Page 9 of The Story of Us
“It’s been obvious ever since he swapped to making sourdough.”
Eloise pivoted, her wet hair swinging like a vine hitting the back of her arms, until she could see the golden brown loaf dusted in a light coat of flour, a perfect cross in the top of it. She’d assumed her grandmother requested the change to Eloise’s favourite.
“I never said anything. He overheard you talking about how much you loved it. Ever since then, we’ve had sourdough. One plus one equals two,” Joanie said, nose buried in her book again.
Eloise walked to the table on wobbly legs. She picked up a perfect slice, little puddles of melted butter pooled in the air pockets which appeared when it was baking. The tangy flavour burst on her tongue as she nibbled at the crust before swallowing.
Joanie was wrong. Surely.
“Nate probably just likes making it because it’s more complicated. He loves a challenge. That’s why he does so many things—painting, upcycling old furniture like the table at Kathleen’s Place?—”
Mercifully, Joanie interjected, stopping Eloise from embarrassing herself further. “Come on, darling. Read the room. Or rather, the carbohydrates.”
It was dangerous to even consider that Joanie might be right. Because if Nate was interested in her—and so far, the only vaguely concrete evidence was loaves of bread—then why wouldn’t he act on it? What was stopping him? Was it her? Or—Eloise thunked her head into her hands and groaned.
Charlie. If something were to happen between Eloise and Nate and it didn’t work out, there would be consequences for his friendship with her brother.
But what was she supposed to do now? Pretend she didn’t know this? Even if she wasn’t wholly convinced Joanie hadn’t just read too many romances in which guys like Nate fell for women like Eloise.
A quick glance at the clock on the oven answered her question. There was no time to ponder it now. Her day was about to start without her.
* * *
“What are you doing?”a voice behind Eloise murmured.
She twisted around, her heart rate speeding up when she saw Nate. “You scared me,” she whispered.
“Why are you hiding in the hallway to the bathrooms?”
“My professor’s out there!” She pointed towards the dining room of the Wattle Junction Hotel. She’d recognised Professor Armstrong’s curly brown hair immediately even though most of the tables were full and it wasn’t even trivia night. The hum of conversation mingled with the noises from the kitchen to her right.
The air behind her shifted, and the warmth of Nate’s body pressed closer. She stole a glance at him. Nate peered around her shoulder, his breath sending goosebumps over her skin.
“So? Doesn’t she love you? Aren’t you doing that mentor/mentee thing together?”
“I am, but I still don’t want her to see me.”
“Why not?”
Professor Armstrong looked up, and Eloise shrank backwards, her shoulder pressing against Nate’s hard chest.Stop it. Thinking about his muscles wouldn’t help right now. “She emailed me earlier. Said we need to meet urgently. She obviously hates my major project proposal, and I’m never going to finish this master’s degree.”
“Or …” Nate twisted her around, his hands lingering on her hips just long enough for Eloise to think that maybe Joanie was right and forget about her professor. He waited until their gazes met. “She came to the pub to have dinner.”
Eloise chewed on her bottom lip, and the air around them grew thicker when she realised Nate was staring at her mouth.
Had she crash-landed on an alien planet today or something? Shaking her head, Eloise tried to focus. “It’s not my best work, but with everything that’s going on with the wedding and studying and trying to set up more community programs at work … God, what if I fail?”
Overloading her schedule in the lead-up to Charlie’s wedding hadn’t been a good idea. But Eloise had always loved being busy and helping people. As someone who’d seen firsthand how much Kathleen’s Place offered to the community, Eloise had always been driven to repay the assistance her family had received. Almost all the activities she’d done as a child had been at KPs because they were free or heavily subsidised.
She shushed the little voice in her mind that whispered the real reason she was burying herself in work: she was no closer to achieving any of her personal goals. Eloise had been single for so long that she was beginning to wonder if she’d forgotten how to have sex—although if she believed what her previous partners had told her, she hadn’t known in the first place—and she had zero plans to go on the big adventure she’d been talking about forever.
Her gaze swept the dining room again, snagging on where Alice was sitting with Owen. The loved-up couple were tucked into a corner booth, oblivious to the rest of the room as they shared a plate of nachos and a bottle of rosé. Given Alice’s disastrous first marriage, Eloise wasn’t sure they’d ever make it to the altar, but there was no question they’d be together forever.
Everyone was moving on to the next stage of their lives, and she was stuck … in a hallway near the toilets. No need to dig too deep into that metaphor.
“Come on.” Nate nudged her forward. “Let me buy you a drink. If your professor sees you, just say hi and arrange a time to meet properly.”
Eloise kept her gaze down as they wound their way through the tables.
