Peer Pressure (17 page)

Katy, seeing this, was quick to make her apologies.

“I’m so sorry, Rob. I had a little crisis at home, I know I’m late, but I did try to call. Did you change your number?”

“Um, no. Everything okay?”

“Oh, fine, fine, just a little clothing crisis, nothing serious. How are you?”

Rob sighed and raised his hands in resignation.

“Well, the restaurant screwed up and they don’t have our reservation.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened. I’m so sorry, Katy.”

Katy hid her disappointment, feeling that since she had been late, it had probably been her fault and Rob was just being polite by blaming the restaurant.

“Well, what do you want to do?” she asked.

“It’s okay,” said Rob, “it’s Friday night, I’m sure I can find us a table at somewhere nice.

Somewhere classy.”

Frankie and Benny’s
was full. Rob and Katy had tried a few restaurants in town, all of which were packed, so had opted to take the walk down to the beach front to try their luck there. The walk did them good, allowing them time to get the awkward small talk out of the way, so that now, as they took their seats in the corner of the restaurant, next to the kitchen doors, they could be themselves and leave any pretensions out in the night air.

Rob looked around, at the various diners, all of whom made him seem a little over dressed, in his Burton’s suit, for this type of establishment. The worst offender was an overweight man who appeared to be wearing shorts and flip flops, despite the fact it was freezing outside.

“Boy, I’m glad I dressed casual,” Rob joked. Katy, who was sipping at her coke, gave a little laugh.

“You look great,” she reassured him.

“You look really nice, too.”

“Thanks.”

And then, silence, the awkward kind. It was to be expected. Neither Rob, nor Katy had really expected things to go this far, given how the last date had ended, and yet, here they were, dinner reservations or no diner reservations. All it would take now was a little courage and some honest conversation. Rob was the first to break the silence.

“Would you mind if I asked you something? Now that we’re officially on our second date?”

“Sure.”

“What happened between you and Jodie’s father?”

This was a bit of a long shot on Rob’s part and he knew it. Katy, who had been nibbling on a bread stick, stopped chewing, abruptly.

Rob panicked inside; sensing that perhaps being forward had not been the best of tactics.

Good thing for him, Katy was oddly refreshed by this approach, if a little taken aback, so she put down her bland excuse for an appetizer.

“Wow, you know how to ask them. I thought we’d at least get through the second course before we got to that one.”

“If I’m prying, just tell me to piss off,” said Rob, now trying to put the conversation in reverse.

“No, no, it’s fine.” Katy tried to put him at ease. “There’s not much to tell really. I knew him from school. We were together for a few months; we had sex once and...That was it.

When Jodie was born, he stuck around for about a year, out of what I guess he thought was some sort of gesture that he wanted to do the right thing, but really, he wasn’t interested in being a father.”

Rob nodded sympathetically, but somewhere deep inside, buried roughly between idiocy and nosiness he wanted to know more. It wasn’t that he was being insensitive, just a little curious.

“What was his name?”

“Tom. We were married for six months before he left. We never heard from him again.

No birthday cards, Christmas Cards, nothing.”

Rob sat back, his mind racing with various emotions. He looked to Katy, trying to sense some vulnerability, some regret, but there was none to be found. Not on this subject, at least. For the first time in his life, he was sitting opposite a woman. Not a girl, a woman, and a woman that had seen it all.

Probably twice.

“Hey, I was fifteen when we...you know,” she continued, “he was eighteen, he had experience and I made an error of judgment.”

“You don’t regret it though, do you?” asked Rob, still fishing for doubts, though God only knew why. Katy merely shook her head.

“Not for a second. When Jodie was born, I knew instantly. I wouldn’t change anything I’ve done. Not one thing.” She hesitated, her mouth half open, as if she was going to say more, but all that came out was,

“Except...” She stopped herself, surprised that there had been an exception in there at all.

Rob leaned forward, calling her on it.

“Except?”

She thought for a moment. To Rob, it looked as though she was searching for something, some inner truth that had lain dormant for the last seventeen years and had now been woken by him. But instead, she smiled and offered,

“Maybe I would have had a little more fun.”

