Summer Loving

by Spicer, Rivka

  It is both humbling and frightening to be the receptacle for so much honesty but I feel both honour and friendship bound to bear it with warmth and best wishes.

  So now to the important question, the question all women would want to know if they were evaluating Mark as a prospective partner...if Mark was a cake, what would he be?

  Chocolate fondant. Simples.

  At 6pm she got an email from Taylor.

  Dearest Elise, Your blog post has been approved. It made all of us in the editorial office laugh. You are a natural. I tried to get someone to explain the cake thing to me but it seems it is a ‘woman thing’ so I am going to assume it is a positive. I had to Google what a chocolate fondant was. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a cake with a liquid centre. I am curious to try one sometime...

  I thought you may like to know what Mark said about you. I have copied it below as it will appear in the magazine feature at the end of the month.

  Taylor xx

  “Meeting Elise has been one of the most profound and life-changing experiences of my life. I had thought I was meeting her to fix my issue with dating but it turned out that it wasn’t my terrible dating technique that needed fixing at all. It was me. Until I could learn to accept myself I was never going to accept what anyone else thought of me and you can’t base a relationship, or even an attempted relationship, on a situation where one side doesn’t trust the other’s opinion. It felt like she walked into my darkness armed with nothing but an elastic band and turned all the lights on. When we last met she told me that it was to be the first day of the rest of my life and I can’t even begin to tell you how true that is. It has been a remarkable experience and I am a changed man. As for the dating? Well, watch this space...”

  Elise felt a little tearful all over again reading Mark’s words but when she returned to Taylor’s her frown reappeared. Again with the kisses...and two of them this time. He’d also gone from no greeting to ‘Dear Elise’ and now to ‘Dearest Elise’. It was strange. Perhaps he did want them to be friends again. Elise wasn’t the kind of woman to hold a grudge and she wanted to just wipe the slate clean and forgive him but after their meeting outside the offices she wondered if she would ever be able to trust him not to turn again. She liked to invest in her friendships. It would be awful to assume someone was close to you only for them to suddenly go cold and distant.

  She also found the whole open ended cake sentence a little odd. She wondered if this was a manly way of suggesting they go out for cake to iron out whatever differences he thought they had without actually asking her to go for cake. That would be such a guy thing to do. But given that all the wrongdoing seemed to have come from his side, it didn’t make any sense that he would expect her to be the one to go out on a limb. She hadn’t done anything to make him become distant other than refuse to sleep with him and she thought they’d had that all ironed out.

  She read his words again and again before finally sighing. It wasn’t in her to not give him a second chance, not when he was trying to be friendly. She typed a quick response about fondant definitely being a good thing, thanked him for passing on Mark’s words and very carefully said nothing about going out for cake. She signed it off with a kiss, just one, and felt strangely relieved as it vanished from her outbox. It was horrible to think that she was in somebody’s bad books without knowing why. Hopefully this would all sort itself out and they could be friends.

  She cooked pasta for dinner and was about to settle in to watch a film afterwards when the buzzer for her door went. She frowned, looking at her watch. It was almost 9pm and she wasn’t expecting any visitors.

  “Hello?” She said into the phone, wondering if someone had pressed the wrong doorbell.

  “It’s Nathan.”

  “Oh hi!” She grinned. “Come on up!” Pressing the button to release the door she went to wait for him at the door to the flat. “I wasn’t expecting you tonight!” She leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I was just about to watch a film. Come on in. Do you want a drink?”

  “No thanks.” He let her take his coat in silence and Elise realised something was wrong.

  “What’s up?” She asked as he followed her through to the living room. “You seem a little quiet.”

  “Who is he?” He asked and Elise blinked.

  “Who is who?”

  “Mr X.”

  Utterly bewildered Elise stared at him. “Mr who?”

  He stared back at her and then his jaw dropped. “Do you not read the comments written on your blog?” He asked and she shook her head, blushing.

  “No. I figured I might find it hard to take if anyone was mean.”

  He considered her for a long moment and then he started laughing. “You’re so cute sometimes it’s ridiculous. So you haven’t seen the Mr X comments?”

  “No. What are you talking about?”

  “Get your blog up on the net and I’ll show you.” He made them both hot chocolate while she booted up her laptop and found her blog on the website. She hadn’t even looked at it yet so she was astonished to see that her first post had already reached more than a thousand comments. Her third one which had only been up for a couple of hours was already into the three hundreds. It seemed the magazine was going all out to promote traffic to the site and it was working.

  “This is crazy!” She felt like she was going a little boggle-eyed and her hand shook as she accepted a mug from him. “Did you read all of these comments?”

  “No.” He grinned. “I stopped about a third of the way down the fifth page. But they’re all good so far. Look here...” He clicked on the link to her first post and went to the comments. Six or seven down, he pointed at a response. “Behold, Mr X.”

  Elise leaned in to read the comment.

  “Fϋr Elise...when I lie awake in the twilight hush it is the haunting melody of your namesake tune that flows through my thoughts. To me you are precious. Any man who is able to put his arms around you would not know how lucky he is. Even those of us that have held you in friendship are blessed. Ever yours...”

