The Vintage Cinema Club

by Jane Linfoot

  The grin that stretched across his face, wider than she’d seen before, made her heart falter. That recurring thought, that this guy who was so full of vitality, and so alive…She gave another deep sigh, and tried to push that one away before her throat went wobbly.

  He was hassling her again. ‘Come on you, eat your sundae, or it’ll be a smoothie in no time in this heat.’ This time Xander was right. Despite the shade of the red and white stripy awning overhead, here in town, with the heat coming off the buildings all around, it was baking.

  If she needed proof that he wasn’t going to back off on the commanding any time soon, she had it there. Meantime she was just going to have to grow some backbone, and be strong. For herself, possibly, as much as for him.

  58

  Friday Evening, 18th July

  IZZY

  In the shower, Les Cerisiers, France

  A drench and a strategy

  ‘Okay, dress code is smart.’ Xander was standing by the door to her bedroom, rapping out those orders he was so good at. ‘We need to leave in an hour, Nico the owner gets very upset if people turn up late. Do you think you can manage that?’ Still nailing condescending here, no mistaking it, that glower of his was entirely superior.

  Izzy, barring the door in a way that was a lot more fierce and business-like than she really meant, when, for two pins and an ice cream sundae she’d have hoiked him straight over the threshold, took a deep breath. ‘I’ll do my best.’ Sometimes he was disgustingly patronising, even if…She stopped herself there. Since Monday she’d been training herself to do the blocking thing with Xander and his outlook. Either not to go there at all, or else to stay firmly in the fifty per cent green zone, he claimed to inhabit himself. Otherwise it was just too upsetting. As for ice cream sundaes, in reality she didn’t think she could ever face eating another one of those again.

  Xander gave a grimace. ‘There’s a lot to live down at this restaurant. Christina’s husband took her there the night he proposed. They’d only known each other a few weeks, and Christina was so shocked she passed out, very spectacularly, and caused total mayhem in the dining room. Nico has never forgotten, and I’m not sure he has ever forgiven either, come to that.’

  ‘Again, I’ll do my best not to…’ Izzy was coming on strong with the reassurance, in the hope that she could dive straight into the shower, and not waste any of her allocated preparation time. She might not ever look that polished, but even this look didn’t happen without a shit load of effort on her part.

  She dug deep to harden herself enough to sound like she shouldn’t be messed with. ‘Go on, shoo. Go and get ready yourself.’ She added a mocking grin, to give him a taste of his own medicine. ‘If you think you can manage it, in the allocated time.’ Closing the door looked like the only way to get rid of him here.

  Izzy, standing in the shower shortly afterwards, stared up into the shower head, and let the water pelt into her face. Right now she’d have given anything for a chin wag with Luce, just to work out if there was anything strange going on with Xander. He may have been looking at her weirdly the last few days, but there again, maybe it had simply been her imagination. Hell, there was no reason on earth to think Xander was going to go all soppy on her, and maybe ask for something more than they had. Whatever, perhaps she needed a strategy. Strategies were good. And suddenly it was obvious. She’d get in first, and say something that explained, simply and clearly, why she was welded to her single life, just to be sure he didn’t have other ideas. And if she made a complete fool of herself, or ended up saying more about her dad than she usually would, then too bad.

  Now all she needed to decide was what to say.

  59

  Friday Evening, 18th July

  XANDER & IZZY

  At the Moulin de Roc Restaurant

  Lobster and tantric sex

  Xander was only a breath behind Izzy as he followed her through the restaurant, and out towards the riverside terrace. He was close enough to be enveloped in the sweet tantalising smell of her, to see the downy hairs on the nape of her neck. One small view that sent a thousand shivers through his torso. He’d been hoping to become inured to the strange sensations he’d been having ever since she arrived here. Maybe even before that. But inured hadn’t happened yet.

