by Lisa Hobman
Expecting this to be the start and end of a beautiful friendship, she held out her hand. ‘It was very nice to meet you, Sam with the Canadian accent.’ She smiled. ‘Thank you for rescuing my face from a date with a concrete pavement.’
‘You’re very welcome.’ He let out a long breath, but didn’t move. He wasn’t making a run for it. ‘It would’ve been such a shame to spoil such a pretty face with a bashed-up nose and cracked teeth.’
Mallory chuckled as she saw him outwardly cringe as the words escaped his shapely lips. ‘Thank you… I think. Well, better get on. Bye then.’
‘Wait. Why do you sound as if I’ll never see you again?’ He looked sad. ‘Is that it? Is this the end? How could you? After all I’ve done for you?’ He held his knuckles to his teeth and bit down in mock, melodramatic actor mode. The back of his other hand pressed to his forehead.
This guy was funny. She found herself allowing a small hope to shine through, that this was not the end. Perhaps he did want to see her again.
*
Later that night she sat, snuggled up on the sofa with Ruby, watching a re-run of Friends. It was the one where Brad Pitt’s formerly overweight character, Will, is invited for Thanksgiving.
She was just munching through another carb-laden mouthful of cereal when the phone rang. Her heart leapt. Surely he wouldn’t be ringing so soon? She and the rather yummy Sam Buchanan had exchanged phone numbers at the end of their coffee shop chat and she had almost skipped back to the shop, avoiding all the cracks in the pavement this time around. Although secretly she thanked her ridiculous choice in footwear on that winter’s day, considering without it she may never have met Sam.
‘H-hello?’ she stammered hopefully, into the receiver.
‘Hi ya, chick! Are you okay? You sound a bit odd.’ Perceptive as ever, Josie, who had been her best friend since school, wasn’t known for beating around the bush. They had been friends through thick and thin. The thick being boyfriends, who Mallory regrettably discovered were either too self-absorbed or more interested with cars and staring at other women’s boobs. The thin, on the ground patches, where loneliness and reluctant celibacy seemed to be the way of life thrust upon her. Josie was her touchstone, her voice of reason and in addition to this she was Mallory’s one and only trusted employee, working slightly more than part time to give Mallory the opportunity to be creative. She was glad to have the opportunity to spill the beans on the potential new guy in her life.
‘Oooh Mally, he sounds dreamy.’ Josie swooned after Mallory had imparted every last detail she could remember – and there were many.
Josie had been with her boyfriend Brad since high school. They had been childhood sweethearts and neither had any intentions of ever being with anyone else. They hadn’t gotten around to the whole wedding thing yet but it would happen eventually, Mallory knew it. Still, Josie admitted that she loved to live vicariously through her best friend any time a new man came on the scene - which, unfortunately for Mallory, hadn’t happened much at all in recent years.
‘Did you kiss him? Does he smell good? Is he well off?’ Josie barraged her friend with questions.
‘Good grief, Josie! Talk about the Spanish Inquisition.’ Suddenly the girls cried out in unison in their best Monty Python voices the oh-so famous line from the oh-so famous Python sketch.
There was a pause and the whirring of their brains was almost audible.
‘Anyway,’ Mallory continued after they had stopped laughing hysterically. ‘I did notice he smelled rather gorgeous when I fell on him. Kind of fresh and Calvin Kleiny? And no, I didn’t kiss him. What do you take me for, woman?’
‘I take you for a gorgeous girl who hasn’t had sex in almost a year. That’s what. You deserve something good, Mally.’
‘Thank you, Josie, but you know I don’t just go about jumping into bed with random men who save me from smashing my two front teeth in.’ She giggled.
‘No, you just wait and wait only to find that the bloke you’ve been waiting for is more interested in his bloody vintage Mark II Ford Escort.’
Mallory cringed as Josie reminded her of her last disastrous relationship. ‘Don’t go there, Josie. I honestly thought Darren’s obsession with that canary yellow passionless wagon was endearing at first.’
‘Yes. Until you found out that he used to tuck it in every night.’ The two friends howled with laughter. ‘So, is he well off?’
