The Dating Game Read online

  Gill said nothing.

  ‘Am I going to have to prise this out of you?’ Janice rose from her seat, brandishing a stapler in a threatening manner.

  ‘OK, OK. Yes, I had a great weekend and yes, things…progressed a fair bit with Anton.’

  ‘Progressed, progressed?’

  ‘Yes, progressed.’

  ‘Look, I’m too old for this code nonsense. Did you shag him?’

  ‘Janice!’

  ‘Well, did you?’

  ‘We slept together, if that’s what you’re asking.’

  ‘Ha! Bet you there wasn’t much sleep going on!’

  Thinking back to Saturday night, Gill could only smile.

  ‘I saw that! I’m right! Well, good for you. It wasn’t before time.’

  ‘Thanks, Janice,’ Gill tried to be dry with her, but couldn’t. She was too happy.

  Everything was finally coming together. She had Anton, she had a new recruitment consultant, and she was off to the Mercè festival in Barcelona with the girls in a few days. Thank God – she really needed a holiday. Also, going away with the girls would take her mind off Anton in his absence. On second thoughts, who was she kidding?

  ‘Janice, have you lost weight?’

  ‘Not since Friday, no.’

  ‘There’s something different about you.’

  ‘Do you think it could be the fact that my hair used to be brown and now it’s blonde?’

  ‘Bloody hell, Janice, so it is! It looks fantastic.’

  ‘So fantastic, it has taken you three hours to notice,’ Janice feigned offence.

  ‘Never mind me. My head’s in the clouds at the moment.’

  ‘That’s what happens when you’re in love.’

  Gill pulled up short, ‘I never said I was in love.’

  ‘You didn’t need to. Look at you. You’re positively gaga.’

  ‘I am not!’

  ‘Yes you are, but I suppose it beats gagging for it.’

  ‘Janice! There are limits you know.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve never really paid much attention to limits, me.’

  ‘So, wait a minute, I tell you how great you look and then you offend me,’ Gill tried and failed to appear outraged.

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘Anyway, I’m not in love. I just like him.’

  ‘A lot?’

  Gill’s silence lasted over a minute, before she said, ‘OK, a lot.’

  ‘I’m telling you, lady, you’re in love.’

  ‘Haven’t you got some filing you could be doing?’ Gill looked around hopefully.

  ‘No, all up-to-date.’

  ‘Right. Right. Oh, I just remembered I need to call Mr Farquharson.’ And with that, Gill disappeared into her office, until Janice popped her head around to say she was heading home.

  She couldn’t be in love, could she? Surely it took longer than that? It had only been a few dates. Gill opened up her e-mail to see if she had by any chance received an e-mail from Anton. Nothing, but she knew not to expect anything. He was probably en route to Minsk by now. She did, however, have a message from Caroline Morgan. Caroline had dutifully checked in with Gill following each of her first dates to see how things had gone and to request feedback. Even after the Sean fiasco, Gill had simply said it was satisfactory. When Sean had contacted her again, she hadn’t bothered updating Caroline to say they were seeing each other again. Gill gathered Sean would be quizzed, too. If he fancied telling Caroline, great, but Gill had too much else going on.

  Chez Molinières was unusually busy for a Monday night. With such an excellent menu, the four girls had decided to make that their pit stop for their summit meeting, prior to their jaunt to Barcelona on Thursday.

  The girls kissed and hugged. Lisa was her usual uncontrollably happy self, the bags under Debbie’s eyes gave away how she was feeling, and Angela, well, Angela was just Angela – unflappable.

  Lisa had printed off a list of trendy bars she wanted to go to, and the details for the wine and cava festival. Angela had similar printouts for the events for the Mercè festival and Debbie showed them restaurant recommendations from various people who had been there before.

  But first off, they wanted the lowdown on Gill’s evening with Anton. As Gill narrated the events of Saturday night, Lisa and Angela sat riveted. Debbie had already heard this by phone from Gill, and listened distractedly. Lisa wanted to know every detail and she really did mean every. Angela sat, listened and nodded in the right places, then finally said, ‘I’m happy for you, hon. This one seems like a keeper.’

