Somewhere Only We Know (8 page)

"Fine." He kicked off from the ground and started swinging again. "So…?"

Nadia looked down at him and laughed. "That's pathetic. Higher!" she ordered. Alex sighed again and pulled the swing chains backwards in order to push on higher. Although he was still nowhere near Nadia's dizzying heights, she seemed to appreciate his effort and take pity on him.

Nadia

"I'm going to help you – sort of like a life guru," she told him, matter-of-factly.

After a moment's pause, Alex spat out a laugh; whatever he'd been expecting her to say, it clearly wasn't that.

"No, I'm serious!" Nadia insisted.

"I bet you are!" Alex laughed. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"No, really. Once, Caro had me make all of her decisions for a month, just to test it out. We saw it on an episode of 'Friends'."

"You want to make all my decisions for me?" Alex asked her, clearly amused. "How will that work?"

"No, in this instance I'm just going to force you to live a little. Try new things, have new experiences, meet new people."

"Well, you're off to a good start; I've hit all three since the moment I met you," Alex muttered. He didn't even seem to notice that he was swinging higher than he ever had before, which Nadia decided to take as a good sign.

"I just think you need showing that the world outside is much bigger than the world inside your PlayStation," she insisted.

Alex scoffed. "Coming from someone who has clearly never played Skyrim."

"You're really just emphasising my point, you know."

"Okay, so, what is it you are really suggesting?" Alex asked scathingly. "You're going to take me on a tour of all the playgrounds of London? Let me sample the great swings of the capital? Expand my park horizons?"

"Okay, forget it!" Nadia sighed. Even she wasn't all that sure what she was getting at any more. She just felt sorry for this guy; the word “lonely” always made her feel so desperately sad. And it wasn't that she hadn't enjoyed spending time with Alex that evening, but the idea that this was likely to be the highlight of his social calendar was a little heart-breaking.

“Sorry,” Alex apologised, obviously realising he was being a little ungracious.

Nadia laughed. “You’re so British. Apologising all the time.” She looked across at him; his body moved in and out of her peripherals as she continued to swing. “I love this city,” she found herself telling the darkening sky. “You should make the most of it.” Alex didn’t respond, so Nadia continued. “I’ve been thinking, recently, that I should probably be hedging my bets a bit.”

“Hedging what bets?”

“You know. In case I… can’t stay.” She always used phrases like “can’t stay” rather than “have to leave”; they seemed less aggressive.

“Ah, Nadia,” Alex said awkwardly.

She continued before he could say anything pitiful. “I just mean that I should be making memories. Reliving old ones. Whilst I still have the time. I’ve got a list on my phone of all my favourite things I need to make sure I do one last time and all the things I never got round to doing.” She turned to face him, her swinging slowing, losing her height. “You always think you have enough time. But you don’t,” she told Alex, willing him to understand what she was trying to get across without having to resort to that old favourite: ‘life’s too short’.

Alex regarded her solemnly and she saw that he got what she was driving at. Even in the darkness of the dusk his eyes were expressive, straight and frank as they looked into hers. Nadia remembered how she’d told Holly how much she liked Alex’s eyes.

The first slightly cool breeze that London had felt in three weeks rose up and teased past her. Nadia closed her eyes and tilted her face into it. Maybe the heatwave was finally breaking. Please don’t let this be my final summer here, she begged the universe. Please, please.

“So what I think we have here is your basic two birds, one stone deal,” Alex said suddenly, startling her out of her reverie.

“Huh?” Nadia turned round to Alex again; the wind had whispered away and the heat of the evening pressed down on them again as if it had never happened.

“Well, if you let me piggyback on some of this list of yours,” he said, “I’m living a little, like you suggest, and having new experiences and you are…” he trailed off.

Nadia smiled, “Having old experiences?”

“Something like that. I mean, you don’t have to have me tag along to absolutely everything, or anything you’d rather not,” Alex clarified hurriedly. “But, you know, if you’re short on company for something in particular that you want to do… you can just send me a message. I’m usually free!” he laughed depreciatingly at himself. She liked that about him.

“Okay. Sure.” Possible entries on her “to do” list were already presenting themselves in her mind. Did Alex like Mexican food, she wondered? If not, there was always Bodeans. “How about Thursday evening?”