‘Josie! Really, I don’t ask such questions. But I’m guessing he’s comfortable. His job sounds quite high-flying. Honestly though, you know I don’t care about that stuff. I just want someone who looks at me as though he could ravish me on the spot; someone who wants to make a life with me; someone who won’t mind that I’m not supermodel thin.’ Mallory sighed at that last thought.
‘Hey! What have I told you about that? Men prefer curves.’ Josie attempted to stomp on the negativity.
‘Yeah? Shame that none of them are prepared to admit that in public. Eh?’
‘So, do you think he’ll call you?’ Ah there we go; Josie had asked the dreaded, million-dollar question.
‘I really hope so. I had a really good feeling about him.’
‘In your knickers, I bet.’ Josie gave a coarse cackle, in true Josie style.
Mallory tutted and decided she was tired out. Giving a yawn, she mumbled, ‘And on that note, Josie Gardiner, I’m hanging up. Night night.’
‘Night night, you spoil sport. Love you squillions, babe.’
‘Love you too, you cackling banshee!’ The conversation came to its usual banter-filled end and Mallory was once again alone, save for the little black Patterdale terrier with staring brown eyes pawing at her for attention.
*
Mallory’s shop was crammed the next day. She was rushed off her feet and even had to call in Josie from her day off for assistance. Together they smiled, chatted, served customers and had the old-fashioned cash register making that fabulous kerching! noise over and over again. She had giddily checked her mobile several times throughout the day for signs of contact from Sam but when nothing materialised her excitement began to wane. Perhaps it had all been too good to be true.
When five o’clock finally came around, Mallory locked the door and heaved a huge sigh of relief.
‘Phew! Thank goodness it’s time for home.’ She slid down the door, landing with a bump on her bottom.
Josie smiled down at her friend, holding out her hand to pull her back up. ‘Come on you. Let’s get back to yours and have a bite to eat and then we’ll wander down to the Railwayman’s for a couple of pops.’ Josie widened her eyes suggestively. It sounded like a bloody good plan.
Mallory put the day’s takings in the money bag and fastened Ruby’s lead onto her bright rainbow-coloured collar. ‘You’ve loved today haven’t you, Rubes? All that attention.’ Ruby wagged her tail and pawed at Mallory’s skirt in agreement. Just then her mobile phone began to vibrate in her bag, rattling against her door keys. Her heart leapt as she rummaged around in the cavernous depths, frantically searching for the phone. Let it be him. Let it be him, she repeated silently in her mind.
Finally putting her hand on it, she swiped it up to her ear. ‘Hello?’ she gasped, feeling flustered.
‘Well, hello there, Miss Yorksher.’ A familiar voice kissed at her ear, making her shiver with excitement.
‘Oh, hi! Sam, right?’
‘Oh great, you’ve forgotten me already, huh?’ He sounded perturbed.
‘No-no! Not at all. I was just checking. You’d be surprised at how many Canadian men have been ringing me lately.’ She chuckled.
‘Ah well, I’m afraid I’m going to push to the front of the line. I wondered if you’d like to meet for a drink or a bite to eat later… I know it’s short notice.’
‘Ah, I was actually going out with my friend, Josie, tonight I’m afraid.’
On hearing her declining a date with the hot Canadian, Josie began to make throat slitting gestures and wave frantically in Mallory’s
face.
She scrunched her nose in confusion, mouthing ‘What?’
Josie whispered loudly, ‘Just go on the bloody date, Mal, you moron. You can see me any time.’
Chuckling became audible from the other end of the phone. ‘Umm, I think you should take your friend’s advice, Mallory. She sounds like a very sensible girl.’
‘Oh, if only you knew the truth, Sam, if only.’ She sniggered as she saw Josie’s expression turn from horror to relief. ‘Okay, well, there’s a little pub near my home. It’s not flashy but they make a fab steak and kidney pie.’
‘It’s a date!’ Sam trilled and Mallory’s face almost split in two from her wide grin. They made their arrangements and Mallory floated from the shop with a smile as a new permanent fixture.
Josie shook her head and grinned. ‘I’ll see you later, okay? I’m off to the supermarket before I go home.’ Mallory nodded and hugged Josie tightly. She gave an excited squeak and did a silly dance on the spot, at which Josie laughed loudly before she waved and they went their separate ways.
