do that, will it?’ asked Nora.
‘If there’s no reply then I think I can safely assume they have given up or died or something else equally final. If there is a response then I’ll know where I stand.’ The sound of Dixie sighing came down the line.
‘Are you OK?’
There was a small pause before Dixie replied. ‘I had a tiff with Ned. It was something and nothing but I can’t resolve it because I have no way of getting in touch with him.’
‘You know that you don’t need Ned, don’t you?’ asked Nora.
It took a while for Dixie to reply. ‘I know. It’s lonely, just me, Elsie and Arnold. And Arnold’s busy most of the time.’
Nora wondered at what point she should start to worry about her friend’s mental health if she considered a clapped-out campervan and a bolshie squirrel her closest companions.
‘If you want to do this campervan adventure then you need to properly go for it. Get the renovations completed, get someone out to fix Elsie and move on. But if you’re done with it all, that’s OK too and you can come home.
You’ve proved you can cope without your parents so that box has been ticked.
You can stay with me until your tenant moves out. ’
‘You are completely right,’ said Dixie with gusto.
‘About which one?’ asked Nora, waving a piece of cheese in the air and making Oliver’s eye swivel wildly.
‘About giving it a proper go. I’ll crack on first thing tomorrow with the renovations. That’s what I set out to do and I’m going to finish it … assuming it’s not too hard because the door panels are not easy to get off and I’ve only ever made curtains once before and that was for my doll’s house.’
‘You definitely want to stay?’ Nora felt she needed to check.
‘Absolutely. For the time being anyway.’
‘OK, if you’re sure,’ said Nora and she popped the last piece of cheese in her mouth.