‘Oh, um, thank you,’ she said, and slipped the ugly chopping board in her bag.
The shop assistant muttered something under her breath in a Muttley-esque way as she stomped back into the shop.
Nora rolled her eyes. ‘That was weird. Anyway, hello.’ She tried to brazen it out as they walked two shops down to the coffee place.
‘Hi. Is everything, um, you know, OK?’ asked Liam.
‘Yes, it’s great. Why?’
‘It looked like you were taking that picture from the charity shop.’
‘It’s a chopping board,’ she said, realizing that really wasn’t the point. ‘It was a misunderstanding. I was looking at it for someone else, obviously. Then…’ Nora had an odd image of Renee in her head saying, ‘Whatever you do, don’t say you rushed outside in a blind panic when you saw him.’ Nora swallowed hard. ‘Then I realized the time. And I hate being late.Hate it!’There was a possibility she was a little too vehement because Liam took a slight step away from her.
Liam looked at his watch. ‘We’re five minutes early.’
Crap.‘Oh, that’s good then. Clearly I need a new watch.’ They both looked at her bare arms. ‘Anyway here we are.’ She opened the coffee-shop door and waved for him to walk through. He hesitated, then slipped inside quickly as if not wanting to pause too long next to Nora.
Brilliant start, she thought. At least it can’t get any worse.
They joined the coffee queue and Nora began to relax. This was recoverable. She just needed to act normal. She could do normal. Liam was staring at the chopping board in her open bag. She tried to zip up the bag but it was too tall and Elvis’s aubergine hair was still visible as the board stuck out the top.
‘How has your week been?’ she asked, in the hope of distracting him.
‘I secured a new client at work, my cousin had a car accident and my nan broke her dentures.’
‘Great,’ said Nora, before all of what he’d said had fully registered. ‘Oh goodness. Not great at all. Awful. The thing about your cousin and your nan. But yay for the new client.’ She punched the air with both hands like a cheerleader who had lost her pom poms. She felt like she was losing her pom poms. She really needed to calm down. Did she used to be this jittery around Liam? She didn’t think so.
‘How was your week?’ he asked tentatively, still taking sideways looks at Elvis.
‘Good, thanks.’
They both nodded uneasily at each other. Nora was hugely relieved when it was their turn to give their drink orders. Once they had their coffees, they found a table for two near the window.
Liam kept doing that uncomfortable rolled-in-smile thing he’d used to do when he was feeling awkward. Nora took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry. I know I’m acting weird, and I don’t know why. This feels like a first dateand as you know I’m terrible at those. Can we sort of delete the bits where I was being strange and start again?’
‘Sure. Just one thing though. It’s not a date, is it?’ he asked.
She wasn’t sure how to interpret his raised eyebrow. Was that a ‘it had better not be a date or I’ll run for the hills’ gesture? Or a ‘that might be quite OK, if we were on a date’? She had no idea but decided to play it safe. ‘It’s coffee, Liam. OK?’
‘That’s good.’ He leaned back in his seat and did seem to be relaxing. He smiled. ‘Our first date was truly awful, wasn’t it?’
‘Don’t remind me.’ Nora could feel heat creeping up her neck at the thought of it. ‘I’ve never had a tummy bug like it. I should not have left my bathroom but I really didn’t want to miss out on a date with you and I thought if I cried off you’d think I was being flaky and wouldn’t ask me out again.’
‘I would have asked you out again,’ he said, his eyes full of warmth. This was the Liam she remembered.
‘That’s good to know.’ They held each other’s gaze as they sipped their drinks.
A succession of raps on the window near Nora’s head made her jump and drop her cup, splashing coffee all over her, the table and Liam. ‘What the hell—’ She turned to see an unwelcome face at the window. Gareth, her disastrous date from a few weeks ago, was waving at her and gesturing that he was going to come in. ‘No!’ She waved her hands and splattered Liam with morecoffee. ‘I am so sorry. This is some random guy I barely know and—’
Gareth barrelled up to her and embraced her in a tight hug. ‘It’s so good to see you, Nora.’
‘Gareth, I’m kind of busy right now,’ she said, wiping herself with a very small and already sodden serviette.
‘Whoops, was someone clumsy?’ he asked as he snorted a laugh. ‘How are your bowels now?’
Nora frantically waved the dripping serviette towards Liam. Gareth seemed to spot Liam for the first time. ‘Hello there. I’m Gareth.’ He offered a hand to shake.
Liam wiped his palm first before shaking hands. ‘Liam.’
