“Come on, we’re going have to get out of here,” Tom said, grabbing Stephanie by the hand and swiftly leaving the office building.
“Hold on!” she said, pulling him to a halt by the outer wall, “what happened in there? Did he know?”
Tom thought that he must have known something. “Nah, he just wanted the whiskey so I acted guilty about that.”
“Are we going to be pulled up for this?” she asked, biting her lip.
“Brick is in a good enough mood tonight. Besides, he'll not know. It’ll be all right,” he reassured her, putting an arm around her shoulder and turning to walk away. Stephanie shrugged off his arm and swiftly turned, blocking him against the wall with one hand planted against it, the other on her hip.
“Wait just a minute, we have something to talk about.”
Tom made a slow assessment of her dominant stance. “We do?”
Her gaze was unwavering. “Yes Tom, we do.” He raised an eyebrow and she continued after a short pause. “One, why did you storm out of the pub? And two, what on earth was all that about ‘only having me once’ and me being with ‘some other guy’?”
Tom’s confidence wavered then as a frisson of anxiety passed over him, particularly after hearing the last question.
“I left because…I was tired,” he shrugged.
She huffed. “Come on Tom, surely you can come up with something better than that!”
“Yeah well, you were busy and I didn’t feel in the party mood.”
Her eyes scrutinised him.
“C’mon, let’s go now,” he urged again.
She refused to budge. “Wait a minute, you haven’t answered my second question.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Well… you’re not exactly ugly, I assume that you’ll be with other guys.” That wasn’t how he had wanted to reply but he felt trapped. What else could he say?
Her heart sunk with disappointment. He made it all sound so bloody casual!
She went to move her hand then but suddenly changed her mind. “No, hold on, I don’t care what you think is going on here between us but I’m not bloody well having you paint me out to be some loose woman, that’s not fair!” she said, jabbing him in the chest with a finger to drive home her point.
“That wasn’t what I meant,” he replied in a slight panic.
“Oh yes it was, because you obviously think that I do that,” she pointed back towards the office, “kind of thing all the time, and then,” she looked to the sky with an expression of hurt and disbelief, “go out and find another guy!”
“No, no I don’t think that at all.” He growled, frustrated with himself for not being able to say the right thing. “It’s that Dan guy,” he said suddenly.
She watched Tom for a second before speaking. “What about him?”
“You had a big thing going on between you two and now that he’s back…well I thought…”
“You thought what?” she pushed.
“He was asking for your number Stephanie! And I saw the way you reacted when you knew he was in the pub and when you saw him again.”
“How did I react?” she asked.
He frowned. “All jittery and nervous. I haven’t seen you like that with anyone before.”
“That’s because it’s been twelve years since I’ve seen him! And… well he was my first lov…” she stopped when she saw the look on his face.
First lover? First love? What? I don’t think I want to know.
“Well, we got emotionally involved anyway,” she finished.
“Right. So are you going to get emotionally involved again?” The question sounded more like an accusation.
“Don’t be ridiculous, I haven’t seen him for twelve years! There’s nothing between us.”
He didn’t look that pleased with her answer. “Not now there isn’t but are you going to see him again? Date him?”
What a ridiculous question. What does he think is going on between us? I thought we were dating.
“Look Tom, I’m going back to the pub,” she said, suddenly turning around and moving away. She turned back to him however after having walked a little way across the car park. “By the way, see him again, I may do if he is with Pippa or Simon but as for dating him, I wouldn’t date him again if he got down on his knees and begged me to!” With that she stormed off.
Tom’s face was a picture of surprise and delight. He raced after her.
“Stephie,” he shouted, catching her up and turning her around. He looked at her questioningly as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
She sighed. “He was a complete b*****d Tom! He can go do his photography in Timbuktu for all I care. Now are we going back to the party or not?”
His face broke out into a huge smile and he placed his arm back around her shoulder, walking with her.
“Stephie,” he began.
“Yes.”
“After we have…if we ever…you know, find a better place to…well you know, do you think we could make sure everyone’s at home and go back there to try that again?”
She stopped walking, turned to him and burst out laughing, covering her face with her hands.
He grinned. “It was…soooo hot!”
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