Bonds of Love. Sarah K

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      ‘Many moons ago now,’ said the man, taking my hand and pressing it to his lips. ‘Delighted to meet you. Any friend of Alex’s –’

      Alex raised his eyebrows. ‘Don’t mind Cash, he always was a lech.’

      Cash grinned. ‘I’m just so sorry that I can’t offer you lunch.’

      ‘Me too. Do they know what the problem is?’ asked Alex, glancing over towards the posse of workmen. ‘I hope it’s nothing serious.’

      ‘Me too. I’m losing money every minute that we’re closed.’

      ‘How long do they think it’s going to take?’

      Cash shrugged. ‘No one seems to be able to give me a definitive answer. But better now than when the season starts, I suppose. They put a little camera down the pipe earlier and seem to think they’ve found the problem. It’s just a question of putting it right now. Anyway, enough about my drains. I can offer you a drink if you’d like one. It’d be good to catch up – but I can’t even rustle something up for you in the kitchen because they’ve turned the bloody water off, unless you fancy a sandwich.’

      Alex glanced at me. ‘Nice offer, but we were hoping to sample the fish.’

      ‘I’m really sorry. Would you like a glass of something, maybe? We’ve got a great cellar.’ He tipped his head in invitation, while at the same time surreptitiously giving me the once over.

      Clearly Alex hadn’t told Cash that he was meeting anyone, but it seemed Alex wasn’t going to give anything away. Instead he just sighed. ‘I’m afraid not Cash. We’re both driving so we can’t even take you up on the wine. And there was me telling Sarah how wonderful the food is here.’ He was teasing, laying on the disappointment with a trowel.

      ‘That’s right, he was,’ I said, playing along.

      Cash pulled a face. ‘I’m so sorry. Another time. Next time the two of you are down this way come down and eat on the house. My treat.’

      ‘I’m going to hold you to that. I was trying to impress Sarah with my good taste and great connections.’

      ‘So are you two an item then?’ asked Cash.

      I laughed.

      ‘What?’ Cash protested. ‘I’m always the last to know anything. Alex and I have been friends for years and he never tells me anything, so with him you don’t know if you don’t ask.’

      Although Cash hadn’t done it intentionally, that struck a nerve; one of the big problems with the relationship I had with Max was that he kept everything close to his chest and kept different aspects of his life in separate compartments. The problems had started when the walls between them had started to crumble – and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go through that with someone else.

      I had to remind myself that comparisons are never a good thing. Even without knowing that much about Alex, I could already tell that he and Max were like chalk and cheese.

      Max was always very formal, old school, with a refined, restrained manner in public and in private, whereas Alex seemed relaxed and – I hunted around for the right words to describe how he seemed; the best I could come up with was that he seemed emotionally available and generous, rather than closed off.

      While I was thinking, Cash was asking how long we’d known each other.

      Alex looked heavenwards. ‘Excuse my friend,’ he said. ‘He always was nosey. If you must know, Cash, this is our first date and I brought Sarah here to impress her.’

      ‘So, failed at the first hurdle then,’ said Cash philosophically. ‘Don’t judge him too harshly, Sarah. He’s not so bad once you get to know him. Although I could tell you a few stories about when we were at –’

      ‘Well, don’t,’ said Alex, holding up a hand to silence him. ‘I’d like to think we can have more than one date. Anyway, I don’t know about Sarah but I’m absolutely famished, so as we’re not going to be eating here can you suggest somewhere else local where we can go?’ Alex asked.

      Cash sighed. ‘You want me to recommend the opposition?’

      Alex nodded. ‘Preferably open and not too far away.’

      Cash now looked heavenwards. ‘Okay …’

      Which was how we ended up sitting in a tiny little café on the seafront, less than a mile from Cash’s place, eating fish and chips out of the paper. The place itself looked as if it hadn’t changed much since the 1960s, but it was right on the promenade, was really busy and had the most fabulous view out over the sea, where that day the sky was so bright and so blue that it made my eyes water. Through the open door we could hear the gulls calling and squabbling as they spiralled above the incoming tide, while a flotilla of little boats bobbed at anchor in the tiny harbour.

      The only place to eat inside the café was a high Formica-covered shelf that ran around the walls, which was about eighteen inches wide, dotted with glass salt and vinegar shakers and had bar stools tucked under it. Though the décor was very basic, nothing could detract from just how good the fish and chips were.

      ‘Your friend was right. This is amazing,’ I said, breaking off some more of the milky white fish flakes with my fingers and popping them into my mouth. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had fish and chips. It’s really delicious.’

      Alex grinned. ‘It’s not exactly what I had in mind. I was planning to woo you with my sophisticated charms and fine dining. Not fish and chips and a can of Fanta.’

      I liked his easy charm and the way he wasn’t fazed by the change of events and venue.

      I smiled. ‘Don’t worry. I’m really enjoying this.’

      ‘Me too,’ he said, guiding a chip into his mouth. ‘It’s really tasty.’

      So far, despite the shaky start, it was going really well. Better than well. It might not have been posh nosh, but we were having a great time. Alex was good company: funny, quick, and he seemed easy-going. He had spent a lot of his life travelling for his job and had loads of stories to tell, which he managed to do without sounding as if he was bragging or showing off. He made me laugh and he was happy to listen – and I knew he really was listening by the things he asked me. So far, so good. Alex had quiet self-assurance that was attractive and nice eyes that were hard to ignore.

      I’ve got lots of rules about internet dating, one of them being to have a safe call in place so that a friend knows where I am and that I’m okay – in my case it was a text from a friend. If I am okay, I text back a pre-arranged reply. Anything else, including no reply, and she calls out the cavalry. The pre-arranged text is also a painless way to cut a bad date short. It goes like this: the text comes in, I peer at the screen, pull an anxious face, make my excuses and leave. With Alex my text from Gabbie had come and gone and we were still talking.

      We had told each other about our jobs and families and gone through all the niceties that need to be gone through, before moving on to what had really brought us together for lunch. It was just a question of who broached the subject first.

      ‘Have you been on many of these kinds of things?’ Alex asked, dipping a chip into a little pot of sauce.

      ‘You СКАЧАТЬ