The Importance of Being a Bachelor by Mike Gayle Read Free Book Online Page B

that—’
    ‘Go on,’ he interrupted, flashing her his best smile. ‘You know you want to. One coffee, maybe a small pastry and then I promise that you can get on your merry way. In fact you won’t even have to talk to me. If I get boring you can just whip out your newspaper and I won’t complain. Go on, what do you say?’
    ‘You’re not going to take no for an answer are you?’
    Adam grinned and shook his head. She was putty in his hands.
    ‘Fine,’ she relented. ‘Let’s go for a coffee. But I really can’t be too long.’

‘One day it really will be all right.’
    As Adam was going for coffee with Steph, Luke was lying in bed eyeing the remains of a long-digested coffee and croissant breakfast as he dozed in Cassie‘s arms.
    ‘We should get up and do something,’ said Cassie, yawning. ‘At this rate the whole day will be over before we’ve got out of bed.’
    ‘I know,’ said Luke, ‘but it’s so nice and we’ve both had pretty manic weeks so can’t we stay here a little longer and just be?’
    ‘You’d love that, wouldn’t you? If it was up to you we’d spend all day in bed.’
    ‘And all night and the day after too.’
    Cassie’s smile faded as though something serious had come to mind. ‘I know this isn’t really the time or the place . . . but are you going to tell Jayne about our plans to get married?’
    Luke sighed and sat up. Was it really impossible for women to be happy about anything for more than ten minutes at a time? Would their lives fall apart if they weren’t in constant search of the next obstacle? ‘She wouldn’t want to know,’ he said briskly. ‘I doubt that she would care one way or the other. She’s probably remarried herself for all I know.’
    ‘And what about Megan?’
    ‘What about Megan?’
    ‘Surely she deserves to know that her dad’s getting married again?’
    ‘Of course. Don’t you think I’d be with her right now telling her to her face if I could?’ Luke put his head in his hands and Cassie leaned across and kissed his temple.
    ‘It’ll be all right,’ she said. ‘One day it really will be all right.’
    The story of Luke and Jayne was a depressingly familiar one, or at least that’s what Luke’s solicitor told him when they initially tried to find a way for Luke to gain access to his daughter. Whenever Luke looked back at that first meeting with Jayne he was struck by how random life was. Everything would have been completely different had he not bothered going down early to his housemate’s get-together at the Crown and Garter in Ealing and instead spent, as he had intended, the better part of the evening at home cramming for his Master’s in construction management. Jayne, it turned out, had planned to leave his housemate’s celebration at just after nine. Luke hadn’t planned to get there until well after ten. If they had both stuck to their plans then their future might never have happened. Maybe Jayne would have got together with one of Luke’s other housemates or maybe Luke would have asked out the girl at work with whom he had been sharing awkward smiles in the lifts for weeks. Still, just after eight as Jayne was fending off the advances of one of Luke’s mates Luke walked into the pub, bought a drink, found his friends and casual introductions were made. Luke grabbed a spare stool and placed it in the only space available left: next to Jayne.
    Given the significant odds against it, maybe there had been something inevitable about their meeting. Luke didn’t believe in stars or destiny or any of that mumbo-jumbo but he couldn’t help believing that the two of them had been deliberately brought together because the moment he sat down next to her he felt as though a piece of himself that he’d never even known was missing had clicked into place. How was it possible to have so much in common with a random stranger? Was it an accident? Was it fate? Luke didn’t know but Jayne obviously felt the same because the moment