She hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell her new friend about the significance of the date. It would all be over tomorrow, and then she could carry on as normal.
‘Enough about me. What about you and Nick? How was the date?’
Angeliki’s eyes turned dreamy.
‘It was lovely. He took me to a rooftop bar and ordered champagne and strawberries with chocolate sauce.’
‘Oooh, fancy. And did you feed them to each other?’
‘No, we’re not at that stage yet.’
‘OK, didn’t realise that was a stage.’
‘But we’re seeing each other again tomorrow night, for a proper dinner.’
‘Sounds great.’
‘I really like him, Grace. He’s easy to talk to, he has minimal baggage for a man of his age and I think he’s cute, like a cuddly teddy bear.’
‘Yes, I bet he’d be very considerate in bed.’
‘Grace!’
She wasn’t sure where that had come from. Everything was out of kilter today. It was Sofia who came up with the raunchy comments, not her. At that moment a message came in on her phone. Will’s name flashed up.
Karen seems good today. But she’s asking for you. Can you come over after work?
A picture of the cat with its paw raised, being held in Will’s big hand, made her smile, but she couldn’t possibly do what he asked, not today anyway.
Angeliki’s eyes were on her as she took a sip of coffee.
‘Who was that?’
‘Oh, just Will. Asking me if I want to visit Karen today.’
‘“Just Will”? What is going on between you two?’
‘Nothing, I’ve told you before. We’re friends but that’s it.’
‘Friends don’t look at each other the way I saw you and Will looking at each other on the dancefloor at the party. He looked like he wanted to rip your clothes off on the spot, and you looked like you wanted to let him. You couldn’t get a cigarette paper between you.’
‘Rubbish. And anyway, why weren’t you staring into Nick’s eyes? You shouldn’t have been spying on us.’
‘I wasn’t spying. It was hard to miss. Celine certainly thought so. She had me up against the fridge-freezer demanding I give her all the details.’
‘Well, luckily there were none to give, because there is nothing going on.’
‘OK, if you want to carry on saying that, it’s up to you…’
‘I do.’
Grace had to look away for a moment. If she told her friend about the significance of the day, Angeliki would probably feel awful about suggesting there was something going on with Will while Grace was mourning her dead husband. Angeliki knew that she was a widow, but obviously not what a big deal today was.
Grace rushed through the rest of her coffee under Angeliki’s watchful eye.
‘I’ll have to leave a bit early. I forgot I’d booked in an extra lesson, and I’ve got to do some prep for it, sorry.’
‘That’s not like you, to forget.’