Rob sat back and relaxed himself, taking a sip from his bottle of beer.

“Well, there’s still time, isn’t there?”

But rather than agree with Rob, Katy seemed further away now, as if she was feeling guilty for talking about even the slightest hint of regret.

She wondered if Jodie would be understanding of such feelings, or if, indeed, Jodie had any regrets of her own, such as the lack of a man in the house, or a more consistent upbringing, one unburdened by the necessity of grandparents, uncles and aunts. Katy, suddenly full of doubt, added,

“She’s a really bright girl.”

“She is,” Rob nodded, in agreement, before the conversation was plunged back into silence, as Katy continued thinking, while Rob sat back and felt as if perhaps he’d blown it at the final hurdle, by bringing up her past.

Surely this would have been better suited to a few months down the line, he thought.

Katy sighed and took a sip from her coke, before snapping herself out of the stupor she had fallen into. She did this by turning the tables, of course.

“So what about you?”

“What about me?” replied Rob, suddenly surprised by the sound of her voice, as though he’d almost fallen asleep at the table.

“Any embarrassing break-up stories?”

Rob pondered, at first unsure if she was trying to get back at him for scraping through her own emotional garbage, or whether she was actually interested. And if so, why? Surely his experiences would pale in comparison. After all, he hadn’t lost his virginity until he was eighteen, by which time Katy would have been celebrating Jodie’s tenth birthday.

‘
Yeah
,’ he thought, ‘
that’s a bit of a head fuck!’

However, at the risk of trying to keep Katy’s interest in him alive past at least the main course, Rob went for his most recent romantic entanglement.

“Okay, there was this one girl. Jane. She and I had been going out for a year and then, one day, I’m walking through the shopping center and I’m just about to get into the elevator when the doors open and there she stands, making out with my cousin Nick.”

At first, Katy said nothing. She didn’t even give Rob the satisfaction of a facial reaction.

Rob, sensing that this could go any which way, didn’t react either. He picked up a bread stick and started to nibble. Then Katy laughed, saying,

“Keeping it in the family?”

Phew! Rob laughed as well, the pressure off now, and he continued enthusiastically, between mouthfuls of crispy bread.

“No shit. It was ugly. They moved to London together. The last I heard, he sells cars.”

Katy laughed again.

“God, did you love her?”

“I thought I did. At the time it felt like heartbreak, but whoever knows these things?”

“When was this?”

“Eighteen months ago”

“Not that you’re counting or anything?”

“Okay, I’ll admit it, I still think about her from time to time.”

“What do you think about?”

“What would be the best car to run her over with?”

“No fond memories, then?”

“It’s funny, isn’t it? You spend so much time with someone and what do you remember?

The little things. The quirks. It’s always little moments that linger. You know what I mean? Those small moments that seem insignificant at the time, but somehow, they stick in your memory.”

Katy said nothing, her head now resting on her hands, as she listened tentatively to what Rob was saying. Rob, of course, took this as a sign that she didn’t quite understand what he meant, and added,

“Or maybe I’m just being stupid. What I meant to say was she had a nice rack.”

They shared a laugh, but it was brief, as Katy gave him a re-assuring shake of the head and leaned forward, speaking in almost a whisper.

“You know what? I think that if we have anything worth holding onto, then it’s those moments. I don’t think it’s stupid at all. When you look back in fifty years, what are you going to remember? It won’t be minutes or hours, but those little moments and the people who were there.”

“Or not there?” added Rob, trying to hint at an emotional maturity that even he didn’t think existed. Katy narrowed her eyes at him, almost in a grimace. Rob copied her and nodded his head in agreement, saying

“We went a little deep there didn’t we?”

Katy smiled, changing subject rapidly, with

“Give me your wallet.”

Rob, confused, tilted his head.

“What? Why?”

“Because you can tell a lot about a person from the contents of his wallet. You can look in my purse.”

Katy flung her purse at Rob, who caught it in mid-air, dropping his breadstick on the floor in surprise. He still didn’t quite know what Katy meant, but went along with her regardless, rummaging in his coat pocket and handing her his wallet.

