Page 20 of The Price of Love
‘Puberty caught up with you, did it? Nasty that. I once got an attack of adolescence, but I just drank until it went away. Cheers.’ He handed me my glass and drank from his own. There was a bit of a pause.
‘So.’ I sat with my glass perched awkwardly on my knee. ‘How did you meet Ash?’ Inloco parentisinterviewing mode, even though Iain and Sophie had never shown the least inclination to interview our prospective partners and were, I always felt, slightly disappointed that only one of us had turned out gay.
‘Does it matter? Llama racing, reading the news, over the frozen turkeys in Tesco — what’s the difference?’ Cal put two plates down on the table and handed me a fork. ‘Eat up. Thousands of innocent mycelium were dragged screaming to their deaths to bring you this dish. The least you can do is enjoy it.’
Side-by-side we ate and drank red wine, until the plates were empty and the glasses wore only a tidemark. ‘Where did you learn to cook like that?’ I sat back, replete, and tried to burp genteelly. ‘That was stupendous.’
‘Ancient Rome. All that philosophy and art, and they were buggers for a well-cooked bacon sandwich.’ Cal leaned over and turned on a lamp, the room was quite dark now.
‘Do you ever answer a question seriously?’
For a moment, in the half-shadow, he looked almost scary, eerily lit from one side, which highlighted his cheekbones and eyes. ‘That depends,’ he said, and the words were heavy as though a weight of sadness lay upon them, ‘on who’s asking.’
‘Me.’ The wine had made me brave.
‘Oh, well, in that case, no.’ He stood up, clearing the plates away into what looked like a cupboard but turned out to be a concealed dishwasher. ‘Would you like coffee? Tea? Rosewater poured over the brows of virgins?’
Feeling rebuffed I said, ‘I’d better get home. Thanks for fixing the laptop, send your invoice to the office, will you? Oh, and thanks for the food. It was lovely. Really.’
Cal stopped stacking dishes and straightened up at the work surface with his back to me. ‘I won’t charge you,’ he said softly.
‘Oh, but—’
‘And it’s cerebral palsy. My leg. It affects my arm too, but only slightly. I was born too early, you see.’
‘Cal—’
‘Right, now you’d better be off. I don’t want my reputation ruined by the presence of a woman after dark. Besides, you don’t know what I turn into when the moon gets up, so you ought to hurry.’ Brisk now, no nonsense, he turned back around, no sign on his face that he’d been anything other than joking. Unless, if I looked closely there were lines of strain around his eyes that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago.
‘The moon’s up already.’
‘Is it? The tablets must be working. Right, here’s the laptop. I’ve checked it and it’s running fine, but any problems — you know where to find me, don’t you?’
I found myself hustled out of the door and went out onto the street with a feeling that something rather odd had happened, but not sure what it was.
Chapter Ten
The week continued to give the illusion of spring, and after he picked me up on Wednesday evening, Luke suggested that we should go for a drive to the coast. This we did, and ended up sitting on a beach in a secluded cove.
‘Are you all right? You’ve been a bit quiet this evening.’ I nestled myself closer to Luke against the chill of the incipient night.
‘Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just, oh, work, money, stuff like that. You wouldn’t be interested.’
‘Try me.’ I pulled his jacket around the pair of us, leaning into the smell of Aramis and snuggling into his shirt. His body was very warm.
‘It, ah, it’s stupid stuff. You know how it goes. All the cash is tied up in Boston with James. I want to start looking at houses here in York but there’s nothing available to buy with until I start the business up and running, and I can’t dothatwithout cars, which there isn’t any cash to buy because it’s all tied up in Boston. D’you see?’ Luke looked down at me and curled his arm around me to pull us closer together. ‘Stupid stuff, as I said.’
‘How much cash do you need?’ My mouth was slightly dry.
‘Oh, I dunno. ’Bout ten grand I think. Nothing amazing, only a bit more than the bank is prepared to lend, on top of the business loan we’ve already got. They’re saying maybe we should relocate where the stock might shift a bit faster. D’you know, yesterday my bank manager suggested that I’d be better off setting up the showroom down south, somewhere-on-Thames? Bloody cheek. I promised I’d think about it, but I reckon it’s a stupid idea. There’s plenty of classic car salesmen down there already. Still, if that’s what it takes to get the extra, maybe Ishouldthink about it. Always room for another Lamborghini in London.’
All right, I admit it. I panicked. He was thinking aboutleaving, for God’s sake. I’d only just got him, and he was thinking about moving on. What was Isupposedto do? ‘I could let you have the money,’ I said.
Luke smiled and kissed the top of my head. ‘Ah, sweetie, I know you would if you could, but it doesn’t matter. Things will turn out for the best eventually.’
‘But Ihavegot it.’
I explained, fairly briefly and without reference to allotments, spaniels, books or boots. Luke’s mouth fell open and his eyes went very round. ‘I don’tbelieveit.’