  He knew there was a logical explanation, and the one he’d come up with had a lot to do with the explosive sex they’d had, and then, hadn’t. Everyone knew that if there was huge chemistry with someone you were in close contact with on a daily basis, it was best expressed. In fact, he’d only ever heard this from other people, because he’d personally made it through his thirty four years without experiencing off the scale chemistry. Until he’d met Izzy. But with Izzy, the chemistry had hit him like a thunderbolt, and sent his whole hormone system haywire, and blown his entire periodic table skywards.

  His theory was that being close to someone for whom you had a chemical attraction, and not expressing it, was hard enough. If you slept with that person, and then backed off, and then spent a week hanging around with them, it had to blast your brain chemicals out of the park. It was a bit like Sting style tantric sex. A kind of orgasmic deferral, where extended arousal could lead to sex that lasted for days, and an orgasm that blew off the roof. And being in this off limits yet oh so close situation with Izzy was leading to a kind of extended arousal, with no end game in sight. And instead of blowing off the roof, it was blowing his rational mind. This was his theory, and he was sticking to it.

  After twenty four hours of concentrated soul searching, he’d finally pulled the pieces together. The tightness in his chest, his whole life feeling like it had been turned upside down and shaken, that high octane accidental snog that blew his mind at the pizza place, his round the clock hard on. And once he’d worked it out, he’d realised it was nothing new. In fact it had been hanging around him, wrapping him up, and taking him over for weeks. And now he’d accepted it was there, he definitely couldn’t fight it. He’d simply have to do his best to work with it.

  This evening Izzy’s curls were somehow all caught up on top of her head, leaving her throat and neck deliciously naked. Tonight she looked totally, dizzily beautiful, her black dress skimming her hips, and bad luck for him that the more elegantly she dressed, the more vulnerable she appeared, because vulnerable smashed his heart to smithereens, every time.

  Izzy glanced over her shoulder at him. ‘Did I tell you how great you look in that tux?’

  Xander swallowed hard. Was she fiddling with her tongue?

  ‘Please tell me you aren’t eating bubble gum.’ Being in a state of prolonged sexual over excitement was one thing, tolerating a chewing gum habit was something else entirely.

  ‘Disgusted much?’ She returned his frown with a snort, and an indignant hiss . ‘It helps when I’m nervous, and I’ll obviously get rid of it as soon as we get to the table, so stop stressing.’

  Xander, watching the defiance skim across her broad cheekbones, and sweep her lips into that familiar berry pout, readjusted his collar, as his temperature shot up.

  ‘It feels like we’re on our own island here.’ She slid into the chair which was being held out for her by the waiter who had shown them across the picturesque main terrace to a small peninsula. ‘It’s amazing, with the table balanced between the mill wheel and the river.’

  The garlands of tiny lights on the pergola above their heads, swung gently in the twilight breeze, sending tiny dappled shadows across her face. And there went the bubble gum, into a tissue. Result.

  A smile played at the corners of Xander’s lips. Thinking back now, he couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t made him dizzy. The way he’d caught her looking at him lately, almost like she was going to burst into tears, only wrung his heart out more. Traipsing around the markets, when they’d been buying towels. When they’d made love, that night so long ago at The Pink House, the sex had been explosive. The day he’d told her he couldn’t do a relationship had almost made him sick, and the way he hadn’
t been able to stop looking at the photo he’d taken when they were in her bedroom, looking at her bed, was simply an earlier manifestation of the same syndrome. Even the first time he’d touched her, when he’d hauled her out of the skip, he’d kind of known. That strange, gut wrenching, primitive reaction he’d been having all along, had been there from day one. How the hell had it not dawned on him before?

  He slipped his hand into his pocket, and closed it around the box. Another impulse buy, fuelled by that same driving force as all the rest. Small silver cherub earrings, once they’d caught his eye in the window, he hadn’t been able to walk away and leave them in the shop. Just because he knew they’d be perfect for her. And somewhere along the line he needed to talk to her about all this, and work out where the hell they went from here, because if it was coming to an end in a week’s time, he was going to feel like he’d jumped off a cliff. He was hoping the earrings might be a way in.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Izzy looked up at him quizzically.

