Page 42 of Be Less Panda

The following day, Nancy was washing up the dirty dishes in the bookshop’s back room before they closed up for the night. Philip walked in, carrying an empty teacup.

‘You missed this one,’ he said, putting it in the washing-up bowl. ‘Almost home time. Your boyfriend’s waiting in the café opposite already.’

‘What boyfriend?’ Nancy started to dry one of the freshly washed saucers vigorously.

‘Hans, of course. How many admirers have you got?’

‘He’s a friend, not a boyfriend.’ The words came out more bitterly than she intended.

‘I’m sensing that’s not how you want it to be.’

Philip might be able to offer some advice. Nancy had left the flat early this morning to avoid having a detailed post-date analysis session with Olivia, but she regretted that now. She needed someone else as a sounding board for the thoughts that had been whizzing around in her head all day.

‘If a man kissed you passionately, then apologised and said he only wanted to be friends, what would you think?’ she asked.

‘I’d think he was a fool for missing out on all this,’ he said, striking a classic bodybuilder pose.

Nancy laughed.

‘Sorry, it’s not funny, is it.’

‘Hans wined me and dined me last night. We kissed when we left the restaurant - and I don’t just mean a chaste peck on the cheek. He seemed eager to get home, so everything was shaping up for an active night between the sheets, shall we say. And then, as soon as we arrived at his flat, he said we should just be friends.’

Philip took the saucer and tea towel out of Nancy’s hands, put them on the draining board and pulled her into a hug. ‘It’s his loss, not yours. Perhaps he has a terrible venereal disease and didn’t want to pass it on?’

‘If he has, why did he lead me on?’ She eased herself out of Philip’s arms - his embrace was comforting, but it made her think of what she had missed out on last night.

‘Because you’re irresistible.’

‘Stop taking the Mickey.’

‘I’m not. You’re an attractive woman. It sounds like he panicked. You can be intimidating sometimes. What did you talk about on the way home?’ Philip asked.

‘We walked back in silence, so it wasn’t as if I said anything to turn him off. And how am I intimidating?’ Nancy didn’t think she’d done anything to intimidate Hans. Quite the opposite.

‘You know what you want, and you aren’t afraid to ask for it. Not all men can cope with that.‘

‘Are you saying I should play the demure little woman?’

‘Good god, no. Be yourself. Were you sober when all this happened?’

‘I had a couple of glasses of wine, but I wasn’t drunk.’

‘He might have been worried you’d regret it when you woke up this morning.’

‘Possibly.’

‘Are you meant to meet him for an English lesson today?’

‘We haven’t made any arrangements. He was supposed to be away all week.’

‘It’s a positive sign that he’s here, then.’

‘Or he just wants a coffee.’

‘And of the hundreds of cafés in Paris, he happens to choose the one opposite where you work right at the time when you’re due to leave. I’d say he wants to talk.’

‘I’m not sure that I want to talk, though. I’m still angry with him.’

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