Just As You Are by Kate Mathieson

Author:Kate Mathieson [Mathieson, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-02-13T17:00:00+00:00

She wrote back immediately.

Is he cute? Is he nice? Has he ever been in jail?

I wrote: Kinda. Yes. I doubt it!

She took some time replying and with it came a list of questions to ask on a first date.

When I returned from the bathroom there was Peter standing up again, then offering the cheese knife so I could sample the brie. That was very sweet of him, and I decided maybe it was just first date nerves, and I needed to give this another chance.

‘What’s your favourite holiday destination?’ I asked him with a smile, armed with my new conversation topics.

‘Oh, fishing in a little spot off the coast. Do you like fishing?’

‘No.’ I really hated the idea of catching some poor little fish with a metal hook in its mouth and neck. ‘It’s just never hooked me.’

He seemed to miss the pun; instead he smiled at me pleasantly. When he didn’t ask me what my favourite destination was, I decided to tell him. ‘I loved Peru. The mountains and landscape there are breathtaking. Have you been?’

‘No, I haven’t been to South America. Or America. I went to Hong Kong once to watch car races and rallies.’

‘Oh.’

He smiled at me. ‘I much prefer camping locally.’

I took a sip of wine. ‘I don’t particularly like camping at all really. It makes me itchy.’

He nodded and we sat there in silence. Again.

I didn’t know what else to say, but there was still half a bottle of wine on the table, and some nibbles of cheese, so I had to stick around, didn’t I? I didn’t remember dates being as painful as a visit to the dentist, and this one felt like having a tooth pulled, except without the happy gas high.

While I sat there pretending to listen to Peter talk about the best camping spots, I started thinking about Nick, and what he would say if he were here. We’d be talking about living in a country cottage. Or penguin training as a career. Or he’d be trying to teach me about Sirius or some other star cluster, and I’d be telling him he was just a big old nerd.

Peter excused himself to the bathroom, and, because I was slightly tipsy, it was making me reminisce about how Nick and I connected in Fiji. I kept thinking of calling him, or texting him, but what would I say? Then I had another thought – were we even friends? I wasn’t sure. I thought we were colleagues, and that was about it. And sending a slightly tipsy text to your boss about a date was not professional at all. I put my phone away quickly.

Peter was suddenly back on the stool in front of me. ‘So, this was fun, should we do it again?’

I opened my mouth, and realised I was about to say – sure. Because isn’t that what you say on dates, and then you never call them again, and you avoid their calls and you hope that they get the picture.

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