Page 47 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
Sol looks uncertainly from Trudy to Sam and back again. ‘Oh. I, uh …’
There’s something in his eyes: not sadness but … is it yearning? No, it can’t be. He’s too old for that. Once you’re past a certain point it’s not becoming to yearn.
Sam catches Trudy’s eye in the mirror and understanding passes between them.
‘Of course,’ he says, ‘if you’d like to wait for Trudy I’m sure Jos can find you an appointment sometime.’
Sol’s face relaxes. ‘Thank you,’ he says.
Josie leads him over to the book while Sam nods once in Trudy’s direction. She understands what he means: Sol wants to connect with her, probably to talk about Laurie. Well, she’s going to let him, even if it will just make her sad. When she thinks too much about Laurie it makes her sad and maybe her misery will like having company.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
So Evie did it. She asked Sam out.
He was giving her all the signals and she was sick of waiting, and there was an article inCleoor one of those magazines with a title ‘Girls, Take the Initiative’, which was all about how a woman should ask a man out if she likes him, because why should the man get to make all the decisions? Evie used to think she quite liked the man making the decisions about dating because she had enough decisions to make in other realms of her life, but then she wondered … If she wanted Sam, why shouldn’t she go after him?
Therefore, she did.
Not that she said anything like, ‘Do you want to go on a date?’ Imagine if he’d come out and said ‘no’? Instead, as they were in the back room together yesterday, she straightened her spine and said, ‘Would you like to do something sometime?’
He’d turned to look at her, and, as ever, his face was so glorious to gaze at that she felt both enraptured and shallow at the same time. His face is not all there is to like about him! Except she can’t help liking it a lot. No man this handsome has ever before paid her even a second’s attention.
‘You mean, like a date?’ he’d said, winking, and she’d almost died. Not literally. But emotionally.
‘Um.’
‘Sure, darl. I’dlovethat.’ He put a finger to his chin. ‘There’s an old movie playing in Avoca tomorrow night. Are you a fan of Lauren Bacall?’
Evie didn’t know if she was or not as she hasn’t contemplated the issue before, but the question implied that Sam knew a fair bit about Bacall so Evie crossed her fingers and nodded and said, ‘Yes’, even though she wasn’t sure why he was asking her.
‘Marilyn?’
‘Monroe?’
He gave her a funny look. ‘Of course! Who else?’
That one was easier to answer because Evie loved Marilyn, although admittedly more as an icon and less as an actress because she hadn’t seen that many Marilyn movies.
‘Yes!’ she replied.
‘Perfect!’ Sam said. ‘Because the movie isHow to Marry a Millionaire. I was going to see it alone – who knew that the perfect person to see it with was in front of me all along?’
It was said so easily, so breezily, like it carried no weight whatsoever. But for her it was a statement the size of the moon and just as bright, and she almost gasped with the surprise of it. It’s so rare that the very thing you’ve been dreaming of exists in the real world, yet here it was: Sam, the subject of her dreams and daydreams, wanting to spend time with her away from the salon.
Even better, Stevo had already asked for Billy to stay the weekend with him. Evie had thought she’d be home alone withHey Hey It’s Saturdayand a frozen pizza.
Now they’re sitting together in the dark, with Sam’s leg close to hers and his hand on the other side of the arm rest, a movie flickering on the screen and a packet of Fantales getting warmer in her lap, and Evie can’t remember the last time she took a breath. That’s how tense she is. And excited. And nervous. And wondering what on earth is going on – or might be going on – between them.
They’re watching the luminous Hollywood beauties simper and smoulder their way across the screen, and all Evie can thinkabout is whether or not Sam actually meant it when he said this was a date. Or like a date. If this goes well, will he ask her out next time?
What if he’s having a bad time, though? Oh no. Work will be so awkward. Not that she didn’t think about that but she forgot it in the rush of asking him out.
There, she’s breathing again. She can feel it. In, out. Despite her nervousness, she needs to try to stay calm. Fainting in the cinema is not romantically alluring.
God, she issonot ready to be romantically alluring. The last time a man saw her naked it was in a dark room and they’d both had too much to drink and she’s not sure the bloke even saw much of her because he was so busy worrying about whether he was ‘good enough’. No, he wasn’t, but she was hardly going to say that, and all they did was roll around for a bit anyway and have a pash before he started snoring, which led to her getting dressed and leaving and never seeing him again.
Actually, she did see him again, at a pub, but she couldn’t remember his name and they both pretended not to know each other.
