The Big Dreams Beach Hotel. Michele Gorman

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СКАЧАТЬ want to date a work colleague,’ he said. Then, hopefully, ‘Would you?’

      ‘Oh, I’d have no problem with that. If I ever meet anyone who’d ask.’ Could I sound more desperate? Way to be cool, Rosie. ‘What I mean is, it’s not enough to be in proximity, is it? Otherwise everyone would just marry their next-door neighbour. There’s got to be chemistry too.’

      ‘Like now?’

      I thought about that. ‘I suppose if you define chemistry as having a really good time with someone and looking forward to the next few hours, then yes.’ Hey, that wasn’t a half-bad response.

      ‘I’ll get us more drinks,’ he says.

      By the time I was too squiffy to stand up without leaning on the table, Chuck knew all about my family, my career and my embarrassing love for line dancing. Only it wasn’t so embarrassing with him. ‘Now you know my life story,’ I slurred. Then I did that thing that’s meant to tell people you’re not pissed, but just makes you look pissed while trying to sit up straight. ‘What about you?’

      ‘I’m a cheesehead,’ he said, laughing. ‘It’s what people from Wisconsin are called. Cheeseheads.’

      ‘But why?’

      He shrugged. ‘I guess we eat a lot of cheese. We’ve got hats made of it. Every Wisconsin resident is issued one to wear on public holidays. Next time I’m back I’ll see if I can swing one for you.’

      ‘You’re joking.’

      His look answered me. Of course he was.

      ‘Do you go home a lot?’ I asked, to cover for not recognising satire when it stands up and salutes. Talk about letting my side down. How very un-British of me.

      ‘Not recently, but I only moved away from the Midwest a few months ago. I’ll go to my parents’ for Christmas. This was a big move for them now that I’m not within driving distance. They miss us a lot.’

      ‘Us?’

      He sipped his drink. ‘My little sister. I thought I told you that.’ He grimaced. ‘You’re definitely going to think I’m pathetic now, but in my defence, she’s pretty cool as far as sisters go. She basically invited herself to New York as soon as she found out I was getting a corporate apartment paid for. She was in Chicago like me anyway, but she didn’t have a regular job or anything. Just bar work. I couldn’t really say no, since it’s a two-bedroom, and my parents were behind the whole idea. They’d rather have me looking out for her here than leaving her on her own in Chicago.’

      ‘How old is your sister?’

      ‘A very immature twenty-six.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘But she’s my sister and I love her. Anyway, if I’d moved when I planned, then I probably would have gone back for Labour Day. Everyone goes up to the lakes that weekend. But work – I mean my old job – held me up, so I didn’t get here till October.’

      ‘That’s why you were so late booking the party?’

      ‘Are we back to talking about work again?’

      ‘I’m just having a go at you.’ I saw his expression. ‘I’m teasing you. Nobody waits till almost November to book their Christmas party.’

      ‘Yeah, as I found out, thanks. By the time my old company said they were making me work my whole notice period, it was too late for Flable and Mead to find another events manager. It was lucky I didn’t lose the job, but it’s meant I’ve had to scramble now to find a venue. If my old boss had let me go earlier, we probably wouldn’t have met.’

      ‘Then I’m glad your company were arseholes.’

      ‘I’ll be sure to add that to my Christmas card to them.’

      ‘Don’t forget the kisses at the end.’

      He didn’t forget the kisses at the end of our date either. We barely made it out of the bar before we were all over each other.

      ‘God, you are so sexy!’ he murmured amidst all the snogging. ‘I would love to take you home right now.’ He pulled away a bit so he could look into my eyes. His face was pretty blurry at such close range, but he was asking a question, right?

      Much as I wanted to, even in my bothered state I knew it would be a mistake in the long run.

      ‘No, I can control myself,’ he said. That made one of us. ‘I’m a gentleman at heart, despite how it appears at the moment.’ He put a tiny bit of distance between us. ‘Will you get a cab home or take the subway?’

      ‘I’m in Brooklyn,’ I said. ‘I’ll get the subway. Where do you live?’

      He took my hand as we started walking towards my station. ‘In East Bumfuck, Nowhere,’ he said. ‘It might be a free apartment, but it’s completely inconvenient. The company had all these empty buildings that were bad investments even before the financial crisis. Now they’re stuck with them, so they hand them out as perks to their employees.’

      ‘Where is it exactly?’ I was pretty sure there wasn’t really an East Bumfuck, Nowhere.

      ‘Sorry, I should have said. Scarsdale in Westchester. Do you know it?’

      ‘Only by its reputation as suburban hell. I’m sorry.’ We seemed to be back on safer ground with the talking. I wasn’t sure if it was the manhattans or the snogging that were making me so light-headed. I’d gone overboard on both.

      ‘I’ve got a one-year lease, but I can’t wait to move closer,’ Chuck went on. ‘The firm signed me up for a private member’s club that’s got pretty cheap rooms, so I can stay there sometimes if I have a late night.’

      Was that where we’d have gone if I’d taken him up on his offer? Would I get another chance, or had I blown it?

      ‘I’ll see you again soon, okay?’ Chuck said when we got to the steps leading down to my train. ‘No, fuck it, that’s not what I mean to say. Rosie, I’ve had such a wicked time tonight. I know I’m supposed to be cool about these things, but I can’t wait to see you again. We can see each other again, right?’

      ‘I’d love it!’ I said, but I’d hardly got the words out before he was kissing me again. At the rate I was going, I’d be nothing but a puddle of hormones on the Seventh Avenue Line.

      ‘Are you getting the subway?’ I asked him when I came up for air.

      ‘It’s the commuter line for me. Suburbs, remember? I’ll walk over to Grand Central. It’s a nice night for a walk.’

      We both looked up at the rain that was just starting to spit. ‘It feels like a nice night, doesn’t it?’ he asked.

      It felt like a perfect night.

      I just missed my train and when I got on the next one it was obvious someone had just weed in the corner of the carriage I chose, but I still smiled all the way home. It was a perfect night.

      Chuck stood in front of me at the reception desk the next day at lunchtime. ‘I need your advice,’ he said.

      I turned СКАЧАТЬ