  “Wow...that’s kind of creepy.” She stared at the screen. “What is he? A stalker?”

  “I have no idea but either he has hugged you at some point or he thinks he has.” Nathan pressed back on the browser and clicked on the link to her second post. “There he is.” The comment from Mr X was about halfway down the first page of comments.

  “Elise...it is an extraordinary gift to see such beauty in those around you and it seems to me that you don’t know how extraordinary you are to be able to see the gifts in others. Each of those beautiful things you wrote about Mark could just as easily have been about you. There is a sweet innocence to your smile that touches everyone around you deeply. It focuses on a person and makes them feel like you can see all the brightest and best parts of their soul. You make us better just by being around. Ever yours...”

  “I don’t know whether he’s completely delusional or he really is someone I know.” Elise didn’t know whether to be flattered or freaked out. “This is exactly why I don’t read these comments. I’m feeling kind of uncomfortable right now.”

  “Say for argument’s sake it is someone you know,” Nathan was taking her to the third blog post “how many guys do you know that have hugged you and would have known that you were blogging for the magazine?”

  “It could be anyone.” Elise shrugged. “It’s been pretty well advertised for the last two months that features were coming and I would be one of the guest bloggers. Half the people in this country buy the magazine and the other half have probably flicked through a copy at some stage. It could be anyone I went to school with, anyone I’ve ever worked with...think about it Nathan. It could apply to you. It could apply to Harry. I hugged him the other night. It could apply to my boss. It could apply to Mark. I was always hugging guys at uni...some of my oldest friends are male. But apart from you I don’t think that any of them find me attractive in that way.”

  “Well then we need to
keep an eye on them. Eventually he’ll mention something that will pinpoint who he is.” Nathan stepped back and gestured for her to read the third comment.

  “Elise...if you were a cake you would be a Christmas cupcake – small but perfectly formed with delicate white icing and decorations that evoke memories of that time of year when everything is brighter and joyful and reminds you of home and time in front of the fire learning what is most important in this life. You’d have a hint of cinnamon and vanilla...sweet and spicy. You will never come in batches of twelve though. You are unique and there will never be another like you. Ever yours...”

  “A Christmas cupcake?” Elise didn’t know whether to laugh or be offended. “Really? A cupcake?!”

  “Well what kind of cake did you think you would be?” Nathan seemed amused by her outrage.

  “Something weird but satisfying like a chocolate and beetroot cake.” She sounded so disgruntled that Nathan couldn’t help himself. He burst out laughing even as he realised what she’d said.

  “Chocolate and beetroot?” He screwed his face up. “That sounds gross.”

  “It’s actually delicious.” She told him primly. “In fact we’ll bake one tomorrow. Unless you had plans?”

  “Nope. And now that I’m here I’m kind of hoping you’d let me persuade you to give me somewhere to sleep so I don’t have to go home.”

  Elise looked at him sternly. “So you came over uninvited, demanded to know who my secret admirer is, creeped me out with said secret admirer and then told me that the cake I perceive myself as sounds gross and that is your method of persuading me to let you stay over?” She got through it with a straight face...almost.

  “Wow, when you put it like that I have been a little socially inept haven’t I?” He looked sheepish. “I’m sorry. Can we start again? I missed you yesterday.”

  “I missed you too.” Laughing she let him pull her up into a hug and they held each other close for a while. “Seriously though, should I be worried about this?” She asked and he sighed.

  “I don’t think so. It all seems fairly benign. We’ll watch and see what happens.” He rubbed her back soothingly. “I have a friend that works for the Police. If it looks like it’s getting a little out of hand I’ll call him and he can give you some advice.”

  “I’m sure the magazine has lawyers and stuff.” Elise added, more to make herself feel better than anything else. “We’ll be fine. It’ll be ok.”

  “Totally.”

  It turned out that chocolate and beetroot cake was Nathan’s new favourite and they made double so that they could take one to his mother’s in lieu of flowers. They made cream cheese frosting for it which freaked Nathan out even more than the beetroot had until he actually tried it. Then he insisted on dyeing it pink to remain in keeping with the theme.

  “I had no idea baking was so much fun!” He enthused as they walked towards the tube station. “We should do this more often.”

  “What do you mean more often?” Elise was amused. “We only met ten days ago. Surely you don’t think we need to bake more than once a week?”

  He actually considered it. “I guess I might get kind of huge.” He admitted. “But it’s tempting. Baking three times a week? Honey that’s some kinda heaven.”

  “Three times a week?” Elise burst out laughing. “That’s a recipe for whaledom. Once a week is my highest offer.”

  “If that’s all you’ll give me, I’ll take it.” Nathan grinned and bumped her shoulder affectionately.

  “Hey, watch that cake box!” She steadied it and he flushed.

  “Sorry. Little over-excited about the baking opportunities.” Laughing, they headed into the station and away to meet his family.

