Page 9 of The Fallback

Rosie spluttered. ‘Do you mean the one who asked me on our first date if I would insist on using Doctor as my title if we ever got married because it might “undermine the dynamics of a traditional marital relationship”?’

‘Oh, right.’ Nadia grimaced, reclaiming her coffee mug and hiding behind it. ‘I’d forgotten that part. So,’ she continued in a more upbeat manner, ‘what do you think Mitch has in mind?’

Rosie groaned. ‘I don’t know but it had better not involve speed dating, double dating, or any extreme sports. I just want him to leave my love life out of his plans. I know he means well,’ Rosie insisted, 'I just wish he wasn’t so obsessed with us both meeting people and getting married.’ She leaned forward and shuffled some papers on her desk, her body language the epitome of diversion. She really didn’t want Nadia probing her on why she was so opposed to Mitch meeting someone and getting married.

Nadia said nothing and just raised her eyebrows at Rosie. She pushed her chair back and stood up. ‘Got to get going,’ she said, making for the door. ‘Hey, haven’t you got an experiment running?’ she asked her. ‘Shouldn’t you be checking on it?’

Rosie rolled her eyes and looked at her watch; she was sure her post doc would have it covered but if she was fast, maybe she could make it in time just to double-check on things. She followed Nadia to the door, picking up her empty coffee mug and handing it to her friend as she went.

Nadia took the cup and walked out into the corridor. ‘I know it’s hard when it feels like someone is meddling in your life,’ Nadia grabbed Rosie’s arm, ‘but just remember how long you two have been friends for. And, as you said, he does mean well.’

Rosie nodded and smiled at Nadia who let go of her arm and made her way back down the corridor, tissues falling from her pockets as she searched for her key card. Nadia called back over her shoulder, ‘Anyway, keep me posted on Mitch’s plan. I ammostintrigued by what he comes up with.’

Rosie and Mitch. They had become such a stalwart unit in their group of friends that people always thought of them as a pair. If one of them was invited to an event the other went too. And for a number of years people had assumed that there was something going on between the two of them: how could they bethatclose and not be sleeping together? Or friends theorized that somethingwouldhappen just as soon as they got drunk enough. But there wasn’t anything going on, and it came to be accepted that they were what they were: just really good friends. And gradually, over the years, people stopped asking, stopped theorizing. Mitch definitely had a type which was very much not Rosie. He seemed to prefer small, extroverted blondes. And Rosie’s type was…well, that was harder to determine.

ChapterThree

London had an end of summer feel about it that week. It had been an unusually beautiful summer with long hot spells. The cafes and bars had capitalised on this, setting up tables and chairs outside wherever possible. But the heat that Londoners had been enjoying, now threatened to break over the weekend and, to Rosie, it felt like everyone was trying to make the most of the last of the summer sunshine.

Rosie had always loved this time of year; she got a back-to-school feeling and had a hankering to go and buy new stationery and put on tights again. But tonight, she too planned to enjoy the last of the sunshine and chose to walk to meet Mitch. Not only was she wearing her new sandals but she had even painted her toenails this time. A quick slick of mascara and lipstick in the lab bathroom before she left and she was ready.

Mitch had suggested a bar near his office which she wasn’t familiar with. They had their regular haunts, pubs halfway between their flats, a tiny Italian restaurant which they had been going to for years and at which they never bothered to look at the menu. Rosie liked their routines, their favorite places. It made her relationship with Mitch feel special and exclusive. But this place was new to them and Rosie wondered why Mitch had chosen it.

Since her conversation with Nadia, Rosie had tried to put Mitch's plan from her mind. He’d likely forgotten all about it, she told herself. Knowing him, he’d probably met someone new by now and with any luck she could deflect his interest in her love life even if it did mean another painful evening faking interest in yet another new girlfriend. But as she walked to meet him she felt a strange sense of nervousness, his words echoing in her mind about making a change. Perhaps this new venue was all part of his plan?

The bar was tucked away in a courtyard off the busy street. It took Rosie a few minutes of wandering around nearby streets to find it but when she did it was worth it. She took a moment to appreciate how pretty the setting was. A tiny cobbled square, right in the hubbub of the West End, surrounded by Georgian buildings and sheer glass-fronted modern office blocks. The bar itself had a striped awning which arched over several chairs and tables set out in the square. At the one tucked in the corner sat Mitch, nose in a book. Rosie watched him for a moment and thought that if this had been a date this would be her perfect setting, and the perfect way to find a man with whom you would spend the evening. She took a deep breath and walked over. This was not a date she reminded herself, this was Mitch, herfriend.

’What are you reading?’ she asked when she was close enough.

Mitch grinned up at her over the top of his book. ‘You can borrow it when I’ve finished.’

Rosie tipped her head to one side to read the spine and pulled a face. ‘You’re such a geek,’ she said as she pushed his long legs out of the way so she could pull out her chair.

‘You don’t know what you’re missing,’ he mused. ‘Debut author? Mashup sci-fi thriller? What’s not to like?’

‘Where should I start?’ Rosie loved Mitch’s geeky side as much as she disliked his taste in books. It was at such odds with his cool, charming persona. But whereas other people might pretend to have more highbrow taste, Mitch was completely at ease with parading his inner geek.

‘I think the last time we both read the same thing was back when we were doing our PhDs andyouhad to read science papers. Bet you can’t remember the last time you read one of those,’ she teased.

He pouted back at her, his blue eyes glowering at her under his naturally sculpted eyebrows.

‘I’ll have you know that I spent this afternoon reading a paper on a new and exciting, yet woefully underfunded, form of gene therapy,’ he said huffily.

Rosie laughed. ‘Alright, alright. Butpleaselet’s not talk about anything work related tonight?’

Mitch’s glare cleared. ‘Bad week?’

Rosie shrugged. ‘Disgruntled post docs wanting more money, delays in grant funding coming in and a useless grad student who messed up the timing on our current trial.’ She sighed. ‘You know, just the usual.’

‘Stop,’ declared Mitch, laughing and holding his hands up, ‘any more talk like that and you’ll make me miss it!’

Rosie smiled at him. They both knew that – professionally speaking, at least – Mitch was just where he needed to be and it was not in a lab with Rosie, running clinical trials.

They had to send the waiter away twice before they even looked at the menu. Eventually Rosie asked Mitch to stop speaking so she could decide what she was ordering before they had to send the poor man away for a third time.

‘This is why I like our usual Italian so much,’ she moaned, ‘I never even have to look at the menu.’

‘Oh, stop complaining, we can’t always do the same things over and over again.’

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