Page 19 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

Polite?

Yes, but that wasn’t quite the word...

Formal!

‘Let’s go in.’

Again he offered his arm, and she liked his formality...how he made walking into somewhere that should be daunting rather easy.

‘Allow me,’ he said and relieved her of her bouquet.

He placed it on the table with other gifts—clearly most of the guests had disregarded the couple’s wishes.

‘Now they’ll be stuck with a hundred kettles and toasters,’ Violet said. ‘Serves them right.’

Sahir, while he didn’t really understand a world that had kettles and toasters, got the drift.

He likedherdrift...her constant, ever-changing drift...

And that quietly surprised him.

Sahir was used to chic and sophisticated women. His dates were vetted and they all knew from the outset that their relationship was going nowhere. They were just happy for the elevation his status would bring them, the gifts and the baubles...

Of course Violet wasn’t a date, and she endlessly surprised him.

Having escorted her to the back of the room where she was handed a glass of icy champagne, he noticed she shook her head as the trays of hors d’oeuvres started to come out.

‘I thought you were starving?’ he said.

‘I am, but I want something sweet.’

‘That’s later...’ he said, then frowned when the ‘starving’ Violet politely declined everything.

He had a word with the waiter, and soon she stood there with a plate of cakes and pastries all of her own.

‘Thank you!’ Violet smiled, biting into a tiny chocolate ice cream cone, smaller than her little finger, and made just for her. ‘Gosh, that’s better.’

‘You have a sweet tooth?’ he said.

‘Sweetteeth,’ she corrected, and then worried she’d misled him. ‘Actually, you said it properly. I was making a little joke.’

‘I know.’

And suddenly Violet wanted to know more about him. ‘Have you and Carter been friends for a long time?’

‘Since boarding school,’ he said. ‘Yes, a long time.’

‘You work together now?’

‘We have worked together on a couple of projects.’

Sahir didn’t really know how to explain them without giving his status away, so he turned the conversation to her.

‘What about you and...?’ He had to think for a moment. ‘Grace.’

‘We’ve been best friends since infant school.’

He frowned.

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