Anna by Amanda Prowse

Author:Amanda Prowse [Prowse, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788542098
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

12

‘So where are we going?’ She bounced on the back seat of the cab.

‘I told you, somewhere special.’ He smiled at her.

‘I don’t know if I’m dressed right.’ She looked down at her work skirt and blouse. These things mattered to her. As ridiculous as it was to place such store in something as frivolous as fabric, without the right clothes for the right occasion Anna felt her fragile confidence ebb. Too often she had been the weird girl in the wrong dress, the unfashionable shoes, the second-hand uniform. She didn’t want to feel like that ever again.

‘Don’t worry, you look perfect.’ He stared out of the window and she caught a hint of nerves, surprising after ten weeks.

It wasn’t until the cab drove over Hammersmith Bridge that the penny dropped. Theo was taking her to his home! Anna sat back on the seat, all too aware of the significance of this but trying not to add to the tension. Theo reached for her hand and the two sat quietly, each lost in thought.

Her first impression of Barnes was that it felt like countryside, far removed from the sort of London suburbs she was familiar with. The high street was quaint yet classy, the pub had a traditional-style swinging sign, and there was even a duck pond. The poshness of his street was, if not unexpected, then certainly undeniable. Anna looked up in awe at his magnificent house and for a second considered staying in the cab. He had only ever been sweet and complimentary about her studio flat and yet all the time he had this to come home to. She cringed, remembering the moment she’d made him lie on her bed with his eyes closed, only allowing him to open them when she’d switched on her much-loved strings of fairy lights.

‘Ta-dah! What do you think?’ she’d said, bounding over to him.

‘I think it’s brilliant!’ he’d replied, obviously humouring her. ‘Like living in a Christmas tree!’

Theo now took her hand and guided her along the gravel path that bisected the close-cut lawn, its borders delineated by rope-edged terracotta tiles. The gravel crunched underfoot. The imposing red-brick Edwardian house was three storeys high. The ground and first floors were fronted by double-height bay windows with ornate leaded panes of glass running along the top. There were windows in the roof space too, where the fascia was framed by white-painted fretwork that matched the woodwork on the pantiled roof of the porch. And on the wide, shiny red front door hung a brass door knocker in the shape of a lion’s head.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked, squeezing her hand tightly.

Anna nodded up at him and this was how they stood for a second or two in acknowledgement of the moment.

‘Well, here we are.’

‘Yes.’ She bit her lip. ‘Here we are.’

Over the last couple of months they had chitchatted and snogged, drinking wine and laughing into the small hours, but right now, on this damp autumnal evening, they were both aware that frivolity and playfulness couldn’t sustain them for ever.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.