‘Okay, feel free. Go right ahead, although I have no idea what you want to apologise about. Unless,’ she said, eyebrows raised, ‘You’ve done something wrong on the system and were too ashamed to tell me? I get the feeling that you don’t like being wrong but we all make mistakes.’
‘Thank you for being so magnanimous and understanding,’ Rocco said humbly. ‘But I don’t make mistakes when it comes to tech.’
‘Oh, really.’
‘Generally speaking, hand on heart, I don’t tend to make many mistakes.’
‘Can I say that that’s a very arrogant statement?’
‘Of course you can.’ He’d been spot-on with the body language interpretation, he decided. It was Friday, and the weekend lay ahead, but she wanted to be right here in a deserted office chatting with him. Where were herhugeplans—awaiting postponement?
Dinner would be very satisfactory for both of them.
‘So, what do you want to apologise for?’
‘For asking you out to dinner a few days ago when I first met you.’
‘Ah. Well…’
‘You must have found that very offensive.’ He began gathering his bits and pieces, such as they were, not looking at her but aware of her with every nerve in his body.
Eventually, when he did look at her, she was blushing and still indecisively hovering in the same spot.
‘I…’ she began.
‘You must have thought me incredibly full of myself, which—and I’ll freely admit this—I have occasionally been accused of. Didn’t you just do that—accuse me of arrogance when I thought I was just being honest? I’m always mystified by other people’s assumptions.’
‘Naturally, it seemed…uh…a little surprising. Dinner…’
Rocco strolled towards the lift and was gratified when she fell into step with him. ‘For starters, I never even asked whether you were involved with someone…’ He looked down at her, at the way her shiny dark hair dropped in a straight sheet to her shoulders, at the economical grace of her movements as she walked and the swell of her breasts pushing against the pale-blue shirt primly buttoned up to her neck.
She was sodifferent, socomposed, socool, soreserved… He got a kick every morning when he came in to find her there, in her starchy outfits that did nothing to conceal her innate sexiness. Now, his libido kicked into painful gear as he continued to stare at her. They hit the lift button and when the doors opened he stepped aside so that she could brush past him.
‘Are you?’ he asked, leaning against the mirrored wall and gazing at her with interest. ‘Involved with someone?’
‘That’s none of your business.’
‘It is, because I would really like to have dinner with you, but obviously if you have a partner then I’ll back off. I’ve never beenthe sort of guy who treads on another man’s toes. So, are you involved with someone? Because if not then I’d like to take you out to dinner.’
‘Why?’
‘Sorry?’ Rocco was momentarily taken aback. He stepped out onto the ground floor and allowed her to precede him.
Here there were signs of life, although with only fifteen minutes till closing, there was the depressing atmosphere of the few customers there politely being ushered towards the exit. Half the staff appeared to have vanished, probably getting ready to join the Friday evening stampede out. Canned music added to the general air of a place just waiting for the axe to fall. He could have left after day one from what he’d seen, but he’d stayed put. He was beginning to see why.
‘Why,’ she repeated as they left the store, ‘Do you want to take me out to dinner?’
‘Because.’
‘You’re going to be here for another week. Like you said, this is your last weekend, so it’s not because you want to get to know me better.’
‘You wanted to continue studying geography. You wanted a part in changing the world. You’re serious about climate change. But you ended up here because your mother died and…was there no one else to save the day? What’s wrong with wanting to find out a bit more about someone? So, tell me, was it all on your shoulders?’
‘I didn’tsave the day. I came to help my dad out. He has a small farm. He needed someone to be there for him. He was…he wasn’t functioning. Couldn’t function. He was too wrapped up in grief.’
‘What about siblings?’
‘Honestly, I have no idea how we’ve drifted to this!’