  As he lowered himself onto his chair, he took a deep breath.

  ‘Izzy, I’ve been thinking…’ Xander heard his voice, a ripple over a moment of hesitation.

  ‘Me too.’ Izzy narrowed her eyes as if she was concentrating, then she cleared her throat. ‘My dad used to bring us to places like this, once he made it.’ She was talking faster than usual, almost as if she was trying to stop him getting a word in. ‘Did I ever tell you that basically he was the biggest bastard out there? When he left us, he took everything. Everything. The only way I know to be happy, is to make the best of very little. My mum taught us how to live with no money, and I’m glad she did, because now I know what’s important in life. And that’s why I hate to see good things thrown away, and why I’m desperate to make the vintage cinema work, so I can be independent, and on my own – so I only have to rely on myself, and I never have to depend on anyone, in case they turn out to be a bastard like my dad.’

  Xander raised his eyebrows, and sighed inwardly. He had no idea where all that had just come from, but it had put the brakes on any talk about where they might be heading. He closed his fingers over the box he had cupped in his palm one last time, then released it, and slid his hand out of his pocket.

  Time for a change of tack here. As Xander sat back, the hovering waiter took his chance, and slid in with the menus.

  Ignoring the menu, Xander looked Izzy straight in the eye. ‘That’s exactly why I’ve been thinking…about your business difficulties. You mentioned that you’re short of cash for quality pieces for the load, so I’ve got a business proposition for you.’ He watched her expression change from panic to bemusement, and knew he’d got away with it.

  ‘Okay. I’m listening.’ She tilted her head on one side. ‘Business proposals are always best discussed under fairy lights.’ Her breathless tone had gone strangely flat now.

  ‘I’ve got a little bit of cash left over from my building project. I could always back you, and loan you the extra money you need.’ What he was offering now was simply an extension of how he’d been helping her so far, and an expression of how much he was willing her to do well, because with the effort and commitment she put into her work, if anyone should succeed, she should. The last thing he wanted to do was let her think he was throwing money at the problem. He sat back, and waited to gauge her reaction.

  ‘You’re suggesting that you lend me the money, and become a backer?’

  ‘Something like that. We can sort out the details later.’ He tried to sound detached and business-like. The last thing he wanted was to sound patronising, by suggesting she took the money without obligation.

  She scrunched up her face, and shook her head. ‘Nope. Out of the question.’

  He took in the jut of her chin, the flash of her eyes, and gave a hollow, disbelieving laugh. ‘It’s a no-brainer, why would you refuse?’

  ‘You muscle in and take control? Thanks, but I’m not interested.’

  Xander wasn’t sure if the prickles needling at the back of his neck were because she’d refused his offer, or because the evening was veering so far away from how he’d imagined it.

  ‘It’s up to you. When your chin is at that angle, I know there’s no point discussing anything.’ He watched her jaw shoot up another ten degrees, as his words hit home. It was true, the tilt of her chin showed a direct correlation with her mood. His lips twitched with satisfaction. He’d nailed step one of understanding Izzy, and on his newly calibrated flip-ometer, she was entering the red zone. Time to back pedal, and salvage something before the whole damned show went belly up.

  ‘Fine. Forget it, and let’s order.’ He turned on her with a slow burn smile. ‘How about lobster with ginger to start, or would you prefer artichoke and truffle tart?’

  * * * *

  Xander, swirling his brandy around his glass, some three hours and six courses later, couldn’t help thinking that he was the one baring his soul here, whilst Izzy had told him approximately zilch, or at least, nothing she hadn’t said before. For someone who never opened up, he found sharing stuff with her very helpful. It was almost as though the more he let her get to know him, the more he was coming to understand himself. Maybe it was possible to open up to her, because she was so uncalculating he knew he could trust her. Although Izzy hadn’t spent the evening spilling secrets, that was possibly because she didn’t actually have them. She was so damned transparent, she didn’t seem to hide anything at all, but he liked the way she was so straightforward. And even if she bowled her home truths with a speed and accuracy that meant they invariably knocked him for six, in the end he found her unguarded honesty completely refreshing.

