T-Rexes & Tax Law by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford [Ford, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1791311377
Amazon: B07MR37W75
Goodreads: 43798346
Published: 2019-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Alfred hadn’t understood her meaning at the time, but as the day progressed, he quickly took it. They couldn’t go anywhere without bumping into a new face. It was always male, and always particularly interested in making Nancy’s acquaintance. Alfred, if he was acknowledged at all, was subjected to a looking over and sizing up, a kind of primal threat evaluation from one predator to the next.

At first, it really annoyed him. But it annoyed Nancy more. “Did you see that?” she asked after a new acquaintance, a Doctor Elliot, left them.

“How bad his flirting was?”

“No. How he kept looking at you. I think he thought we might have been a couple. And he was making sure he wasn’t stepping on your toes.” She shook her head. “Like he’s got to check with the man to make sure what he’s doing is okay.”

“Well,” Alfred said, “I mean, I wouldn’t want to flirt with someone else’s girl. He was probably just making sure.”

She frowned at him. “Do you think, if we were a couple, I’d flirt with someone else?”

“No. But you weren’t flirting with him anyway,” Alfred said.

“Which is why he should have been taking his cues from me. Not you.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he said only, “Oh.”

As the day wore on, though, and the same thing reoccurred, Alfred began to find it rather amusing. He was still irritated on some level, but he channeled that irritation into amusement. “Good god,” he told her after dinner, after they’d met yet another resident of base, “what is that? Number eight? I don’t think I’ve seen that many desperate guys in one place since chess club. And that was back in high school.”

She laughed. “Be nice, Alfred.”

He grinned. It was good, he thought, to see her smiling. It had been a rough day, and she hadn’t had cause to smile much so far. “So,” he asked, “have you picked one yet?”

“One what?”

Affecting a very bad British accent, he said, “A suitor, of course, my lady.”

She rolled her eyes, whether at the accent or the comment he wasn’t sure, and he laughed. “Why limit myself to just one? At this rate, I could start a whole harem.”

She wasn’t far from the mark. The next morning, they took breakfast in the mess hall. It was full, and Alfred was famished. He ate quickly and decided to get rid of his tray and grab another cup of coffee. “You want one?” he asked.

She, though, was still on her first. “I’m good.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” This was easier said than done, though, as the line to the coffee pot was long.

At last, he turned with his cup of coffee in hand, only to find his seat occupied. It was occupied by no other than their driver from the day before. Alfred had noticed him in passing earlier in the morning, sitting by himself and throwing glances in Nancy’s direction.

The taxman was annoyed, and had half a mind to return to the seat and see the young man squirm.

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