  “I can’t believe you did that.” Elise grumbled as they arrived back at his after dinner. They had turned up at his parent’s to discover that his grandparents and two of his aunts were also there along with Harry. When she had looked at him, slightly panicked by all the people, he had looked sheepish. He’d known all along it was a family gathering. He thought that if he told her that she might have refused to go. She was honest enough to admit that he would have been right. As lovely as all his family members were, and they were really nice, they did give Nathan and Elise an extensive grilling. She had practically given them her entire life story by the time they got to the main course. Luckily she thought she had passed everything they threw at her with flying colours. She knew because Harry had high-fived her on the way out and his mother had hugged her warmly.

  “But we had fun, didn’t we? You were great!” Nathan gave her his most endearing smile and she relented slightly.

  “They’re going to hate me when I break your heart.” She said morosely and he took her into his arms.

  “Then don’t break my heart.” He replied simply as though that would fix everything.

  “I’m only here for 3 months.” She reminded him. “After that my contract runs out and I’ll be away back to Scotland.”

  “A lot can happen in 3 months.” He shrugged expansively. “There’s no point borrowing trouble. We’ll see what happens when we get there.”

  “I guess.” She envied his easygoing manner. The three months was already looming large in her life. She didn’t want to fall for Nathan only to have to leave him. That would be too cruel.

  They spent another quiet weekend together. Elise didn’t even turn her computer on. The realisation that their time was, for the moment, finite made her realise that she couldn’t afford to waste a second of it.

  Come Monday morning she kissed Nathan goodbye at the door and settled down to reacquaint herself with project two.

  Chapter 6

  I’m considering last week a success, whether Mark gets a date or not. As a result I’m slightly worried that I’m approaching this week with a wildly cavalier attitude, confident in a success that may have been a one off. After all, how many regular Joes (or in this case Daves) turn out to be a world class photographer? I firmly believe that everyone has at least one remarkable feature, one thing that makes them in some way special. It’s just a question of finding that one thing and figuring out how to use it to make him desirable to women. Let’s face it, if he’s the world champion at gurning that’s just not sexy. I might be a maestro with words but I’m not THAT good.

  So. Dave. His profile is a total yawn-fest. If it had a soundtrack it would be the elevator version of The Girl from Ipanema. Bing bing bing ba bing bing bing...you know you were singing along just then.

  It’s one of those “I’m a nice guy who likes watching films and taking long walks in the forest” profiles. So far so Hannibal Lector. It’s not improved any by a truly awful photo. It’s clearly taken with a webcam and appears to show the top left hand corner of his face in close up. It is an obviously accidental photo and yet he has seen fit to put it as his profile picture. I’m not seeing the logic here. I wonder how he snapped it accidentally while setting up to take a proper one and had some sort of convoluted thought process that led him to decide it was a great idea to use it to attract women. Honestly, a goldfish armed with a webcam and amphetamines could take a better picture. Through the goldfish bowl. With one of those little stone bridges in the way. I think an hour or so at a photography studio is going to feature in our week because getting him a decent photo might be all he needs to find a woman desperate enough to bypass the boring. Unless there’s a reason for only showing quarter of his face. Perhaps he is disfigured in some way.

  Here’s the thing, if he is...it’s nothing to hide or be ashamed of. We all have our flaws. I personally have MANY flaws and while I don’t flaunt them in people’s faces I am at least honest about them. You read so many horror stories of people that go on dates with people they’ve met on dating sites only to discover that the person is ten years older or six inches shorter than they claimed. It seems to me to be an eminently stupid thing to do. You’re going to get found out. It’s inevitable. Doing it is only going to make people distrust you and that’s not a dece
nt basis for a new relationship. I could meet up with a guy who turned out to be handsome, charming and funny but if he’d lied about his age, even by 2 to 5 years, I’d still walk away. You’d spend the rest of your time together wondering what else he fibbed about.

  If a person cannot accept you for who and what you are then they are the one who is flawed, not you. Beauty is not a chiselled jaw or a perfect platinum bob, it’s a state of being. When I meet someone for the first time it’s not their face or their body that I look at, it’s their eyes. A lot of people’s are just average everyday eyes...average people just coasting through their average lives. Some are utterly soulless...people stuck in the despair of lives they hate. But some, those that are most precious to me, twinkle away as though lit by an inner fire of joy. It’s a man’s eyes that I connect with first and the rest is all secondary. I don’t care about scars or marks...it’s the windows to your soul that hold the keys to my heart. So show me yourself, warts and all, and let beauty be in the eye of the beholder.

  Satisfied with the post, she saved and opened up her email account to send it in to the editors. Once that was done she clicked through her unread emails. There were a few that had arrived over the weekend from the magazine and one from Mark, but then she found one sent that afternoon that made her blood run cold.

  From: Mr X (X_Towers@hotmail.com)

  To: Elise Waterford (elise.waterford@monochrome.co.uk)

  Elise,

  I wanted to congratulate you on your first week in the new job. The blog posts have been entertaining and I’m looking forward to what’s in store for this week’s project. I don’t know if you’ve read my comments on your blog but if you have you’ll know that I think you’re a very special woman.