Page 28 of Unapologetic Love Story

Tom shook his head. ‘Definitely.’

‘What?’

‘Truly hopeless.’

Her candour disarmed him, though. She was the first person he’d met in a long time who shrugged off cynicism.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘People think I’m strange and that’s all right. Maybe I am. But. We’re all living on a planet in the middle of an enormous universe, full of dying stars. And there are billions of us. People will intellectualize wars and conflict. But the reason all of us are here, the one thing we share with our ancestors, is the fact that we look at other human beings and we want them to look back at us.’

Tom was staggered by that and had to rummage inside of himself for a remark that would cover the new things he was feeling. ‘Now that is overly romantic. Putting a spin on a mammal’s need to procreate.’

Her eyes lit up at the comment and he had the distinct feeling that he’d unknowingly walked into a trap. Raina edged slightly closer, and he felt his whole body react to the movement. He was painfully aware of how great her hair looked and how long her legs were.

She’s next to me. And I love it. And she can tell.

She’d deliberately moved nearer, and when she spoke, she spoke softly. A tactic that had him instinctively leaning closer to her.

‘I like the way you said “need”.’

CHAPTER SIX

He was flustered by her.

Raina observed Tom Branimir with delight. He’d appeared genuinely disgruntled by her flirting with Marc and was now a gentle shade of pink, having just drank in her body with his eyes and then shaken himself, as though trying to force his way out of a trance.

It felt good to get a little power.

‘So, why did you start the podcast?’

His voice was jerky and unstable. She smiled, sliding on a pair of dark glasses. ‘That question again.’

‘Yes,’ he pressed.

She shrugged, offhandedly. ‘It was either a podcast or another horrendous office job. Not a difficult choice.’

He studied her with the vaguest hint of condemnation in his gaze. ‘That’s not the truth, Raina.’

Of course it wasn’t. If he truly thought she would readily hand over answers to questions like that, he was very green indeed. She’d learned from her research that every influencer dreaded the name Tom Branimir. He was whispered about in virtual corridors like the bogeyman, so she wasn’t about to give him vulnerable pieces of her like poker chips, hoping they’d somehow find their way back to her stack later on in the game.

The sound of the pub door closing suddenly caused the two of them to start. Raina glanced up and spotted a man in his eighties, hunched over, speaking hurriedly to himself and counting out change.

‘Stephen,’ Raina called out.

Before Tom could say a word, she got to her feet and joined the gentleman, making sure to approach him gently.

‘Hello, Stephen.’

She could see other customers laughing at his obvious frailty, and at the way he was muttering to himself. The old man paid them no mind, his expression morphing from confusion to delight at the sight of Raina.

‘Little girl!’

‘Hello, Stephen,’ Raina repeated. She guided him away from the door and the tittering onlookers and brought him to the bar.

‘Lime and lemonade, Stephen?’

‘Yes, with fresh lime, please.’

He busied himself with his newspaper while Raina swung behind the bar, with the kind of ease and readiness only a former service worker could muster. She found a pint glass, quickly making sure it was the perfect temperature, not warm from the dishwasher. She filled it with three ice cubes – no more, no less – grabbed the soda gun and filled the glass almost to the brim, then used plastic tongs to select five juicy slices of freshly cut lime. She placed them lovingly on top of the ice, then handed the pint glass to Stephen.