My phone buzzed on the table across the room. Reluctantly, I got up to look at the caller ID. The name Caldwell flashed up, eliciting a heavy frown from my face.
“Who is it?” Jamie asked. She had obviously witnessed the look of distain on my face.
“A client, the one for this project,” I groaned, as I considered answering it.
“Why is he calling on a Saturday?” she asked as she re-arranged a pillow against the headboard to sit up a little more.
“I don’t know. I might need to get James to call him back,” I replied, not wanting to have to deal with him again quite so soon.
“Why James?”
“I’ve got a feeling we’re not going to get on and I’d rather not fall out with a client.”
“Have you already fallen out? What happened?” she questioned.
I walked over to the side of the bed, still holding my phone. I was a little worried about her reaction, considering her fiery nature. I didn’t want to get a call informing me that she had been caught beating him with a stick after writing ‘sexist pig’ on his forehead in permanent marker.
“The other day we were having a break halfway through a meeting, so we were all stood around talking and drinking coffee and stuff. I was standing about as close to him as you are right now,” I said, indicating the space of about two feet between us. “He was talking to someone else but loud enough for everyone to hear. He basically said that in his opinion women in business doesn’t work; they are apparently too emotional … Wanker!” I said with a little too much anger.
“Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one!”
“What?” I asked, confused.
She giggled before speaking. “Sorry, I was channelling Harry Callahan – Dirty Harry. Clint Eastwood!” she finally said, a little exasperated at my lack of movie knowledge yet again. “I watched one of his films the other night. I’ve been waiting for a chance to use that phrase all week.”
We both looked at my phone as it finally fell silent.
“Decision made,” I said. “I’ll text James to contact him in case it was something important. Would you like to do a bit of exploring before lunch?”
“Absolutely.”
***
“So what time do we need to be there, wherever it is?” Jamie asked again.
“It doesn’t start till nine but I think we should get there early to get a good spot.”
“Okay. So where exactly?”
“We have to go up to where the abbey is on the headland. There are some open fields up there. I thought we could walk there then get a taxi back if we need to,” I said, as I filled my small rucksack with the snacks and wine I had bought the previous day.
As we neared the top of the abbey steps, Jamie must have spied one of the posters advertising the event. She stopped in her tracks, turning towards me.
“Oh my God! It’s a cinema! An outdoor cinema! Excellent! I’ve always wanted to go to one of these.”
I loved the excitement in her face. “I had a feeling it would be right up your street.”
“Absolutely! I’ve always wanted to go to a drive-in, like they have in the States. You’re good.”
“I try,” I said with a wide smile. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it! We’re watching We’re the Millers. Perfect! Have you seen it?”
I looked at her with my best ‘are you kidding’ face. “No.”
“Of course you haven’t,” she said, slipping her arm through mine as we continued up the steps.
Handing over our tickets, we both received our wristbands. Jamie led the way behind the small groups of people that had already set up. There were a number of people in deckchair-type contraptions that didn’t have any legs, so you sat on the floor but had something to rest back on. I hoped the blankets I had brought would make us suitably comfy to withstand the length of the film or both films if Jamie wanted to stay for the late-night horror.
“Are you sure you don’t want to get closer?” I asked, as she slowed near the far side.
“I thought we could go in the back row.” Her eyebrows flashed as she spoke.
“Fine by me.”
We were about twenty metres from the large white screen that was currently playing adverts for other venues that the pop-up cinema was traveling to. Spotting a cluster of legless chairs off to the side, I dropped my rucksack, marking our spot and went to grab a couple. Waiting for Jamie to spread out one of the blankets on the grass, I surveyed the area. It was pretty busy considering the weather had cooled from earlier; the summer was beginning to fade away. I could just see the whale bones we had walked to earlier on West Cliff peeking from behind the right side of the screen. A couple of rows in front I spotted a couple of women with a teenage boy. The two women looked to be in their forties, leaning on each other; they were obviously a couple. While the young boy chomped his way through a giant bag of Doritos, I looked over at Jamie, inspecting the bottle of wine she had just pulled from the rucksack.
“Hey,” I called gently, getting her attention. “Soft-ballers at two o’clock.”
Her only reply was a wrinkled brow.
“Don’t you read lesfic?” I asked, kneeling down next to her.
“What?”
“Lesbian fiction,” I explained in hushed tones.
“And you do? I’ve never seen you read anything that wasn’t nature related.”
Her tone was playful. I realised how much I loved these conversations. “Well, apparently, I know more about it than you do.” I almost swallowed back my words as I recalled a certain conversation about packing resulting in last night’s bedroom exploits.
“Oh really? And what have you read?” She continued to bait me.
“The odd Gerri Hill … Harper Bliss.”
“That explains a lot.”
“It does?” I questioned, a little confused.
“Two o’clock you say. I’m going to have to have a look now.”
Jamie got to her feet, pretending to adjust the seats on the blanket, enabling her to peer across the rows of cinema-goers. She returned to my side on the blanket with a question on her lips.