  ‘So how do you reckon people see you, and do you think they’re right?’ One last chance to draw her out here, and he was going to take it.

  That made her smile. ‘Even though I’d love to be seen as powerful, driven and successful, I probably come across as a bit ditsy. Creative but fiery.’

  The way she took his affirming nod the wrong way, and shot straight onto the defensive, only went to prove the point.

  ‘Are you implying I overreact?’ She was suddenly all shouty and frowny.

  He couldn’t help but laugh. ‘There you go.’

  Then her expression softened, as she shuffled in her seat, and took time to rearrange her skirt. ‘Flaring up is something I’m working on. Mostly I try to see people for who they are too.’ She laughed too. ‘How about you?’

  He’d take it that her foot, lightly grazing his shin, and sending electric shocks straight to his groin, was accidental.

  There she went again, turning it straight back onto him. Maybe that was why she always got so much out of him.

  Swishing his brandy, he pondered. ‘It always annoys me that my dad saw success as a bottom line thing, whereas my mum was pleased with anything we did. She just wanted us to be happy.’ He grimaced at how he’d totally failed at the happy part. ‘My dad dismisses anything I achieve in film, because that isn’t an area he values.’ Xander was veering onto dangerous territory now talking about money defining success. If Izzy had a whiff of how wealthy his family was, like her father had been, he was pretty certain she would leg it before the coffee arrived.

  Across the table from him Izzy was revving up. Xander braced himself for the familiar metaphorical smoke, that he knew was about to come out of her nostrils.

  ‘Just don’t get me started on my dad.’ Her voice had lowered to a growl. ‘He was fine until he hit the big money.’

  ‘New money can be hard to get used to…’ Alarm bells clanged in Xander’s head as that slipped out, but she hadn’t picked it up.

  Under the straight line of her brow, her eyes flashed. ‘My dad thought running a mistress as well as his family was fine, and when my mother wouldn’t play ball he went apeshit. And to punish her, he emptied the bank accounts, and whipped the whole lot off to The Cayman Islands, where she couldn’t touch it. I mean what kind of person does that to their family?’

  Xander took a deep br
eath. Three hours, and she’d finally cracked. ‘I’m guessing that’s why you’re so obsessed with control then?’

  ‘What, me?’

  The half tilt of her head, and the octave her voice jumped, told him she really hadn’t made the connection here.

  Xander rested his chin on his hand, and took in the smudgy rose of her lips. Every day since the kiss at the pizzeria, it became harder to stop himself from crashing his mouth over hers. But given he’d made a promise to stick by her conditions, so long as she kept her distance, he had to keep his.

  60

  Saturday Morning, 19th July

  IZZY

  On the terrace, Les Cerisiers, France

  Skipping breakfast

  ‘Luce?’ Izzy dived into her dungaree pocket as her phone rang.

  ‘I was trying to get you all last night.’ Her friend sounded peeved.

  ‘Sorry, I was out for dinner with Xander, I left my phone at the house.’

  Luce softened. ‘Nice. How did that go?’

  ‘Fine, it wasn’t a big deal.’ Missing out the Michelin stars, and the whole perfection of the place seemed a good idea. Izzy wouldn’t want Luce to get the wrong impression. ‘We ate then came home, end of.’

  ‘So, nothing romantic happened, you didn’t even get a goodnight kiss?’ Luce’s snort registered her utter disapproval.

  ‘Nope. Nothing like that at all. Xander offered to bankroll me, but I had to turn him down.’ Izzy stared into her half empty cup, and prayed that the flatness in her voice didn’t give away her own flood of disappointment. It was too irrational to admit to herself, let alone discuss with anyone else. She sent silent apologies to Luce and Dida, for stuffing up their chances too, because she had an awful feeling that she was letting her personal feelings get in the way of business. But she couldn’t get any more entangled with Xander. If it came down to it, she was sure Luce and Dida could have another whip round the crew for cash and come up with some other money-making schemes.