  Gill’s face lit up. ‘I know. I’m just so glad we’re going away and I have something to take my mind off Anton for a few days. It would be no fun just sitting here, waiting for him to come back from Belarus.’

  ‘Well, you’re not exactly sitting around,’ said Debbie. ‘Don’t you have a date with Sean tomorrow?

  ‘Yes, we’re going to the pics. Romcom. Men hate romcoms.’

  ‘You’re evil, do you know that?’ tutted Debbie.

  ‘He made a complete fool of me last time. It’s only fair I get a little bit of revenge.’

  ‘From what I heard he made a fool of himself,’ butted in Lisa.

  ‘Yes, well, that too, but he was so gassed, he probably doesn’t remember.’

  The girls ran through the itinerary for meeting up on Thursday. They were taking a no-frills flight from Prestwick directly to El Prat de Llobregat airport. The flight would land just before two, so the girls expected to be in the city around three thirty. Debbie had found out that the train ran directly from the airport into the city centre. The nearest stop to their hotel was Passeig de Gràcia, no more than a ten minute walk.

  They planned to meet in town and take the train down to Prestwick. That way no one needed to drive and besides, who knew what state they would be in, on the way back. The likelihood that they’d be sporting hangovers was strong – potent sangría and a wine and cava festival, too. It didn’t take a rocket scientist…

  The girls discussed what they wanted to see. Lisa wanted to go shopping.

  ‘They have a huge shopping centre there, L’Illa. It has Zara and loads of other great shops. Of course I’m going.’

  ‘I can probably get most of what I want in El Corte Inglés,’ Debbie put in.

  ‘Well, I don’t mind if you want to go and do a bit of cultural stuff, whilst I shop, but I definitely want to go to the Museu de la Xocolat,’ Lisa said magnanimously.

  ‘Mmm, me too,’ piped up Debbie, as Angela also nodded her head.

  ‘OK, I think we’ve all decided to go to the museum. What else is a must see for all of us?’

  ‘Well, I definitely want to see Casa Gaudí and Parc Güell,’ Angela said straightaway.

  ‘The forecast’s good. I’m for the beach,’ piped up Lisa, as she crossed her long legs one over the other, causing a middle-aged man at a nearby table to choke on his steak. ‘Have you lot been waxed?’ she asked.

  Gill didn’t go in for waxing. She simply shaved her underarms and legs. Waxing was too painful. Angela and Debbie looked at Lisa as if she had horns.

  ‘I’ll take that as a no, then. Get yourselves waxed before Thursday. You don’t want to look like Germans on the beach, do you now?’

  ‘To be truthful, I hadn’t thought about the beach,’ Angela said. ‘I’m not that fussed.’

  ‘Not that fussed? Not that fussed! When did we last see sun here?’

  Debbie and Gill studied their shoes, as Angela said, ‘Well, not everyone’s a sun worshipper. You can go lie on the beach and I’ll just do a city bus tour or something.’

  After much discussion, the girls decided on what activities they would do together, and which they would do either in twos or on their own. They were so excited about the trip, that they barely tasted the delicious food in front of them.

  As they left the restaurant, Lisa wished Gill luck for her date with Sean. Debbie mouthed a Call Me and Angela gave Gill a wry smile.

  At leas
t she wouldn’t have to make such an effort tomorrow. It was just the cinema.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Tuesday 20th September

  The prospect of watching a romcom on the big screen was a welcome one, Gill decided next morning. She’d got through a lot of work, and just as well, since she had to clear her desk before she set off for Barcelona. She’d already arranged a temp to help Janice during her absence. A few replies to the student advert had also come in, but those would have to await her return from northern Spain. Overall, it had been a good day.

  In a strange sort of way, she was looking forward to seeing Sean, mainly because she wanted to see him squirm, to see how much he would apologise, the lengths he would go to for forgiveness. OK, maybe she was getting carried away, but she wanted to see how well he stomached going to a romcom. They wouldn’t be able to talk in there and she’d limit their coffee time to an hour or so afterwards. He was cute and she had liked him. But seriously, she didn’t see him being the big love of her life. She almost felt responsible for his well-being, ensuring his liver didn’t give out on him. As a mate he promised to be fun, but Gill just felt any prospect of passion between them had been eradicated by his previous behaviour. And of course, her heart was finely tuned to Anton’s frequency now.

