James nodded and told her how much it came to, and she paid him, her fingers brushing his. Did she feel something? Warmth, connection, electricity? Did he?
‘I’ll bring it over,’ he said.
Anna took a seat and messaged Nia again.
He looks a bit like Peter Andre. I didn’t notice that last time.
Maybe you could be his mysterious girl.
Anna smiled and turned her phone over. She had sat down at a table for two in the window, and she watched people going past. Jogging, walking dogs, hurrying to appointments. It was almost summer, and she was her own boss, setting her own hours, and it felt good. She allowed herself to remember thedate she’d gone on with James, when she’d not long finished university and felt like life was all still ahead of her. When he hadn’t called the next day, or the next week, or ever, it had stung. It had stung more than it should have done, and until she’d married Edward, and sometimes after, if she was honest, she’d looked for him in crowds, on the street. Wondered about him. Where he was, who he was with. Why he hadn’t wanted to see her again.
The café started to empty out. By the time James brought Anna’s order over, there was no queue and only a couple of other tables were occupied.
‘Here you go,’ he said, putting her cup and plate down on the table a little too hard. He smiled, didn’t step away when she expected him to. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I’m sorry, I was frantic before, but you seem really familiar. Have we met?’
What to tell him? If she told him the truth, would it be embarrassing that she had remembered and he hadn’t? She decided she didn’t care.
‘It’s James, isn’t it?’ she asked.
‘I go by Jamie now.’
‘Okay, Jamie.’ She tried to make the adjustment in her brain. ‘I’m Anna. I think we went on a date a really long time ago.’
He reddened slightly and put one hand to his mouth. ‘Anna! I’m so sorry. I remember now. The bus, the Thames, dinner.’
Kissing, Anna thought.There was kissing, too.
‘How are you?’ he asked.
How did you sum up more than two decades of life in a brief conversation?
‘I’m really well,’ she said. ‘I have a little business, publicity for publishing companies. I have two teenage sons.’
She stopped, feeling foolish. Had he wanted to know thesethings? Had it sounded like she was trying to show off about what she had?
‘That’s great, Anna,’ he said.
‘And you? You were in finance, weren’t you? This is quite a change.’
‘It’s what I always wanted to do. And last year, I thought, fuck it, it’s now or never. I made enough money over the years that I have a bit of a cushion. But this, this is great. I get to talk to people, make people food; it’s so much better.’
Anna nodded, and then there was a pause, and she felt awkward, felt sure he would say goodbye and go back to his place behind the counter.
‘I lost your number,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘I lost your number. I didn’t deliberately not call. I was desperate to call, in fact. I looked for it everywhere. But it must have been in my pocket and gone through the wash or something. I’m sorry.’
Anna shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter now,’ she said.
But what if it did? What if her whole life might have been different? And his?
‘Can I take it again now?’ he asked.
She looked up at him, puzzled.
‘Your number. I mean, I know it’s probably not the same one. But maybe I could take you out again. I mean, if you’re single? If you’d like to?’
