Chapter Fifteen
With Ellie practically vaulting onto Sylvie’s back, so keen was she for a real sleepover as she raced out of the cottage, Alex managed to get to Truro early for his date.
He felt his tummy jumble a little with nerves, which was a reasonable expectation.
Largely, he thought, because of leaving Ellie overnight for the first time but also because he hadn’t ever been on a blind date before and couldn’t believe that he was now going on one.
Thirty-six years old, a father and feeling butterflies about meeting a woman he had zero interest in.
He had offered to pick her up but Marion had informed him that Claudia was coming straight from the train station, having travelled down from London to spend the weekend in her second home, which wasn’t in Penmenna but in Treporth Bay, a small town along the coast, where she had recently bought a rather chichi flat (Marion’s words) overlooking the new marina.
Chichi and predictably spotless flats were all about Alex’s history; his future seemed to be uneven cottages and an awful lot of mess.
He knew which he preferred, although it would come as a surprise to all who had known him in his London life.
Heading into the bar, he ordered himself a drink and sat down to wait.
He was quite early but hadn’t been there long before he was approached by a startlingly attractive woman, dark hair bouncing as she walked, professionally dressed in a navy trouser suit that clung to every beautifully proportioned curve, and a silk shirt opened just a smidge, revealing honey-coloured skin and more than a hint of promise.
Every other man in the bar turned his head as she entered.
She made a beeline for him.
‘Alex, an absolute pleasure.’
OK, so she recognized him, which meant this must be Claudia.
She was certainly exactly to his taste, and reminiscent of a girlfriend he had had in university.
Slim with thick wavy brown hair and clothes that screamed a natural, and expensive, good taste.
She knew how to dress and he accepted that Marion knew what she was doing.
Matchmaker extraordinaire. He probably owed her an apology.
‘Claudia, lovely to meet you. Can I get you a drink?’
‘Fabulous, yes, please. But could we perhaps grab our table. I’d forgotten how hideous the train journey is and the buffet car only had a soggy-looking panini. I’m absolutely famished.’
‘Of course, that sounds like a great idea. I’ve got so used to eating early recently that my tummy is considering eating the plate as well.’
She gave him an odd look and he reminded himself not to talk to her as if she were five. Spending all his time with Ellie meant his vocabulary had become a little childlike and considerably less man-about-town. Men about town very definitely had stomachs.
‘Well, we’d best get something to eat then.
’ OK, he seemed to have got away with that, and he wouldn’t be repeating that mistake again.
He was an adult, on an adult date, with possibly very adult consequences.
He flourished his hand and she took the cue and walked through to the restaurant, whereupon the ma?tre d’ guided them to their table before asking for her coat which she shrugged off her shoulders with the ease of Grace Kelly.
Alex couldn’t help but smile as he pulled out her chair and she sat down, again oh-so-gracefully before smiling up at him, a smile that would have most men falling to the floor.
Luckily, he wasn’t most men, but he acknowledged its power.
He also hadn’t failed to note that the smile was reserved only for him – she hadn’t so much as bestowed a glance on the ma?tre d’ or the waiter who was now hovering with a menu and an air of teenage devotion.
Taking the menu with a nod, she focused her full attention on Alex as he sat opposite her.
‘I must say I was very happy when Marion called and suggested we have dinner. I’m sure you hear this a lot, but I’m a huge fan.’
He didn’t. Most people other than those in the industry didn’t really know who he was.
The juxtaposition between him always being seen on camera in a flak jacket and helmet meant that people struggled to place him when he was in the jeans and T-shirt he normally sported.
Which made him very happy. He couldn’t imagine anything worse than being constantly recognized and consequently treated differently.
‘Oh, thank you. But you have the inside track here. Marion has told me very little about you.’
‘Oh, that’s easy enough. I live largely in London where I work as a hedge-fund manager.
And I have a home here for down time. So important, as I’m sure you know.
’ She leant across the table and touched his arm, but instead of a sexual charge shooting through him, as he would have expected sitting opposite such a beautiful woman (especially due to the lack of sexual activity since he had arrived in the country), he merely felt a shiver, almost of warning but so faint he queried himself.