  Gill dressed in jeans, heels and a floaty top, nothing too dressy this time. She was just going to sit in a dark cinema after all. She left her hair down and doused herself with her favourite perfume.

  At precisely ten to seven, Gill entered the cinema and looked around for Sean. His face lit up when he saw her.

  ‘Hi,’ he pecked her on the cheek. ‘Love that top. It really suits you.’

  ‘Thanks. So, how are you doing?’

  ‘Yes, I’m good, busy at work, you know how it is.’

  Gill did know. ‘Should we go and get the tickets?’ she pointed over to the ticket desk.

  ‘No need. I’ve already taken care of it. Hope the leather seats are OK for you.’

  ‘I’m sure they’ll be fine.’

  ‘Have you eaten anything?’

  Gill had grabbed a toastie before she left. ‘Well…’

  ‘Say no more. We’ll get some nachos and a couple of hotdogs.’ With that, Sean led them to the bustling queue.

  It seemed to take an age to serve them, but at least they had arrived early, and they entered the cinema laden with cheese nachos, a small drink each and no change from fifteen pounds. Sean had waved away Gill’s offer of money.

  The trailers yielded another romcom, an action movie predicting the end of the world, and the latest animated feature film. Gill sat back, careful not to get cheese sauce down her top, and relaxed. She was looking forward to this.

  She could sense Sean looking at her occasionally, but didn’t turn towards him. Every so often, his hand strayed onto her armrest and she could feel the heat from his body. The film was pretty funny and there were a few parts at which they both laughed out loud. At one particular scene, Gill thought she was going to wet herself. Turning towards Sean, she saw that he was doubled over, with tears running down his face.

  ‘A lot better than I expected,’ Sean admitted, as they rode the escalators back down to the ground floor.

  ‘Thought you enjoyed it. And it a girls’ film, too.’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t exactly a girls’ film,’ Sean started to lay his defence.

  ‘So, you’d be happy to tell all your rugby mates, would you, that you enjoyed a romcom?’

  ‘Maybe not,’ he grinned and his eyes twinkled, ‘but then they’re all liars if they say they don’t find them funny.’

  Sean suggested they go to the bar in Buchan’s Hotel, to grab a coffee.

  ‘No,’ said Gill a little vehemently. The last thing she wanted was for the bar staff to cast an enquiring glance at her, wondering where they’d seen her before. She could just imagine the twitching of the lips when they realised it was only three days since they’d seen her go upstairs with another man.

  ‘I’ve heard bad reports about it,’ Gill recovered quickly. ‘Apparently their coffee is like dishwater.’

  ‘Oh, OK then.’

  ‘Why don’t we go to Le Pays?’ Gill suggested the hotel directly opposite the cinema.

  They waited for the lights to change and then crossed the road to Le Pays.

  ‘Do you fancy something to eat?’ Sean inclined his head towards the restaurant section.

  ‘No, I’m fine with coffee, thanks. Why, you hungry?’

  ‘I’m always hungry,’ Sean patted his non-existent stomach. He was very fit-looking, well, not just fit looking, fit, she reminded herself. He did do a lot of sport.

  ‘Well, don’t hold back on my account.’

  ‘I might see if they have some olives or bruschetta, something light.’

  When Sean returned from the bar, he wore a huge grin, ‘Olives on the way. So, what have you been up to?’

  Deciding dating half of Glasgow was probably not the best explanation of how her week had gone, Gill limited herself to, ‘Pretty busy with work, but I met up with some friends last night at Chez Molinières.’ Taking a sip of her coffee, then wishing she hadn’t, as it had scalded her tongue, she said, ‘We were meeting up because we’re going to Barcelona on Thursday.’

  ‘Barcelona. I’ve never been. That’s where the big ugly church is, isn’t it?’

  ‘If you mean the Sagrada Família, Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece, then yes,’ Gill smiled at him.

  ‘It always seems to have loads of cats around it, when you see it up close on TV.’

