Page 59 of Fundamentals in Flirting

“I’m right here, and will be by your side all night, ok?”

“Will you do all the talking?”

He chuckled. “No. Remember your flirtation training – the words will come from inside you, Hannah-san.”

“Did you just badly quote theKarate Kidmovie? What are you, Mr Miyagi now?”

Teddy grinned. “Yes, and later we’ll be waxing Henry’s car and catching flies with chopsticks. I hope you’re ready.”

The tension seemed to be dissolving from my shoulders as a reluctant smile spread like golden syrup, coupled with a strange sensation of relief and something else, like a fire blooming in my chest. As I looked into Teddy’s eyes, their blue depths warm and kind, his fingers lightly brushed my cheek again, before he dropped his hand back into his lap.

“Should we do this then?”

I nodded, an almost imperceptible twitch of my head, all the while giving myself a mental slap. Peopling shouldn’t be this hard. I’d delivered lectures on limb biomechanics in racehorses to an auditorium full of students, and presented my PhD thesis on degenerative joint disease to two of the world-leading experts in the field, for fuck’s sake. I could do small talk with local business people and not freak the hell out. But even this mental shakedown couldn’t avoid the real issue: I had no science or research to hide behind and I wasn’t here to deliver information or offer advice in a professional capacity. I was here to get to know people, to be nice, and to let people get to know me, all the while reining in the perpetual need to be defensive or deflective, to turn attention away from me as a person, and to prevent any actual real scrutiny. I had nothing here, no protective shield.

Apart from Teddy. Teddy and his glowing, iridescent personality and infinite charm, which I sincerely hoped would blind all onlookers and leave me unseen. It was the only hope I had of getting through this evening unscathed.

With a final encouraging look and squeeze of my hand, Teddy got out and opened my door, helping me to emerge from the car in a much more elegant fashion than how I’d got into it. Walking towards the party, heads turned to stare at us – well, at Teddy; they turned to stare at Teddy, let’s be honest, and I felt myself begin to shrink, letting him absorb the attention, while I lurked sheepishly in his shadow. Playing my role as a funny little troll creature in make-up and a green dress, hiding behind his back.

But Teddy wasn’t having any of it. He tugged me forwards, placing my hand in the crook of his elbow, and began heading for a group of people. My heart thundered in my ears, loud and crashing, in a crescendo of panic. This was really happening. Socialising was a go.

As we neared the group, one of the men turned to look at us and to my utter relief I came face to face with Henry, who smiled warmly and nodded at Teddy.

“I hope my car’s still in one piece, dickhead?” He turned to me then and said, “Hey, Hannah. Nice to see you again.”

I was now faced with quite a large number of people, all staring at me curiously. Recognising Clara, who gave me a big grin and a funny little wave, I made a beeline for her, the warmth she generated radiating outwards and drawing me in. There was a lot of inter-Fraser hugging, as I noticed Dan and Tom Fraser, Henry and Teddy’s other brothers, also in the group, as well as an Asian couple, and a tall, dark-haired chap who stood slightly to one side and looked as uncomfortable as I felt.

“Hi! I love your dress! You look amazing!” Clara leant in and whispered, “These bloody Frasers and their relentless hugging compulsion! I’ll introduce you to everyone else and you might just escape being mauled to death.”

With a grateful smile, I stepped back and she began talking again. “You all know Ted, and this is Hannah Havens, one of the local vets here and Ted and Henry’s friend from school.” Tilting her head towards the other Fraser brothers, she carried on, “I think you remember Dan and Tom?” I nodded and gave them a wave and they raised their glasses in reply. “This is Simmy Anand and her husband, Bhavin, and this is Oscar Moretti.” She gestured at the glamorous Asian woman and the tall, strained-looking man. “I work with these two at Pharmavoltis.”

“Hi.”

“I’ll get us a drink,” Teddy said, casually wandering off into the crowd to intercept a waiter, leaving me standing next to Oscar Moretti. I quickly started to realise that if I was a prickly hedgehog, then he was most definitely a bristling, indignant porcupine. Clutching his wine glass menacingly, he glanced at me and then away, his straightened spine and rigid shoulders unnaturally still and tense. Even the molecules of air around us seemed to be avoiding him. I briefly wondered if we’d been separated at birth – except he was very tall and Italian-looking and I was of average height and decidedly Nordic. But otherwise, twins. Obviously.

With this apparent similarity bolstering my confidence, I said the first thing that came into my head. “You’re not really enjoying being here, are you?”

He turned so quickly that I’m pretty sure he gave himself whiplash.

“What makes you say that?”

“The look on your face.”

Where the hell is my brain-to-mouth filter?

Teddy was going to kill me, but I was distinctly aware of Clara chuckling quietly next to me.

Oscar narrowed his eyes. “You don’t look so happy yourself now that your boyfriend’s gone.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“No?” Oscar Moretti seemed to be losing interest in the conversation.

Well, this is going spectacularly badly…

But Clara gave me an encouraging and sympathetic smile and a little elbow bump, seemingly urging me to carry on with this feeble attempt at socialising with a stranger. And he was strange, even if I did recognise a sort of kindred spirit in him. She whispered, not actually that quietly, in my ear, “Please talk to him. We don’t let him out of the laboratory much and it shows.”

Turning back to the object of my experiment, my gaze flitting over the designer stubble and impossibly dark brown eyes, I decided that honesty was the best option here. Truth or bust.

---