Experience taught him to listen to his intuition. He sat back in his chair and looked at her afresh. The waiter, hovering nearby, wasn’t unsure at all and was looking at him with outright envy.
‘I try and get down here as often as I can. I like to get out on the water. Do you sail?’
Before Alex could answer the waiter approached to see if they were ready to order.
‘We haven’t had a chance yet. Could you give us a minute?
’ Claudia smiled sweetly at Alex after she had addressed the waiter who, mortified, slunk off to the other side of the restaurant.
‘I’m sorry…’ she really didn’t look it, ‘…but I can’t abide being pestered.
Although I suppose we should have a look. ’
Alex smiled back and opened his menu, reminding himself that maybe she was nervous.
‘Ooh, it all looks lovely, doesn’t it?’
‘It certainly does.’ He scanned the menu and then snapped it shut.
‘Oh, have you chosen already?’
‘Yes, I’m ravenous so I know exactly what I want.’
‘That’s a good sign, I always like a man who knows what he wants.
’ She shot him an X-rated look as she reached for her wine glass.
‘In that case, I had better make my mind up quickly, best not to keep you waiting. I wouldn’t want to make you impatient.
’ She continued holding his eye as she spoke and was delivering each line with a slightly breathless air which instead of reeling him in, left him itching to ask if she needed an inhaler.
If Sylvie were here, she definitely would do.
Claudia finally tore her eyes away and looked down the menu, occasionally tutting, before she closed it and looked around the restaurant. The young waiter was serving a table nearby but before he could finish Claudia had clicked her fingers and rolled her eyes in Alex’s direction.
‘Looks like I was right about the staff.’
The poor waiter scurried over and the two of them ordered but not without Claudia breathlessly explaining that she wouldn’t have a starter because she was looking forward to getting to the pudding, shooting Alex another very pointed look whilst rubbing her feet against his leg. The waiter nearly passed out.
‘Really, they should hire staff who are a little less pubescent. Did you see that poor boy?’
Alex grimaced and nodded. What had looked like it could be a dream date in the initial seconds was turning into a bit of a nightmare. He was increasingly as keen to leave as she was, just for very different reasons.
‘So, I haven’t seen you on screen for quite some time. Rumour has it you’re on an extended sabbatical.’
How the hell did she know that?
‘Yes, you could say that.’
‘So, what prompted that then?’
‘I’ve been in the job for a long time and thought it was time to have a look at what I wanted to do next.’ He delivered the standard answer, designed to give no real information at all.
‘Mental health then? Don’t you worry, I’m very good with this sort of thing. My sister-in-law is an absolute loon, howling, licking windows, the lot.’
‘And how does she feel about you labelling her like that, then?’ Alex couldn’t help himself, she was just getting increasingly unpleasant. Who on earth thought such things, let alone vocalized them?
‘Hohoho, she knows I say that. She and my brother get a bit tetchy but you often find that, don’t you – some people simply don’t get a joke. I can tell you and I share the same sense of humour.’
‘Hmm.’ His dad had drummed it into him that a gentleman was polite at all times but it was becoming a bit of a struggle.
‘So anyway, your sabbatical. I had heard a whisper that you had rescued some orphan Annie out in Africa and that’s why you have buried yourself down here, but I’ve been watching you for years so I told the person who told me, that it was abject nonsense.
Of course you wouldn’t, you’re much savvier than that.
I said, look, orphans are ten a penny. Alex McKenzie, he knows he can make much more of a difference using his celebrity status to raise awareness rather than just plucking one child out of obscurity.
And I mean, we both live in the city, neither of us are stupid people, what on earth would anyone want a child for?
Poor Richard seems to have dozens, emotional vampires the lot of them.
I’m like you, I’m a good judge of character.
After all, I could hardly make a living in the financial markets if I couldn’t read people, could I?
Hedge-fund management is all about good judgement, sorting the weak from the strong and acting accordingly. Do you not like your steak?’
‘I seem to have lost my appetite.’
‘Well, we can’t have that, can we? We need you all strong for later.’ She winked across the table at him and this time her foot moved up from his leg and into his groin. That was enough.