‘What do you want to know?’ she asked shyly, pushing her glasses up her nose.
‘Everything… where you grew up… where you live… your friends… the whole nine yards.’
Mallory took a deep breath. ‘Well… I’m twenty-seven, I live a short drive away from Leeds in a little railway cottage. I have a little Patterdale terrier called Ruby… she usually comes to work with me, but Josie, that’s my best friend, has taken her today. She “borrows” her sometimes.’ She smiled at how silly that must have sounded. ‘I’ve always lived here in Yorkshire. I’ve never lived abroad or been to Canada. I’ve been to Spain a few times with my mum and dad…’ She trailed off, realising she was waffling a little.
‘So, what about your shop? What do you sell?’ Sam enquired.
‘Local crafts mainly. Gifts and cards, things like that. I make little hanging signs and sell those in the shop too. My Aunt Sylvia insisted I open it. She left me the money to set up when she died, bless her.’
‘Sounds like an amazing woman.’ Sam offered.
‘Hmm, she was. Very opinionated and sometimes irritating as hell but lovely all the same.’
She continued to tell him enthusiastically about her shop and the different crafts people she had met and all the while his gaze remained fixed on her as she talked. Every so often, when she made eye contact with him, her heart fluttered with the excitement of what may lie ahead for her with this incredibly handsome, funny man.
*
Sam smiled and listened intently. He found her quite beautiful. Her long wavy hair fell in chocolate tendrils around her shoulders, where it had escaped the grasp of the claw pinning the rest of it in a loose pile atop her head.
He discretely ran his eyes over her body. Her curves were accentuated by the fitted skirt and top she wore, giving her a timeless Marilyn Monroe-esque appearance. Every so often she would push her spectacles up her nose, even when there was no need to do so. He thought that was really cute. Her bright blue eyes sparkled and he couldn’t help but smile at the way she waved her arms around as she spoke; so expressive. She was clearly a nervous talker and he felt the urge to stop her mouth with his. Not because she was boring; no she wasanythingbut boring. He just wanted to kiss her. It took all the will he had not to just do it.
*
At the end of their conversation they stood outside the window of the coffee shop in the chilled December early afternoon. Mallory felt sure she had bamboozled him with her non-stop jabbering and her life history.Good job, he’s way out of my league really,she thought to herself.At least I won’t see him again to remind him what a clumsy, chatterbox I am.Hmm, there was that low self-esteem rearing its ugly head again. She had always felt herself unattractive and had pretty much given up on the yo-yo dieting. After all, she was single and busy withLe Petit Cadeau,so it didn’t really matter that she had crept up three dress sizes since her youth.
Expecting this to be the startandend of a beautiful friendship, she held out her hand. ‘It was very nice to meet you, Sam with theCanadianaccent.’ She smiled. ‘Thank you for rescuing my face from a date with a concrete pavement.’
‘You’re very welcome.’ He let out a long breath, but didn’t move. He wasn’t making a run for it. ‘It would’ve been such a shame to spoil such a pretty face with a bashed-up nose and cracked teeth.’
Mallory chuckled as she saw him outwardly cringe as the words escaped his shapely lips. ‘Thank you… Ithink.Well, better get on. Bye then.’
‘Wait. Why do you sound as if I’ll never see you again?’ He looked sad. ‘Is that it? Is this the end? How could you? After all I’ve done for you?’ He held his knuckles to his teeth and bit down in mock, melodramatic actor mode. The back of his other hand pressed to his forehead.
This guy was funny. She found herself allowing a small hope to shine through, that this was not the end. Perhaps hedidwant to see her again.
*
Later that night she sat, snuggled up on the sofa with Ruby, watching a re-run ofFriends. It was the one where Brad Pitt’s formerly overweight character, Will, is invited for Thanksgiving.
She was just munching through another carb-laden mouthful of cereal when the phone rang. Her heart leapt.Surely he wouldn’t be ringing so soon?She and the rather yummy Sam Buchanan had exchanged phone numbers at the end of their coffee shop chat and she had almost skipped back to the shop, avoiding all the cracks in the pavement this time around. Although secretly she thanked her ridiculous choice in footwear on that winter’s day, considering without it she may never have met Sam.
‘H-hello?’ she stammered hopefully, into the receiver.
‘Hi ya, chick! Are you okay? You sound a bit odd.’ Perceptive as ever, Josie, who had been her best friend since school, wasn’t known for beating around the bush. They had been friends through thick and thin. Thethickbeing boyfriends, who Mallory regrettably discovered were either too self-absorbed or more interested with cars and staring at other women’s boobs. Thethin,on the ground patches, where loneliness and reluctant celibacy seemed to be the way of life thrust upon her. Josie was her touchstone, her voice of reason and in addition to this she was Mallory’s one and only trusted employee, working slightly more than part time to give Mallory the opportunity to be creative. She was glad to have the opportunity to spill the beans on the potential new guy in her life.
‘Oooh Mally, he sounds dreamy.’ Josie swooned after Mallory had imparted every last detail she could remember – and there were many.
Josie had been with her boyfriend Brad since high school. They had been childhood sweethearts and neither had any intentions of ever being with anyone else. They hadn’t gotten around to the whole wedding thing yet but it would happen eventually, Mallory knew it. Still, Josie admitted that she loved to live vicariously through her best friend any time a new man came on the scene - which, unfortunately for Mallory, hadn’t happened much at all in recent years.
‘Did you kiss him? Does he smell good? Is he well off?’ Josie barraged her friend with questions.
‘Good grief, Josie! Talk about theSpanish Inquisition.’ Suddenly the girls cried out in unison in their bestMonty Pythonvoices the oh-so famous line from the oh-so famous Python sketch.
There was a pause and the whirring of their brains was almost audible.
‘Anyway,’ Mallory continued after they had stopped laughing hysterically. ‘I did notice he smelled rather gorgeous when I fell on him. Kind of fresh and Calvin Kleiny? Andno, I didn’t kiss him. What do you take me for, woman?’
‘I take you for a gorgeous girl who hasn’t had sex in almost a year. That’s what. You deserve something good, Mally.’