Alex baulked slightly. “Thursday?” he repeated, as if he hadn’t actually been expecting her to take him up on the idea after all.

Nadia smiled all the more widely. “Thursday. How do you feel about doing a Mexican eating challenge where the food is so spicy I fully believe the restaurant when they claim it has hospitalised some people?”

Alex theatrically gulped. “Not wonderfully, if I’m honest.”

“Then how about a rack of ribs so large, my friend Ledge theorises they come from a dinosaur?”

“Oh, the dinosaur ribs, definitely. They sound yummy.”

Nadia laughed, finally starting to come to a stop, dragging the side of her wedges through the wood chip below the swing set. There was a low burn in her biceps from pushing against the chains and when she stood up from the rubber seat, her legs felt a little weak and peculiar. She reached for her handbag and pulled out her mobile phone from the front pocket.

“Here,” she said, holding it out to Alex, who slowed to a stop himself, looking up at her. “Put your number in my phone.”

“Okay.” Alex took it and tapped in his eleven-digit mobile number carefully before handing it back. Nadia saved the number.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said, already retreating backwards, already losing confidence. “I have just totally hijacked you and forced you to—“

“I told you already tonight, you apologise too much,” Nadia said, sliding her phone back into her bag. “I will meet you at seven on Thursday, outside Clapham Common Tube station. But for now, I’d better get off home.”

“Okay,” Alex said, uncertainly, as he too got to his feet. “At seven on Thursday.” He smiled at her. “Thank you for the drink. And for bringing swinging back into my life. And for the life-coaching session, or whatever the hell that was.”

Nadia laughed. “You’re welcome! To be continued on Thursday.”

Chapter 5

Alex

He’d spent most of the week thinking it was all some sort of elaborate joke that he wasn’t quite getting. He fully expected she’d cancel or, worse, he’d be stood up, left standing hopefully underneath the clock by Clapham Common Tube station like so many other losers before him. He’d gone to text her on Monday night (after deciding to plump for a McDonalds over the promised filthy kebab) before realising that he had never actually got her mobile number in return for his. And – let's be honest - a Facebook message just to tell someone about a burger seemed creepy…

Alex arrived at the station at an embarrassingly early seventeen minutes to seven. In an attempt to kill time he queued up at an ATM for cash he didn’t need before slipping into Starbucks for a drink he didn’t want – different barista, equally surly – and picked Nadia up a Lime Refresher whilst he was at it (despite the fact that this would just make him feel even more stupid if she didn’t turn up). When he saw her appear from the Underground, blinking as her eyes acclimatised to the bright sunshine, the relief was a tangible rush. She clocked him almost immediately and her face broke out into a genuine smile as she made her way over to him.

“Are you, by any chance, in need of refreshment?” Alex asked, holding the transparent plastic cup out to Nadia as she reached him. She gave a startled laugh.

“Oh, my God! Thank you,” she said as she took it. “None for you?” she asked teasingly as she noticed the hot drink takeaway cup in Alex’s other hand.

“I think I’ll stick to the natural energy boost that is a double shot of espresso,” he told her with a wry smile, tilting his coffee towards her in a salute.

“Fair enough! So, are you hungry?"

“I’m ravenous,” he answered her.

“Really? That’s good.”

“I actively did not each lunch today in preparation for this,” he admitted. “These ribs had better be as colossal as you led me to believe.”

“Oh, they are!” Nadia assured him, dipping her head towards the nearby pelican crossing to indicate that they needed to cross the road. “I swear, you imbibe calories just by breathing the air in this place.”

“Goodie!” Alex hurried to keep up as Nadia set off purposefully. “So did you skip lunch too?”

“Me? No! I’m probably just going to have a salad or a jacket potato!” she waved him off.

Alex snorted as he hurried to keep up. “Like hell you are!”

Nadia

Nadia knew her hair always smelt like barbecue sauce after a meal in this particular place, but couldn’t quite bring herself to care. Alex’s expression as he watched the waiter bring a plate – or, rather, a tray – of the so-called Jacob’s Ladder ribs to a nearby table was too priceless.

“You weren’t kidding,” he told her, unable to take his eyes off the food. “Seriously! What animal
is
that?”

Nadia shrugged. “We always thought that as it actively doesn’t specify on the menu, we probably didn’t want to know.”

