The Way It Never Was by Lucy Austin Read Free Book Online

for now, it’ll have to do.
     

 
    CHAPTER 5 - DATE NIGHT
     
    ‘Darling, why on earth are you here now? Don’t you know it’s terribly naff to be on time,’ moans Anna, offering her cheek and taking a bottle of five quid wine off me.
    ‘Sorry,’ I say, taking off my coat and following my friend down the corridor, thinking that Anna’s got some cheek for telling me off for being on time when her own time keeping is notorious – she just doesn’t do it full stop. When she promises a time it is always half an hour later, and even then I’m hanging around in a newsagents reading magazines for a good twenty minutes after that. Added to which, she’s always armed with excuses but rather irritatingly, never an apology, forcing me to always have a back up plan just in case she changes stuff at the last minute. ‘I’ve been hanging around a bit today. Let’s just say, it wasn’t a normal nine-to-five day.’
    Just as I’m about to elaborate, she looks at me with a slightly impatient expression on her pretty face. ‘I live my life avoiding nine-to-five days actually,’ she says. ‘You know me, always buck convention.’ I automatically roll my eyes as soon as her back is turned. I hate it when Anna tells me she is programmed differently from the rest of the working world, as though it is an affliction and not something that she has any say in. Like when people tell you they’re eccentric when in truth, truly eccentric people don’t notice they are. ‘Since you’re early, you can help me cook,’ she says, as I follow her into a tiny little kitchen that is a hive of boiling activity.
    ‘Tell me,’ I venture, trying hard not to pull a face as I stare suspiciously into a saucepan of heavily boiling gruel. ‘What’s cooking?’
    Anna takes the lid off the steaming pot and then pokes a wooden spoon into the goo, before shoving it in my face to taste. ‘Italian Three-Bean Chilli,’ she sings with an accent as though she were Antonio Carluccio.
    ‘Yum!’ I exclaim, not meaning it at all and get on with the task of chopping up some iceberg lettuce.
    Seriously, have I really stayed on in London after the most soul-destroying day being pulled apart by recruitment consultants, for slop with twenty different pulses?
    ‘How many of us tonight?’ I ask, all of a sudden suspicious about the dinner party format.
    ‘Four,’ she replies, winking at me. And then the penny drops. Oh dear lord, she’s not organised a blind date today of all days? If there is one thing I hate doing on a Monday evening, it’s going on a blind date. It is on a par with meeting up for a Sunday afternoon walk in the park and then wondering why sparks don’t fly. Aside from Valentines Day, attempting to generate romance on a Monday is just totally unacceptable. I need a drink fast.
    ‘Anna, please say you’ve not set me up. I’m not in the mood. Seriously, I’ve quit my job and have been in and out of agencies all day,’ I sigh.
    Anna stops and looks at me. ‘Seriously? Please say you didn’t just say that. And just when I’m about to introduce you to a nice man!’ she says, stirring her one-pot wonder. ‘Out of work! You kept that quiet over the phone. Oh well, with any luck you’ll have a new one by the time date number two arrives. Admin jobs are ten a penny.’ She sounds so confident that I’m going to like him and unless I’m being completely paranoid, she almost makes it sound compulsory that I will see him again. Bossy pants . ‘Anyhow, we have five minutes before he arrives. So tell me, aside from your job debacle, what’s new?’ Anna switches into perky mode and for a brief minute, I’m feeling giddy with anticipation that she might be really going to ask me about me. ‘Seriously though, what are we going to do with you?’ she says, ruffling my hair.
    ‘Can I just say in my defence, you are not getting me at my best.’ I reply, smoothing my hair down and feeling ever so slightly annoyed as I’m wearing a