When she arrived home, Mallory frantically searched through her wardrobe. I really need to go shopping, she sighed to herself. She grabbed something which she felt was passable out of her limited wardrobe and showered. Just as she climbed out of the shower, the doorbell chimed.
‘Oh, bollocks!’ Why did the doorbell always ring when you had either just stepped in or out of the shower? She wrapped a bath sheet around her and ran down the stairs. Hurriedly, she tied a towel-turban on top of her head and opened the front door.
Josie stood there waving jazz hands around. ‘Ta-daaaaaaa.’
Mallory gawped at her petite, blonde friend. She was very pretty, until she opened her mouth and let the tomboy out, and subtlety was most definitely not a trait she was famous for. There she stood in jeans and a hoody, UGG boots and a woolly hat with flaps that covered her ears.
‘Your timing, as always, is impeccable, Miss Gardiner,’ Mallory grumbled dryly.
‘I thought there may be a chance you might need these.’ She held out a green and white striped paper bag.
As she took the bag, Mallory had a feeling she knew what the contents were. ‘Oh, Josie, what’ve you done?’ She reached inside and pulled out the small blue box which, sure enough, had the word Condoms emblazoned on the side.
‘They’re ribbed ones too.’ Josie wiggled her eyebrows, giving a double thumbs-up.
Mallory tried to look indignant. Shaking her head and huffing out a sharp breath, she stared at her friend. ‘Seriously, Josie? Do you honestly think I’m likely to need these? I’ve only just met the guy.’
‘Well, I bloody hope so. You daft bat!’ Josie was now the one to appear indignant. ‘Anyone would think you were hunchbacked and covered in warts and boils. He sounds bloody gorgeous and you obviously fancy the pants off him and it sounds like the feeling is mutual. This is post-war Britain and the rules have changed, Mallory. In fact, there are no rules. So, stop worrying about being all proper and bloody Elizabeth-Bennet-Pride-and-Prejudice about things and go get you some nice, juicy ass, girlfriend.’
Mallory laughed at Josie’s appalling attempt at an American accent and ‘gangsta rappa’ stance. She sighed, rolled her eyes and – shaking her head – slammed the door in her face.
*
Sam and Mallory sat at a small table beside the fireplace in the Railwayman’s Arms; Mallory with her glass of red wine and Sam with a pint of ‘Sleeper Ale’, the pub’s home-made brew. They chatted easily.
‘So, tell me about your last boyfriend. I was shocked when you said you were single. I expected you’d have been snapped up by some lucky son of a gun long ago,’ Sam blurted suddenly, totally changing the subject and catching her off guard. He, genuinely, did seem surprised at her marital status, which both pleased and embarrassed her.
Mallory could feel her face flush as heat rose to her cheeks. ‘Crikey, get right to the point, eh, Sam?’ After a pause to check that he was, actually, interested, she began. ‘Hmm, how long have you got? Tell you what; I’ll give you the abridged version… Darren Spencer was a mechanic, a year older than me, divorced from a marriage that began when he was only twenty-two. He was obsessed with his car. In fact, he loved IT more than he did me. I thought it was love, but he just wanted a fling, even though we went out for a year. Then one day I realised that if there was ever to be some kind of an ultimatum, the car would win hands down. So, I ended it.’ The words rushed out all in one breath. She gasped air back into her lungs.
‘Wow!’ Sam’s eyes were wide. He gazed at her and took her hand. ‘I can’t believe that dumb son-of-a-bitch loved a hunk of metal more than a beautiful, funny, sexy-as-hell girl like you.’ He looked down at their hands and freed hers. ‘S-sorry, I didn’t mean to be so… forward. I mean I don’t know the guy… I’m sure he—’
‘Hey, it’s fine, honestly.’ Mallory missed the now absent contact and wanted to reach for his hand in return, but refrained. ‘You’ve pretty much got him pegged.’ She smiled.
They sat in silence for a few moments when something dawned on Mallory.
‘Wait a minute. You think I’m sexy?’ Her eyes widened at the realisation.
His lips turned up into a scrumptious half-smile that made her toes curl. ‘Hell yeah!’ He nodded and there was a mischievous glint visible in his verdant eyes.
Mallory sat up a little straighter, feeling quite boosted by this unexpected compliment. ‘So, tell me about your ex. It’s only fair.’
