Page 16 of Healing Hearts on Thistledown Lane: Part 1
‘I do,’ Graeme said slowly. ‘Dark-haired girl. Never spoke much.’
‘That’s her,’ Fraser said. ‘She spent most of her time in the art block.’
Michael nodded sagely. ‘That’s why I don’t remember her. The art teacher hated me – in fact, I was banned from the art block for knocking over someone’s GCSE project.’
Fraser felt his eyebrows shoot up. ‘I don’t remember that.’
His friend shrugged. ‘You were too busy playing at Shakespeare in the drama studio.’ He gave Fraser a sidelong look. ‘I always reckoned you fancied the teacher, that’s why you were so keen.’
Fraser cast his mind back. The drama teacher had been encouraging and he had liked her, but she had been old, or at least the age he was now, and that wasn’t what had kept him coming back to the drama studio. It had been his love of performing, the feeling he got when he slipped into someone else’s skin and stepped into the limelight. That had been what drove him to work as hard as he had on passing his exams and winning a coveted place at drama school. It was perhaps a little ironic that he had fallen so badly out of love with the thing that had once meant everything to him.
‘So what’s Maura been up to since school?’ Graeme asked. ‘Have the years been as cruel to her as the rest of us?’
‘Speak for yourself,’ Fraser said mildly. ‘And no, the years have not been cruel to her. The opposite, in fact. She’s doing very well for herself.’
Graeme perked up. ‘Is she single? Can you get me her number?’
He shook his head. ‘Sadly not single. She has a strapping great rugby player of a boyfriend.’
‘Shame,’ Graeme said, subsiding into his pint. ‘I was hoping you were about to offer me an excuse to get off the dating apps. They’re driving me to drink.’
Fraser felt a stab of sympathy for him. It couldn’t be easy to start over, especially when your ex-wife was happily coupled up with a new man. But Maura was so far out of Graeme’s league that there was no way he stood a chance of a date with her, even if she had been single. Fraser wasn’t about to dent his friend’s already fragile ego any further, however, so he said nothing.
Michael had been tapping at his phone. ‘Maura McKenzie,’ he said, holding out the screen to show a Google page filled with hits. ‘Bloody hell, she can’t have looked like that at school.’
It was exactly what Fraser had thought when she’d first introduced herself, although he wasn’t about to admit that now. ‘She’s a really talented potter, makes some incredible things. I’m hoping she’ll make some ghosts for the tour website – I think the tourists will snap them up.’
‘Good plan,’ Michael said, still scrolling through the search hits. ‘And I suppose the fact that she’s so easy to look at helps too, right?’
Fraser sighed. ‘Not everything is about looks, Micky.’
The other man grunted. ‘Says the man with the model for a girlfriend.’
‘What’s your point?’ Fraser asked, raising an eyebrow.
Michael looked up. ‘No point, Fraser. I’m just saying you always were a sucker for a pretty face.’
Graeme looked from one friend to the other. ‘Ignore him, Fraser. He’s just jealous because he looks like a bull’s arse.’ He paused to stare at the multiple pictures of Maura currently adorning Michael’s phone. ‘Although she is fine, I’ll grant you that. I don’t blame you for sniffing around.’
Fraser put down his pint. ‘I’m not sniffing around. It’s a business arrangement, one that hasn’t even been finalized, if you must know. And I believe I mentioned the fact that she has a boyfriend – just as I have Naomi.’ He bristled across the table at them. ‘I wish I’d never told you now.’
To their credit, both his friends looked shamefaced. ‘Sorry,’ Michael said.
‘Aye, and I’m sorry too,’ Graeme admitted. ‘I don’t get out much these days.’
Sitting back in his seat, Fraser felt his irritation drain away. Wouldn’t his friends in London have reacted in similar ways? And the truth was that Maura was very attractive – if he was brutally honest with himself then he had to admit he would have been interested, had they both been single. But perhaps it was better not to think about that. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, and glanced up at the big screen in one corner of the bar, where a football match was playing in silence. It was time to change the subject. ‘So, what do you reckon? Have Dundee got any chance this season?’
The message he’d been anticipating arrived a few days later.
Hi Fraser,
I’ve got a couple of sample ghosts for you to look at. Do you want to drop by the studio or would you prefer to meet somewhere?
All best,
Maura
Fingers stumbling with enthusiasm, it took him three attempts to type something that made sense.
