“How about we all head back to the house for more champagne once you’re done with your sugar fest?” Ant asks, but I shake my head. My evening is approaching its end.
“Not for me, thanks. I’m up early for London tomorrow. I’m meeting the G.A.T.A. team at lunch to plan our seminar on coercion.”
Ant looks visibly pissed off, despite trying to hide it with a smile.
“Seriously, Ger, you couldn’t at least go one weekend before trekking off down to the G.A.T.A. gang?”
It raises my hackles enough that I put my menu down.
“No, Ant. I couldn’t.”
“Fine. You do that then.” He breaks his stance with a smile. This one a lot more convincing. But it doesn’t fool me, and neither does his bullshit facade.
The mood between us changes, unspoken, but neither of the women seem to pick up on it. Beautifully oblivious.
“I’ll head out for a quick cigarette before dessert arrives,” I tell them, and don’t wait around to look at any condescending sneers from Ant before I’m up from my seat.
I’m lighting up at the bottom of the steps outside when I hear footsteps approaching me. It’s Janie, with a really sweet smile on her face.
“Do you smoke?” I ask and offer her the packet.
She shrugs a little, then takes one from me. “Occasionally, yeah, thanks.”
I flick the lighter and help her spark up, and we smoke together outside the grandeur of Hanley Hall.
“It’s mega cool that you campaign for G.A.T.A.,” she says. “I really should think about getting back into it. I don’t do nearly enough work for charity.”
“We’d always welcome you at G.A.T.A.”
She’s been drinking plenty of champagne and that shows. Her smile is a different level in confidence to the one she first shot me in the car on the way here.
“How about you?” she says, “Would you welcome me?”
I don’t know how to react to that question, so I take another drag of my cigarette. I don’t get given the chance to reply, as even through the champagne, she realises she’s spoken too soon.
“Sorry,” she says. “I feel like an idiot now, stalking you out across the restaurant.”
“Don’t,” I assure her. “There is nothing idiot-like about showing an interest. I’m very flattered.”
She pretends to slap her own head, and it makes us laugh together as we finish up our cigarettes and cast them into the trash.
“The desserts will be heading our way now,” she says with a smile. “Better get in there and get gobbling.”
She is such a sweetheart that I offer her an arm as we return to the table, cursing myself under my breath with every step. If only, just only, I could fall for a girl like Janie, then life would be a whole other world, but I won’t do, because she isn’t for me. I already know that as I pull out her chair and help her get seated, because even after one evening together one thing is certain.
My attention is on a different woman right the way through dessert, even though she isn’t having a bite of one.
Cass is the one I want to be spending my time with. Fuck getting my dick wet, or whatever other bullshit phrase Ant likes to put on it, because that’s not what I’m after. What I want to do is watch old movies and drink coffee with her and get to know her as she is, and from the way she’s smiling right back at me, I’d take a guess that she’d like that, too.
For the first time in years, I almost regret booking my weekend up with G.A.T.A. meetings, but there will be plenty of time to redress that balance. At least, I hope so – since I’m moving in.
I smile at her and she smiles back, as Janie tells us all about the different swimming sessions they have on at the spa.
“I’ll get the bill,” Ant says in a terse interruption, and gets up from the table before I can protest and say I’ll pay my share.
It’s when he shoots me a backwards glance as he crosses the restaurant that I get a nasty twist in my stomach. The look in his eyes makes me realise how he’s been looking at mine.
And just how much mine have been looking at his girlfriend.
Cass
It’s obvious how much Janie likes Gerwyn as she says goodnight. She’s waving at us as she walks away at her parents’ place, but her attention is all on him.
I only hope he feels the same.
Ant is quiet on the way home, so I turn my attention to the crusader in the back seat, keen to know more about his campaigning work. Ant can say it will bore me to tears all he likes, but it won’t.
“You’re off to London in the morning, then?”
“Yeah, early. I’m meeting up with Richard Wells for lunch.”