Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes

Author:Jojo Moyes [Moyes, Jojo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

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Something odd has happened to Nisha. She keeps thinking about Aleks. She has become hyper-aware of his presence whenever she goes to get lunch, feels his casual glances like something burning in her back. At night she finds herself thinking about the place where his neck meets his shoulders, the way his eyes narrow when he considers something she’s said, as if everything should be given serious weight. He is the most level person she has ever met: no abrupt tantrums or mood switches, like Carl, no bursts of laughter or fits of anger. He smiles the same way when he sees her, hands her food she hasn’t known she wanted to eat, lets her go again with a small wave or nod. He is always pleasant, and nice to her, and completely unreadable. It is, frankly, infuriating.

During her lunch break she has started to ask him questions about himself, perching on the surface near him as he works or sharing cigarettes with him out in the alley. He comes from Poland but considers England his home, having been here sixteen years. He is separated, on good terms with his ex, he has always been a chef and, no, never wanted to be anything else. He thinks the management of the hotel is not so great, but he has known worse and he is comfortable here. It is good to work somewhere where you are valued. He would like to own a restaurant one day but is not sure how he would raise the capital. He likes London, owns his small apartment, thanks to his late father, and on 31 December he is going to give up smoking. He says it like it is something he can just decide upon, and Nisha has no doubt it will happen. He has a daughter, eleven, who stays with him when he is off work. His face softens when he talks about her, and his eyes grow distant, as if there is a well of something Nisha has not yet been allowed to see. Everyone likes him in the kitchen, but he doesn’t make jokes or hang out in the locker room during his downtime, whingeing about double shifts, or Michel’s latest outbursts, like the others. He keeps to himself, apparently content to do his job and then retreat to wherever he goes afterward. He reads cookery books incessantly. He rarely looks at his phone, and has no apparent interest in sport, or going out drinking. He doesn’t try to impress her, or calm her down, or flirt, or ask her questions. She cannot work him out.

“I left your duck on the bus,” she says one day, almost to provoke him.

“Then I will get you another,” he says.

“You never ask me anything about myself,” she says, when he sits opposite her as she eats a sandwich. As they spill from her mouth, the words sound almost like a complaint, which is irritating. He pauses before he answers.

“I think you will probably tell me what you want me to know.

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