“Do you think that’s their son?”
“I guess.”
“They look happy. Shall I open the wine?”
She didn’t even wait for me to answer, not that I would have declined. She seemed distracted for a moment as she fumbled for the plastic cups.
“What’s up?” I asked, as she handed me a generously filled cup. She took a glug from her own cup before answering.
“Have you thought about having kids?”
I was a little surprised, but Jamie had been straight with me before, laying out where she wanted us to go. It was only a matter of time before she asked the question.
“I don’t know. I worry I wouldn’t be very good at it.”
“Why not?”
“My parents weren’t the best role models in that department.”
“That doesn’t mean you won’t be.”
“I know. Do you want children?” I asked, although I had a feeling I knew the answer before she offered it.
“I do. I love being part of a family and I want to add my part to it.”
This was turning into a pretty heavy conversation. Jamie must have felt it too as she tried to lighten the mood. “I’m not ready yet, though, so you don’t need to run for the hills.”
“That’s a little disappointing,” I said, trying to hold a serious face.
“It is?” Jamie said, nearly choking on her wine.
“I bet you’d look even more beautiful pregnant.”
She smiled broadly, silently thanking me for lifting the atmosphere. Neither of us wanted to discuss the lack of commitment in my past; I for one hoped it would stay there.
“I think you’d be a great parent. Just think of all the things you could teach them,” Jamie said, resting a hand on my knee.
I frowned in response. “The right moisture content for shelves next to radiato
rs?”
“Of course and all about nature and the countryside. They’d love it.”
The music that had been in the background increased rapidly as film trailers flashed on the screen, effectively bringing an end to our conversation. I quickly poured peanuts into one of the spare plastic cups and handing it to Jamie as we settled into our legless chairs. The film was pretty funny, much better than I was expecting, and Jamie seemed to enjoy it. As the credits rolled, both suffering from numb posteriors, we decided to call it a night, heading back to the hotel to warm up. That night, I worried again that my past would taint any future I had with Jamie.
Chapter 14
Jamie left for York on the Sunday evening. I had originally planned to leave with her but due to the poor weather I needed a couple more days to finish up in Whitby. I was beginning to become someone who lived for the weekends and the time we spent together. On my return to York midweek to oversee the work being completed on-site, Jamie must have felt the same thing as she called to invite me to stay with her so we could see more of each other. I thought it was only proper to warn her that I would need to work in the evenings sometimes, but she didn’t seem fazed at all. I figured it was best to still keep my hotel room just in case it went awry; it was also a suitable dumping ground for my stuff. I didn’t want to clog up Jamie’s neat house and overstay my welcome.
The next few days were a bit of a blur as we were both pretty busy, often cooking together before working for a couple of hours. It actually gave me a glimpse of what it could be like to live with someone; it may have been a case of rose-tinted spectacles, but it felt good to spend more time together.
***
After a lazy Saturday morning, Jamie dragged me out of bed saying she had a surprise for me before lunch.
“So where are we going?” I asked for the third time, hoping I had distracted her long enough for her to forget it was a surprise.
“You’ll have to wait and see.”
She turned to me, grinning at my lame attempt to extract information. She turned back just in time to see the car in front brake sharply, causing us to do the same. The September frost had been burnt off by the blazing, low, winter sun.
“Shit! Why are you driving like a dick?”
I laughed at her outburst, before retrieving some of the debris that had been thrown from the small shelf in her console, and fiddled with the ID card on the lanyard. “Buxton? Do your family hail from Derbyshire?”
“Uh, no, my parents are originally from Cambridge but my dad is in the process of doing the family tree, so I guess we’ll find out pretty soon. Carson? Are you related to Frank?”
“The comedian?” I asked with a grin. “Could be. We do have the same sense of humour. Although I’d prefer to think I’m related to the biologist Rachel Carson.”
“Who?” Jamie asked without taking her eyes off the road.
“She wrote the book Silent Spring about the use of DDTs and how they’re detrimental to the natural environment.”
“A light-hearted read then,” she said as she parked up on a residential side street.
I looked around as Jamie exited the car. She leant back down to look at me, nodding for me to get out, too. Around a corner we headed for a large field to the side of York Vale Primary School. What the hell were we doing here?
“What is it?” I asked. I could hear a compressor going in the background as we stood there in front of the large dome shape. “I’m a little confused,” I said, looking around for any more clues.
“Little confused? What’s that, your Native American Indian name?”
We both burst out laughing at her words, as I wondered where that little quip had come from.
“It’s a traveling, inflatable planetarium. Well, what do you think?”
I grinned wildly. Brilliant! “I love it! It’s amazing! When can we go in?”
She checked her watch. “It starts in about five minutes, but I think we can go in now.” She pulled the tickets from her back pocket.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she stood in front of me. Her smile was as wide as mine as she flipped the tickets through her fingers. Over the past few months we’d had our ups and downs, but we’d both stuck with it, aware of our faults and insecurities. I wanted to touch her to let her know how much she meant to me, but I knew this wasn’t the time. She squinted as the sun peeked out of a wispy cloud, leaning forward, close to my ear as several adults and children walked by.
