Page 18 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
Since her last visit to the projection box, some working lights had been installed. The main electrics in the building still needed replacing but in the areas that needed it there were temporary lights.
‘Blimey, it’s quite a transformation,’ said Ed as they walked into the projection box. He opened the holdall and pulled out a roll of lining paper. ‘Okay, we’re going to dismantle the front of the projector. It’s the only way we can clean it thoroughly,’ he added when he saw Patsy’s look of alarm. ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to meticulously catalogue the parts so there’ll be no problem putting it back together.’ His confident tone did nothing to reassure Patsy. It seemed so drastic but she had no choice but to put her faith in him.
‘So where do we start?’
‘We’ll lay out this paper over there on the floor.’ He pulled a black marker pen out of the bag. ‘I’m going to work top-down through the projector, removing all the parts. I’ll pass each part to you, you put it on the paper, draw a rough outline around it and number it sequentially. Okay?’
It sounded simple enough. ‘Okay.’ Patsy took her coat off and hung it behind the door on one of a set of coat hooks which she’d never noticed before. Ed did the same.
Also in the holdall were a set of tools which he laid on the floor next to the projector.
‘Right, ready?’ He handed the pen to Patsy. It seemed like a whole new level of responsibility of the sort she hadn’t had in a long time.
‘Ready.’
‘Okay, I’m on the top sprocket.’
Patsy wasn’t sure if she needed to know that but repeated, ‘Top sprocket, top sprocket,’ to herself while she waited, in case the term went clean out of her head while she waited. After a couple of minutes he handed her a metal tube with spikes going around either end of it. It was pretty dirty, she could only tell it was metal because of the weight of it.
‘Okay, top sprocket.’ She placed it on the paper that they’d laid out and drew around it, writing 1. Top Sprocket next to it. One down, quite a few to go.
Ed continued to hand her pieces, many of them sprockets and all of them filthy. They worked in companionable silence, only speaking to reference the parts as they concentrated on the job in hand.
‘Okay, that’s the first lot out,’ said Ed. ‘It’s in good nick if you ignore the dirt.’ He took a packet of wipes out of the holdall, pulled out a couple and handed them to Patsy before taking some more for himself.
‘God, that’s disgusting,’ Patsy said, looking at the dirt that had come off her hands.
‘Yep, and there’s more where that came from.’
’So what’s next?’
Ed looked at his watch. ‘That’s a good place to stop. Best to tackle it in chunks, I think.’
Patsy pulled out her phone and was shocked to find it was three o’clock. ‘Wow, time flies when you’re having fun.’
‘I appreciate the help, Patsy. You did a great job,’ he said gesturing to the floor where around forty pieces of projector were carefully laid out.
‘I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m happy to help anytime if I’m free, just let me know. Oh, I have these for you.’ She pulled the spare keys out of her pocket and handed them to him. ‘So you can come and go as you please, but you need to text me if you’re coming so we know who’s in the building.’
‘Thanks, that’s great. I’ll probably come over on the odd evening. Is it okay to leave this stuff here?’
‘Yes, of course. Mi casa es su casa, or whatever the phrase is.’ She could feel herself blushing.
‘Have you got any plans for the rest of the day?’ Ed asked as he pulled his coat on.
‘Not really. I’ll probably go home, sit on the terrace if the sun’s out.’
They walked down the stairs together. Was he going to ask her out for a drink? Or dinner? She locked the door and they stood looking at each other briefly, Patsy’s expectation that he might suggest going on somewhere together building by the second.
‘Well, thanks. I’ll let you know when I’m over here again.’
‘Right.’ He turned to walk away and Patsy watched him. Then he turned around and her heart lifted. He was going to ask her.
But he smiled, awkwardly, and then carried on walking.
Patsy began walking in the opposite direction, towards home. Her heart was sunk into her boots. Was it her? She felt she was reading the situation completely wrongly. Maybe she was out of practice, it had been so long since she’d had any interest in the opposite sex. Was it as Oliver had said and he was shy? He was a grown man, for goodness sake and it was hardly as if she was some flippy-haired sure-of-herself intimidating woman. She felt she had given him every opportunity to say something, if he wanted to. So either she’d got it wrong and he didn’t want anything more than friendship, or else, maybe she was going to have to make the first move. That was a particularly frightening thought. She wasn’t sure she’d ever made the first move before, definitely not with Dan. He’d very much been the pursuer. And before Dan, it had just been the odd snog in a nightclub and who ever remembered how those things started?
At home, Patsy made herself a gin and tonic, dug her sunglasses out of a drawer and took a blanket off the arm of the sofa before climbing out of the window onto her little terrace to enjoy the sun now that the rainclouds had disappeared. Once she was settled in her chair with the blanket across her, she could well believe it was summer. The sunshine always made her feel better.