“I think it’s a bit rude to eat an animal and not even know what it is. I might have to ask.”

Nadia jokingly clapped her hands over her ears. “If you do, don’t tell me!”

“It’s probably buffalo or something…” Alex continued, teasingly. Nadia squealed in protest. “A buffalo that’s been fed steroids all its life…”

“Can I get you guys some drinks to start with?” the waitress interrupted, with superb timing.

“He’ll have a Cowboy Martini,” Nadia interjected, just as Alex opened his mouth, presumably to order something less vodka-based. He frowned at her.

“What’s that?”

“Obligatory,” Nadia answered, airily.

“Fine then. Same for the lady, then,” he told the waitress. “And the drinks are my treat,” he said quickly, cutting Nadia off as she opened her mouth to argue. She didn’t want him thinking this was a date, but then again, she was spending pretty much her entire week’s food budget to eat out tonight.

“Two Cowboy Martinis,” the waitress repeated, scribbling something intelligible on her dog-eared notepad. “Are you ready to order food?”

“Yeah, I think I am going to go for the Jacob’s Ladder ribs,” Alex said.

“Yes, I heard,” said the waitress, arching her eyebrow. “And, by the way, it’s just bog-standard beef. Nothing exotic. And no steroids.”

Alex eyed the mountain of ribs that the people on the nearby table were barely managing to make a dent in. “No kidding.”

“Okay, a full rack of the Jacob’s Ladder ribs, then, please, with the standard sides,” Nadia ordered with a smile.

“Each?” asked the waitress, her pen poised over the paper. Alex snorted.

“I think we’re okay to share,” Nadia laughed.

“Ease me in gently, and all that,” Alex informed the waitress solemnly.

“You’d better prep the doggy bag,” Nadia said in a stage whisper.

“Two Cowboy Martinis, one Jacob’s Ladder to share,” the waitress ignored them, good-naturedly, slipping her pen into her apron pocket. “Your drinks will be over in a few minutes, guys, okay?”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever had my entire restaurant order done for me,” Alex said, leaning over the table, closer to Nadia, as the waitress moved on. “Is this your idea of me living my own life? Not even getting a choice of food?”

Nadia crinkled her nose in response to his teasing. “Tonight isn’t about the living-your-own-life thingy. Tonight is about a new experience.”

Alex arched his eyebrow as he slid the laminated drinks menu back into its slot in the condiment holder, out of their way.

“Beef for dinner,” he said, in a serious tone. “It’s a brave new world…” Nadia laughed.

It was funny. She’d almost texted him to cancel yesterday. In the cold light of day – without swings and sunsets and Starbucks making things seem special – it was a bit of a mad idea. She was all for spontaneity usually, but this was a little over the top, even for her. She had enough on her plate at the moment, so she wasn’t quite sure why she seemed to be trying to adopt a socially inept twenty-something stranger. Besides, Matt had texted her a careful three days after date number one, to arrange date number two, with Thursday as one of the evenings he was free. She could have taken him to Bodeans after all.

But this wasn’t really a date place; this was a friend place. It smelt like meat and vinegar, had ugly orange lighting and the leather of the booths was scratched and faded pale where thousands of arses had rubbed before hers. Alex seemed to have noticed the shabby state of the booths, too, and rubbed his palm over the seat.

“Okay, so we know the meat isn’t anything exotic… but what do you think the leather is? Moose hide?” Alex clamped his mouth shut guiltily as the smirking waitress returned to their table holding a Martini glass in each hand, the rims dusted in fat white crystals of sugar. Nadia didn’t even wait for the drink to be put down on the table; she took it straight from the waitress as she thanked her. She bloody loved these cocktails.

Alex looked a little more dubious. “Okay, so this is what, now?”

“A Martini. Muddled with mint leaves. So, I guess it’s sort of a cross between a Martini and a Mojito.”

“Okay. And what exactly makes a cross between a Martini and a Mojito Cowboy-y?”

Nadia shrugged, taking a generous sip of the sharp liquid. “What exactly are you looking for here, spurs on the glass stem? Just drink it.”

Alex laughed and took a small gulp. “Hmmm.” He swallowed and exaggeratedly pretended to consider the taste. “Not bad, actually. Still, I could do without the girly glass.” He gently flicked the slender stem of the Martini glass with the back of his finger.