They both took a look.

In fact, Katy literally dumped the contents of Rob’s wallet onto the table in front of her, while Rob merely fingered through the wasteland of paper in her purse. Katy was intrigued, maybe even a little relieved to find there were no condoms to be found.

Instead she found herself looking at a couple of credit cards, a gym membership card and at least ten cinema tickets.

“You have a lot of movie tickets in here.”

Rob nodded, too engrossed in the contents of Katy’s purse to look up.

“And you seem to be storing up your receipts for a rainy day. Scared of the tax man or something?”

“Better safe than sorry. I like to know I can return things if I don’t like them.”

Rob held up one receipt in particular.

“This one is dated for three years ago, I think that ship has sailed.”

Katy made a face, indicating a silent laugh, before asking,

“So, the movie tickets?”

“I’ve only lived here a few months. It kills boredom when you don’t have any friends.”

Katy’s bottom lip started to quiver, as she tried to hold back a laugh. Rob looked at her, quizzically.

“What?”

Katy then replied with a half mock, half serious,

“Oh, you’re going to make me cry. I’ll go with you.”

Rob smiled, getting it.

“You will?”

“Well, if you want me to.”

“Sure,” he nodded, before adding, “of course.”

They both shared a warm smile with one and other and, for the first time that night, looked each other directly in the eye. If either of them had known that at that moment, they were both thinking the same thing: I want to kiss your face off, then maybe they wouldn’t have made it to the main course.

However, the shyness factor was still in play and Rob, sensing that perhaps their silence was about to lead into another awkward moment of honesty, held up a small passport sized photo that he had plucked from Katy’s purse.

“Who’s the guy in this photo?”

Katy looked at the photo and instantly started to chuckle. Rob laughed a little too, not knowing why, but feeling he should play along.

“What? What are we laughing at?”

Katy shook her head, replying,

“That’s me.”

Rob squinted at the photo.

“In 1995,” she continued.

Rob’s face dropped and he took another look at the photo, before holding it up to Katy’s face, trying to make a comparison. Katy continued to laugh and added

“It’s the hair.”

The heavens had opened up by the time Rob and Katy left the restaurant. The plan had been to take a walk along the beach, let their dinner settle and then head back up into town and maybe hit a bar or two.

However, it only took about twenty seconds for that idea to go out the window, as Rob and Katy tried to negotiate the walk from the restaurant’s entrance, to across the road, before realizing that perhaps they had underestimated the force and persistence of the weather.

This might have been due to the rumble of thunder in the air, but more likely was the fact that they both now resembled victims of a shipwreck: Rob’s suit losing its shape and form under the weight of the water, his shirt clinging to his chest for dear life, while any work Katy may have put into her hair or make up had vanished, along with the neck line of her top, which was starting to reveal more than even Rob may have been expecting that night.

They had to make a decision quickly, as they were in very real danger of drowning. Rob draped his arm around Katy and directed her towards a nearby doorway, where they found shelter. They were both out of breath and soaked to the bone. There was heat in the air, steam coming up from the ground, causing both of them to sweat as they tried to shake off some of the rain.

“Jesus, it’s really coming down out here,” said Rob, before bringing his face up to meet Katy’s. Katy was embarrassed by her own appearance, but couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I’m a mess.”

Rob looked at Katy for a few seconds. Maybe it was the heat in the air, maybe it was the fact that he found Katy even more attractive soaking wet than sitting dry and comfortable in the restaurant; or maybe it was that he found the idea that she was embarrassed, to be seen this way by him, cute. Whatever it was, something inside Rob’s head clicked and he stepped forward, so that Katy had no option but to face him. He brought his face down to hers and whispered,

“I think you look great.”

He leaned in and kissed her. Katy, a little surprised at first, slowly gave in and kissed him back. Rob brought his hands up to her face, placing them on each cheek as he continued to kiss her, every second becoming more intense - more passionate. The rain continued to pour down, but neither of them would have noticed by now, as they stood there in that darkened doorway, arms staring to move around one and other.