Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor

Author:Cally Taylor [TAYLOR, CALLY]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General & literary fiction
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
Published: 2010-11-10T18:30:00+00:00

For the next hour and a half I was an air hostess, a primary school teacher, a deep-sea diver, a trombone player, a stripper (that one went down particularly well), a street sweeper and a cardiologist, as a succession of men sat opposite me, chatted for three minutes, and then left. I couldn’t tell you what they looked like or a single thing any of them said. I was too busy peering through the gloom at Archie, wondering if he’d hit the jackpot yet. Beside me, Mrs Humphreys-Smythe tittered and flirted her way through the evening, scaring date after date with her terrifying laugh and her overfriendly habit of grabbing their hand and not letting go until the bell went. By the time a rather nervous Archie shuffled his way to my table I was fuming.

‘Archie,’ I hissed as he sat down, his chair practically in the middle of the room in his effort not to get too close, ‘why on earth did you bring your gran here?’

‘I had no choice,’ he stuttered, twisting his score sheet in his hands. ‘She said there was no way I was going to leave her at home on her own and, if I was going out, she was going out too.’

‘But she’s a grown woman!’

He looked from his gran to me and back.

‘I didn’t want to let you down, Lucy,’ he said miserably. ‘I thought it was better to turn up with my grandmother than not come at all and leave you on your own.’

That made me feel crappy. Poor old Archie, he was just trying to do the right thing.

‘But don’t you want to meet someone?’ I asked. ‘This was for you as much as it was for me.’

He scratched his head, releasing strands of hair from his ponytail. They clung to his cheeks like wet seaweed. ‘I’d love to have a girlfriend, but it’s not easy. I don’t get many opportunities to meet girls.’

‘Obviously,’ I said, glancing at his grandmother and frowning. ‘Anyway, how’s it going? Have you met anyone nice?’

‘All the girls are lovely,’ he said amiably. ‘We’ve had some nice chats.’

‘Can I see your card?’ I asked, reaching across the table. ‘I want to see who you ticked.’

‘It’s private,’ he said, snatching it away before my fingers could make contact.

‘Yes, but I need to find out—’

The rest of my sentence was lost in the clang of the organiser’s bell. Our three minutes were up.

‘See you in a bit, Lucy,’ Archie said, jumping out of his chair. ‘Only one date left.’

I glanced across at his grandmother, who was watching us through narrowed eyes. When she caught my eye she smiled, her thin lips almost disappearing into the grimace.

‘Isn’t this fun?’ she said.

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