Page 25 of The Wedding Proposal
Oscar wasn’t to be so easily put off. ‘I am in no hurry. I will come and hold your basket.’
Hiding growing irritation, Elle looked up at him coolly. ‘Some things, a woman prefers to buy alone.’
‘Ah.’ Oscar looked satisfactorily nonplussed.
‘See you some other time.’ Maybe it would have put him off more permanently if she’d let him accompany her while she stocked up on tampons, but Elle was happy just to skip into the shop and take her time over studying available brands of shampoo and conditioner.
When she emerged once more into the brightness of the afternoon the street was empty and quiet, as if the beating sun had sent everybody indoors. Elle was glad of her hat and paused in the shade of the shop’s awning to search out her sunglasses, then stepped back onto the pavement and turned towards the marina.
Like an annoying stray, Oscar emerged from a shady doorway. ‘I will carry that for you.’ He whisked the bag out of her hand. His head was bare even in the afternoon sun, and his sandy hair lifted in the slight breeze.
‘There’s no need—!’ But seeing the futility of attempting to reason with him Elle reluctantly turned for home, having little choice but to listen as Oscar went on about his previous voluntary posts in Morocco and Thailand. She felt like a cat that was having its fur brushed the wrong way. No matter how short her replies, Oscar seemed to have no compunction in pushing his presence upon her. Counting silently to ten, Elle reminded herself that Oscar was a fellow volunteer and they might have to work together for months. In the interests of harmony she should maintain at least neutral relations, even if he did seem too thick-skinned to realise when a girl wasn’t into him.
As they came to Triq Manoel de Vilhena, the street that came out almost opposite the bridge, Elle made to retrieve her shopping with a cursory, ‘Thanks.’
Oscar retained possession by the simple expedient of hoisting the bag out of her reach. ‘It is a good gentleman who carries shopping for a lady. To her door.’ And stood on the kerb to await a break in the swarming traffic. The heat certainly wasn’t keeping car drivers at home. Maybe they all had air conditioning.
‘So, you have been fiddling with the machines.’ He said it as if Elle was a child who had done something wrong.
She glanced up into his red, shiny face. Perspiration was dampening his hair and running down his temples. ‘Formatting them, you mean?’
He laughed. ‘Why, yes!’ He laughed again. ‘But we all use the computers. Perhaps you should have spoken to us before making changes. We might have wanted the opportunity to change things ourselves.’
‘I’m doing what I’m here to do.’ But Elle pricked up her ears, interested in what lay behind his overly casual manner. The traffic thinned enough for them to cross the road, dodging the cars that whizzed on and off the forecourt of the garage near the kiosk.
‘What has happened, then, to our files and folders?’
‘I saved them onto the external hard drive and I password protected a folder that contained images unsuitable for children.’ They were making their way along the pathways that threaded through the gardens, now, where there were patches of dappled shade. Elle could see Lucas standing on the bathing platform of the Shady Lady, his head turned in her direction as she approached.
Oscar made a pshaw noise. ‘Where males are you’ll find these things. It is normal.’
She halted. Her stomach contracted. If it wasn’t some naughty adolescent who had downloaded the porn she’d found that morning, that put things in quite a different light. ‘What if a child had opened that folder? It didn’t even have a password. I’m not up on Maltese law but I’m pretty sure that storing explicit images on machines used daily by children must contravene it. Just in case common sense and decency doesn’t prevent adults from downloading stuff like that.’
Again with the pshaw, but louder. ‘We are human.’
They were back in the full sunlight of the marina access road, almost at the Shady Lady, now. Lucas, unmoving, still watched.
‘It’s irresponsible,’ she maintained. She was relieved to reach the boat, even glad to see Lucas. If Oscar had been making her uneasy before, he was positively making her skin crawl now. ‘My shopping, please.’
Immediately, Oscar swung it out of her reach again, with that maddeningly wide grin. ‘But I am being a gentleman. And soon, perhaps, you will be a lady and provide me with a nice cool drink to say thank you. That will be kind.’
‘You OK, Elle?’ asked Lucas, his voice cutting through the heavy afternoon air.
Oscar lowered the bag, glancing at Lucas as if suddenly putting two and two together. ‘This is where you live?’ He looked at the boat.
‘Yes.’ She pulled at her bag, but he kept a firm grip on it.
‘Who is this man? You have a boyfriend?’ His tone was accusing, as if she had no business having a boyfriend.
‘We live together,’ she snapped.
Lucas’s eyebrows lifted a fraction.
‘So.’ Oscar nodded slowly. For the first time that afternoon, he didn’t smile. ‘So you have a boyfriend.’ He let the plastic carrier bag untwist from his fingers.
Elle snatched back her shopping and when Lucas held out a hand to steady her aboard the boat she grabbed it thankfully, welcoming the show of solidarity. She didn’t resist when Lucas pulled her in to his side. It felt safe.
Slowly, Oscar began to back away. ‘I will see you soon, Elle. At the centre.’
