Chapter 6 #2
‘Absalon in Vesterbro.’ She immediately grabbed her phone, and Theo shot a hand out. ‘No googling! This is your first lesson in how to be Danish.’
‘Okay,’ she replied, stretching out the word nervously.
‘Let’s go.’
Theo led her to that district, to a building that looked a lot like a church.
On the way, conversation flowed naturally, as it had earlier.
They discussed movies and music: her love of romcoms, his of action movies.
Her love of classical music and his, a surprising taste for K-pop, which she’d found hilarious.
She glanced at him nervously and his lopsided grin made her heart swell.
They entered the old building and inside, long tables were set up – busy tables – laid with cutlery and plates. It was like she’d walked into a party.
‘This is Absalon,’ Theo said. ‘A community house where they do social dining.’
‘Social what?’
He led them to two seats, the people around them smiling and welcoming them to the table.
He pulled her chair out for her, and she tucked herself in.
‘Social dining. People don’t always want to eat alone, and these places are for those who want to eat with other people but maybe can’t for whatever reason.
They could have just moved here, been bereaved and need support, be students who want the company. It’s for anyone and everyone.’
‘Wow.’ She wondered how different Britain would be if there were things like that there.
Loneliness was almost considered something to be embarrassed about, but here it seemed it was recognised without shame and people were given the resources to deal with it.
As she looked around to see people of all ages speaking to each other like they’d known each other for years, seeing smiles and hearing laughter, she couldn’t deny it was pretty incredible.
‘Listen,’ Theo said, leaning in towards her.
His breath caught her cheek, sending ripples over her skin.
‘I wanted to apologise properly for the other day. I – I shouldn’t have been rude and presumed you were stupid just because you use Instagram.
And I shouldn’t have been so defensive when Ada introduced us. I know that you’re here to help.’
It was a heartfelt, open apology. She knew so many men, especially in her work, who would never apologise.
‘Thank you,’ she replied, nervously pushing her glasses up her nose.
‘I appreciate it. I am only here to help and if you don’t like any of my ideas, then that’s fine. I won’t be upset. It’s your café.’
‘And Ada’s,’ he added with a grin.
‘And Ada’s. But she trusts you to make good decisions. I just need you to be open to different approaches.’
‘I’ll try my best.’ Their hands brushed together on the table, and beneath it, as he shifted, his leg pressed against hers. A firework of longing exploded through her body and the flirty attraction that had buzzed between them when she’d first arrived at the café came back again with a vengeance.
‘What does your boyfriend think to you being here?’ Theo asked and the question sent another rocket of excitement through her.
That surely meant he was as attracted to her as she was to him?
But then her mood darkened as conflicting emotions swam inside her.
She knew she should be feeling worse about Tom.
She should be missing him; her heart should still ache whenever she remembered they were never going to be together again.
But really all she felt was relief, perhaps a little anger still at the way it had ended, but when she looked back, the past six months hadn’t exactly been filled with fire and passion.
Their sex life had gone from sporadic to non-existent and she’d often found herself sitting opposite him in restaurants wondering what they could talk about next.
They were all red flags she’d ignored or been too busy to realise were waving right in front of her face.
She looked up to see Theo waiting for her answer and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, feeling self-conscious. ‘We split up just before I left.’
‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.’
‘It’s fine. I’m okay.’
‘Really?’ He must have felt like she was pretending, but how could she convince him she wasn’t without seeming cold-hearted? ‘Relationships leave a mark whether they were good ones or bad ones. Splitting up can be for the best but it doesn’t stop it hurting.’
Darkness clouded his expression and whether he meant to or not, he edged away from her, turning so he faced the table.
The change had been surprising, and she didn’t really know how to answer.
She wanted to say something like: ‘It sounds like you’re talking from experience,’ but his whole body had seemed to close in on itself.
Instead, they sat in an excruciatingly awkward silence for a moment. As it lingered, Milly had never been more grateful for social dining as Theo struggled to emerge from whatever difficult emotion he was sitting in.
‘This is a great place,’ she said eventually. ‘Thank you for bringing me here.’
‘I’m glad you like it.’
As the evening went on, he was polite and made conversation with her and those around them, but it was clear something was bothering him deeply.
Ada hadn’t mentioned a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend.
She hadn’t mentioned anything about Theo’s love life.
So what had caused this intense reaction?
Milly had seen a flash of something similar that morning, but this was far deeper, as though she’d accidentally torn a Band-Aid off a deep cut.
She told herself it was none of her business.
They weren’t close and after all, they’d known each other for a grand total of three days.
It’s not as if she was looking for love either.
She might not have been as heartbroken as she should have been over Tom, but that didn’t mean she was ready to look for anything new either.
Her time here was for her to concentrate on herself. This summer was all about her.