Page 5 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

‘Two weeks. Bit of a laugh, isn’t it?’

That wasn’t how she saw it, but she nodded.

‘What was it that you liked about my profile?’ he said.

She racked her brains. ‘Profile? Puh-lease. I didn’t get beyond those gorgeous photos.’

She cringed as the words came out of her mouth. She wasn’t the sort of person who said puh-lease. Or told a man that his photos were gorgeous. Not even Dan, and his photos actually were.

But Neil seemed to lap up her flattery. ‘Have you eaten?’

She’d been intending to pick up a ready meal on the way home. ‘No.’

‘Bit busy to eat here, but I know just the place.’

They drained their glasses. Jo followed him out into the fresh, spring air, imagining a bijou restaurant in a hidden alleyway. The sort of place Dan might choose.

But rather than a secret alley, Neil led the way into a pedestrianised shopping area, with a selection of chain restaurants.

‘¡Tapas! ¡Tapas! okay?’ he said, indicating a branch of the popular Spanish chain.

When it came to food, Jo didn’t like to share so tapas wouldn’t have been her first choice, but he was already halfway through the door.

A waiter led them to a table and Neil ordered a bottle of Rioja.

He could have at least asked she fancied red, Jo thought, as she started to study the menu. Alongside the tapas, there was a small selection of main courses. She decided on a slow-roasted Iberian pork with garlic potatoes and green beans.

‘I’d prefer just a main course if that’s all right?’

He nodded but reeled off a long list of tapas when the waiter arrived. Undeterred, she ordered her pork and a small orange juice.

A series of plates began to arrive. As she sipped her juice and waited for her one dish, he began to munch his way through pimientos, gambas and patatas bravas, washing them all down with red wine and gesturing to the waiter to bring a second bottle. The loose shirt made sense now.

The more he drank, the more he talked about his ex.

‘…sleeping with my best friend…’

Jo bit into a piece of pork. Surprisingly tasty for a chain restaurant.

‘…then expects to keep the apartment…’

And the garlic potatoes – mmm.

‘Mother always said I could have done better…’

Soggy beans. Bit of a shame.

‘So…?’

He was waiting for her to answer.

‘Delicious, thank you.’

‘I asked what your ex-husband was like,’ he said.

An image of Si’s anger at the broken wine glass flashed through her mind. ‘We er… wanted different things.’

Fearing he might ask more about her marriage, she excused herself and slipped to the ladies’, leaving him chewing on the last meatball.