  ‘I hadn’t noticed. Did you know they’ve decided to finish it?’

  ‘What’s the point of that? It’s like someone trying to write the end of Dickens’ unfinished novel. It’s not Dickens.’

  ‘I guess they thought it would be better for the city if such a huge building was actually finished.’

  ‘Hmm,’ Sean rubbed his chin, unconvinced. ‘So why Barcelona?’

  ‘Well, only one of us has been before, and the other three have always wanted to go, for various reasons. Plus the festival’s on.’

  ‘Festival?’

  ‘Yeah, there’s a traditional festival, the Mercè, with lots of events, open-air concerts, even ballet in the park.’

  ‘I’d like the open air concerts. Any room in your suitcase?’ Sean shot her an imploring glance.

  ‘Fraid not – girls only.’

  Despite the disastrous finale to their last date, Gill realised that they got on well together. She didn’t feel the need to try to be someone she wasn’t. She hadn’t particularly dolled up for tonight, and yet she felt confident in Sean’s company.

  As Gill sneaked a peek at Sean, whilst he watched a group of people coming in to the hotel, she thought how he looked like a more handsome version of the errant boyfriend from Sliding Doors. It wasn’t just the accent. Sean made her feel as if they’d been friends for a long time, and he didn’t bore her by talking constantly about sport, which he could have done, given his huge interest in it. It was, however, clear that music animated him and was the key influence in his life.

  When Gill next looked at her watch, she couldn’t believe it. It was already eleven thirty. They’d been here for nearly three hours.

  ‘Sean, I didn’t realise the time. I need to go. I have to be up early for work tomorrow, as it’s my last day before I go on holiday.’

  ‘Oh, of course, I understand. Are you getting a taxi home?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well, let me wait with you at the taxi rank. There’s one at the bus station.’

  ‘Thanks.’ It was a far cry from last time when he had stayed on at the pub drinking. Dismissing this thought, Gill focused on the lovely evening they had spent together.

  They walked round to the back of the bus station, Sean steering Gill clear of the rowdies making a fuss outside the bus station entrance

  ‘You never know who’s hanging about here. Bloody junkies.’

  Gill couldn’t agre
e more. She hated drugs, and although she knew some people had had very harrowing upbringings, she would never understand how any human being could do that to themselves. They scooted past as quickly as possible, trying not to attract attention.

  The taxi rank was empty. A Tuesday night and not a taxi in sight.

  ‘One’ll be along soon,’ Sean assured her. It was a clear night and the stars lit up the sky. Unfortunately, that meant it was also pretty cold. With the heat of the day long gone, Gill shivered. She hadn’t even brought a jacket, and the floaty top she was wearing did nothing to warm her. Self-consciously she folded her arms across her chest. She could feel her nipples standing out in the cold.

  ‘Here, take my jacket. You must be freezing,’

  ‘No, I couldn’t possibly.’

  ‘Seriously, I’m baking and this is a thick shirt I have on.’

  ‘Oh, OK then. Thanks.’ Gill accepted his light jacket and threw him a smile of gratitude. He was quite cute and he did have beautiful eyes, laughing eyes, most people would say. Cheeky, sexy, fun.

  She started, but it was only Sean putting an arm around her.

  ‘Sorry I didn’t mean to make you jump. I just thought a bit of contact might heat you up.’

  Well that was certainly a new line. You had to give the guy his due for trying. Gill hid a smile and turned fully towards him.

  ‘What sort of contact?’ she played along with him.

  Emboldened by her question, Sean placed his hand lightly on her waist, ‘Maybe, this sort of contact?’

  ‘OK,’ Gill waited to see what he would do next.

  ‘Or perhaps like this?’ he wrapped his arms loosely around her, pulling her towards him.

  Now she really was startled. She hadn’t expected to feel such a surge of lust. She had just been teasing him a little, she liked him, but really didn’t think anything would happen, or surely there would have been signs earlier in the evening?

  As they were the same height, Sean didn’t have much to do to bring his lips to within inches of Gill’s. He hesitated briefly and seeing no disapproval, brought his mouth to hers and kissed her. He kept kissing her and she responded, her eagerness all too evident.