“Never.”
She smiled and Peter wished he saw something more than just warm companionship in it.
As they left the cobbled lane behind and began the climb up the high street, they made easy chit-chat. Gaby shared a funny story about something that had happened on a cold frosty night like this one when she’d worked at a Salzburg hotel during the festive season and Peter listened and laughed, then shared an anecdote of his own about a debacle at last year’s school Christmas production of a musical version ofA Christmas Carolwhen a snowstorm almost stopped their three student ‘ghosts’ arriving on time for the start of the show and he’d had to perform an emergency dash to each of their houses to collect them and avoid catastrophe.
She laughed at his stupid story, just as he hoped she would, and before he knew it they were turning onto Foxglove Street and nearing Gaby’s aunt’s house, their evening together almost over.
“I had a great time tonight, Peter,” Gaby said when they reached the front gate. “It was so nice catching up with you and finding out about what you’ve been up to.”
“Same here,” he said. “The evening went by too fast.”
“It really did.”
“And thanks again for agreeing to be our emergency guest speaker at the school careers fair on Tuesday.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Once I’m standing in front of your students and you realise I’m a shaking, quivering mess of incoherence, you’ll wish I’d turned you down.”
Peter laughed. “That won’t happen. And because I’m one hundred per cent sure it won’t happen, I want to say right now that I’d like to buy you dinner once the fair is over, to show my appreciation.”
It was a sneaky move, dressing up the dinner invitation as a token of thanks, but the truth was he needed the cover to convince himself that was the only reason he was doing it.
The bright smile on Gaby’s face dimmed a little and a hint of uncertainty clouded her expression. Peter wondered if he’d made a mistake and misread their easy company and relaxed conversation, and wondered if she’d only agreed to help with the careers fair because he’d more or less ambushed her and now he was doing it again, offering to buy dinner and prolonging their time together.
The uncertainty lingered on her face for another long beat before her smile lifted again.
“Dinner sounds good. I’d like that.”
Peter grinned and tried not to look too deliriously relieved that she’d said yes. “I’ll book something for us and we can go straight there after the fair is over if that’s okay?”
“That’s fine with me.”
She shivered a little and Peter waved her towards the house. “Go on inside before you freeze.”
“Thanks again for a lovely night.”
“You’re welcome. Good night, Gaby.”
“Good night, Peter.”
She lingered for a moment, holding his gaze. It was all Peter could do not to step closer and kiss her. The urge was almost more than he could bear.
When she looked away and opened the garden gate, he almost blew out a breath of relief that the charged moment was over. The last thing he wanted was to ruin the night they’d shared by acting like a lunatic and doing something he’d regret.
Gaby waved when she reached the front door and Peter waved back and waited until she was safely inside the house before he started walking again.
As he continued along Foxglove Street to make his way home, he thought about the great night they’d had, about how much he’d loved talking to her and how easy it was to be in her company again. The fifteen years they’d spent aparthad vanished in an instant once they got comfortable together. There’d been no awkwardness, no stilted conversation, no belated realisation that time had changed her into someone else entirely.
Of course, timehadchanged her, just as it had changed him. But it had changed Gaby into someone even more wonderful than she’d been back then. She was filled with energy and spirit and Peter found it impossible to resist her.
When they’d been together as kids, he couldn’t resist her either. But it was different then. They’d shared everything willingly—heart, body and soul—because they’d been madly in love.
Now, they were just old friends catching up on lost time. Peter knew this intellectually even as his body tried to tell him a different story. But if he believed that story, he’d be falling for a fantasy dreamt up by his own addled emotions.
When they’d been talking over drinks, there was a moment right before his phone rang when he’d almost confided something to her. As they’d reminisced about their summer spent as a couple, he’d almost told her that he sometimes wondered what might have happened if things had been different, if they hadn’t gone their separate ways to different universities and if they’d somehow found a way to stay together.
Would they have had a happy ever after?
Peter knew the question was pointless. There was no way of knowing what might have happened if they’d chosen a different path. What would that path have looked like? The two of them enrolling at the same university? One of them dropping out to follow the other? Would either of them have found their way to the careers they now loved if they’d made different choices back then?