“Stop looking at me like that when I can’t do anything about it.”
I laughed at her words. Maybe she did know exactly how I felt.
“Come on, let’s go in.” She took my arm, leading me down a short tunnel.
The inflatable dome had a hint of Dr Who’s TARDIS about it, as it was larger inside than I had expected. In the centre was a series of dome-shaped lights next to an oldish man. I saw his profile as he knelt down shuffling some notes. He wore a black and white bandana holding back his long, curly, grey hair. He was surrounded by children and their parents sitting cross-legged. The dome was lit with a string of lights lining the outer edge of the circle. Jamie managed to shimmy past some older people on the outer edge to the left. Just as we sat down, the lights on the edge began to dim, calming the noise in the dome. The near darkness allowed us to get closer and I curled my arm around her thigh as she sat cross-legged. Bandana man introduced himself as Dr Richard King, welcoming us to his traveling planetarium, saying he was going to introduce us to the stars of the Northern Hemisphere.
“Learning about your night sky can be fun and interesting; we’ll be looking at the names and shapes of constellations and how to recognise them. Then, when you are out in the countryside away from all the light pollution of the cities, you’ll be able to spot them for yourself. Whether you’re interested in stars, nebulas or galaxies, the night sky can provide hours of fun.”
He switched on the dome in front of him, bathing the vaulted ceiling above us with a fantastic night sky. His laser pen flashed on and began moving over it, circling a bright star.
“Circumpolar constellations and stars are those that circle around the celestial pole or the North Star, otherwise known as Polaris. They move counter-clockwise above us around Polaris. There are five major constellations that can be spotted. These are Ursa Major or The Big Bear, which includes the Big Dipper. Then we have Ursa Minor or The Little Bear over here. We have Cassiopeia, otherwise known as The Queen of Ethiopia.”
I felt a hand wrap around my arm as Jamie moved closer to my ear. “You look so cute listening to him.”
I smiled in the darkness at her words. I moved closer, whispering back to her, “I love learning about all this stuff.”
“I knew you’d like it.”
I moved a little closer, sucking her earlobe into my mouth. “Maybe you could teach me a few more things later,” I whispered.
“Count on it.”
***
The email notification on my phone woke me from my slumber. Looking around, Jamie was still snoozing. I managed to peel myself away from her just enough to reach for the phone poking out of my jeans pocket. Swiping the screen, the email was a reminder from James about our meeting on Monday. I quickly typed a reply letting him know I would be there and planned to return to York after the meeting to continue overseeing the landscaping at Bonnington Hall. Sliding my phone on the bedside table, I turned to look at Jamie, still sleeping. Her body was turned slightly on its side away from me, facing the window. She looked so calm and relaxed, supporting a slight smile on her face as she slept. I secretly hoped it was from post-coital pleasure. Her hair was as wild as ever and the thin bedsheet revealed the curve of her body below. This person next to me had totally changed my world in a very short space of time. I had never wanted to spend so much time with someone before. She made me so happy, which in turn made her happiness the most important thing to me.
I ran my hand along her thigh, returning to the dip of her waist. Shaping my body to hers, I outstretched
my elbow to provide support to admire her a little longer before kissing the side of her face and whispering, “I love you.” I delicately lay down behind her, closing my eyes as I spooned her firm body. To my shock, she turned towards me without even opening her eyes, cuddling up to me before saying, “I love you, too.”
“I thought you were asleep,” I said in a slightly panicky voice I didn’t quite recognise. Her eyes crept open at my words.
“Was it a secret?” she asked in a sleepy voice.
“No, of course not. I … I just wanted to get used to saying it before I actually said it to your face.” I knew as soon as the words left my mouth I was opening a can of worms.
“You’ve never said it before?”
I didn’t like the surprise in her voice and I didn’t want to admit it to Jamie; I had said it a couple of times early on in my dating years, but I’d never really meant it. I’d used those special words far too casually, resulting in mixed messages, and ended up hurting several people. I was just about to try and form some words to explain myself before she continued.
“I see. So the Carson charm has been put to devastating use on several defenceless women.”
“No. Hardly ever actually.”
She sat up, a little more surprised at my words. “Were you worried I wouldn’t reciprocate?”
“No one likes to be left hanging,” I said.
Her smile widened. “Now that it’s out in the open, I want to ask you about something.”
Adjusting our pillows, we scooted back down the bed, lying on our sides, facing each other.
“Umm, what’s that?” I asked nervously, hoping it wouldn’t be more questions about my love life.
“It’s my Aunt Lou’s birthday next month and my parents are having a party for her at home. I’d really like it if you came with me for the weekend.”
“Right.” I felt a slight panic inside. I struggled spending time with my own parents let alone anyone else’s. I had never met a girlfriend’s parents before due to my continued lack of attachment. “When is it?” I asked, hoping it would clash with something, anything.
Out of The Blue Page 13