Page 16 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘Nora.’
‘Nora, yes. Do take a seat. I’m desperate to hear what you thought of the book. I’ve never read anything that gripped me like this did.’
Nora sat down opposite Constance, who was absentmindedly rolling the stem of her wineglass in her fingers. Before she could answer, Oliver came over. ‘Coffee or wine?’ he asked.
‘Oat milk chai latte, please.’ Nora tapped her phone on the small card reader he held out to her.
‘Be a couple of minutes,’ he said with a smile before he was off to the next table.
‘He looks after us marvellously,’ Constance said.
‘Do you usually read psychological thrillers?’ Nora asked.
‘No. I’m a romance reader through and through, but this time Lois warned me that the romance book was rather steamy. That was how she put it, and apparently these steamy books are quite different to the racy books I used to enjoy. You know, Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper, that sort of thing.’
‘I love those books. I used to sneak them out of my mum’s room and read them when I was a teenager.’
Constance threw her head back and laughed. ‘Wonderful!’ she said. ‘And do you read this new steamy romance?’
‘I’ve come across it,’ Nora said, thinking that Lois was probably right to divert Constance away from anything that might have more than a chapter or two of smut. ‘It actually gets quite boring to read after a while.’
Constance raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh, really? In what way?’
Nora took a breath. Was she really going to explain how one novel she read had a blowjob that lasted more than a chapter? ‘Oh, I suppose it just gets a bit samey, hearing about how a man can curl his fingers and hit a G-spot the woman never knew she had.’
‘Good lord! How graphic.’
‘Sorry,’ Nora said, ‘I mean, it gets more graphic than that, so perhaps Lois was right.’
‘Quite. Thank goodness for The Housemaid.’
They had a very enjoyable discussion about the twists and turns of the novel and especially whether either of them had guessed the twist at the end, which they hadn’t.
‘Are you new to the town?’
‘Yes, I moved here just over a month ago from the Bristol area.’
‘Not somewhere I’m familiar with. I grew up in Hampstead before I came here. And what brought you to Croftwood?’
‘I wanted somewhere closer to my work, which is in Staffordshire, but there are great rail links to London from here and that’s handy for visiting my family in Surrey.’ It had been a while since Nora had visited her parents. They were retired teachers who spent most of their time travelling around Europe with their caravan. She made a note to plan something in before they went off on their usual trip to the south of France.
‘Any significant other?’ Constance asked unashamedly.
‘No. Just me.’
‘I have a son about your age,’ she began.
Nora’s heart sank. The last thing she wanted was for this evening to turn into dating after all.
‘He’s been single forever only because he finds it difficult to meet women.’
He sounded like a real catch.
‘I’m very recently out of a long-term relationship,’ said Nora, hoping this would stop the conversation in its tracks.
‘Oh, no. I think best to get back in the saddle at your age. As I said, my son is desperate to meet someone. Perhaps you’d like to come for dinner one evening?’
‘I don’t think that would be a good idea.’