‘Touché,’ Sam said. He thought for a moment and then began. ‘Where do I start? Syd was… uhh—’
Mallory gasped. ‘Wait. Sid? Like the actor, Sidney Poitier? As in a… man?’ She feared that she had just opened a whole new can of worms and discovered that her potential true love was bisexual. She wasn’t sure she was that open-minded.
Sam slapped his knee as he threw his head back and guffawed at her shock. ‘Sydney was and still is, as far as I’m aware, female!’
‘Thank goodness for that.’ Mallory burst out laughing with him. ‘I was just wondering what on earth to say next.’
‘Sydney Lowery was a secretary in my brother’s firm. I met her when I worked in the office in Ottawa to do my internship. She was lovely at first.’
‘What did she look like?’ Mallory interrupted, unable to supress her latent insecurities.
‘Hey, no fair. I didn’t ask you what that douchebag, Darren, looked like. A little irrelevant don’t you think?’ He briefly raised his eyebrows but continued to smile.
‘He was tall, skinny and hairy with big ears. Nuff said. Humour me, Sam. I’m just curious.’
Sam chuckled after she gave him a vision of her ex. ‘Sheesh, he sounds as ugly as he was stupid.’ He gave her a wink. ‘Okay, she was about five-eight, long curly auburn hair, with green eyes.’ He rubbed his forehead as if trying to remember. ‘Anyhow, we split when I found out she was seeing several people behind my back. The one she really wanted broke her heart. She came back to me, but I wasn’t interested.’
‘Hmm, well she sounds like a douchebag too then,’ Mallory defended him.
‘It would appear so.’ He smiled, tilting his head to one side. ‘Good for us that our former partners were so crappy, huh? Or we may never have met.’ He kept his eyes locked on hers and she melted inside.
*
Mallory took out her keys as they arrived at her cottage. Wondering what the hell she was doing bringing Sam back to her place. What if they ended up kissing? Or worse still, what if they ended up in bed? He would see her naked! Oh-my-God! Oh-my-God! Oh-my-God! She panicked as her breathing increased. She fumbled, trying to get the keys into the lock.
‘Hey, are you okay? You look a little shaky?’
Damn! He had noticed.
‘Y-yeah, yeah I’m fine, no problems… just can’t get the key in with my gloves on, silly me. What a dufus,’ she rambled.
He took her shoulders and turned her to face him. Gently he cupped her cheek in his warm leather
-clad hands and gazed into her eyes. ‘Hey, it’s coffee, that’s all. Don’t be so nervous.’ He smiled, planting a light kiss on her forehead. ‘I’m not expecting to jump into bed with you, Mallory. I’m so not that kind of guy.’
‘Well,’ she let out a sigh, ‘that’s good to know.’ She clambered for some poise. ‘And I wouldn’t expect you to want to… Erm… anyway.’ She tried to turn her attention to the door.
‘Wait, what? You wouldn’t expect me to want to?’ He frowned. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Nothing, forget I said anything. Really. I was thinking out loud.’ She hadn’t meant that last part to be audible at all. Dammiiiiiit!
Still grasping her shoulder with one hand, he tilted her chin back to look at him with the other. ‘Hey, Mallory, believe me when I say this, as I don’t say things I don’t mean. Oh, I want to, really I do. All I’ve been able to think about since we met the other day is how much I wanted to see you again. How much I would just die to kiss those luscious lips of yours and how good it would feel to run my hands over your gorgeous curves. I just don’t want to scare you off by groping at you on our first, official, date. I really think we have something here. Don’t you feel it too?’
Mallory gazed into his emerald eyes, unable to move; almost unable to breathe. She felt a little like a rabbit in headlights; stunned by his honesty and floored by his almost palpable desire for her. All she could muster was a little nod of her head.
With that he leaned down, pausing to seek her consent, and she closed her eyes in anticipation. His breath felt warm against her chilled skin and then, finally, after what felt to Mallory like forever, he took her mouth with his own. His firm lips moulded to hers and his tongue dipped inside just a little. He tasted delicious and his cologne filled her nose as she breathed him in. Her hands reached up and found his hair as she drew him nearer. His kiss was soft but oozed passion and longing and gave a glimpse of what could be. Her legs became weak.