‘Not happy about it? Ha, that’s an understatement!’
‘Don’t interrupt,’ Gabe ordered. ‘Let me get this out before I lose my nerve. The reason I was bloody furious about it was because I was . I was ...’
Encouragingly Sally said, ‘Spit it out.’
‘Oh, for crying out loud, it was because I was jealous.’ He threw both hands up in the air. ‘There.
Said it. Now you know.’ Sally stopped dead in her tracks. Surely not, surely not .. . Gabe shrugged. ‘Sorry.’
‘Oh my God. Gabe! That explains so much,’ Sally blurted out. ‘I even guessed! I asked Lola and she said I was wrong, but I knew, right from the word go!’
‘You did?’ It was Gabe’s turn to look stunned.
‘I knew before I even met you.’
‘What?’
‘The whole tidiness thing.’ She was triumphant. ‘Dead giveaway. Keeping everything neat and always nagging me to clear up my stuff. All that hassle about not leaving my plates on the carpet. Forever complaining when I forget to hang up the towels in the bathroom. It’s so obvious.’
‘You really think I’m gay?’
Flummoxed, Sally said, ‘Isn’t that what you’re telling me?’
‘No’ Gabe clutched his head, looking as if he was on the brink of tearing his hair out. His eyes, wide with disbelief, fixed on hers. The next moment he reached out and grabbed her.
Before Sally knew what was happening, she was being kissed. His warm mouth covered hers, her whole body was pressed against Gabe’s, her skin was zinging like sherbet and ... cut.
Just as abruptly as it had begun, the kiss ended. Gabe let her go and she was left standing there like a cartoon character, dazed and panting and with confusion in the form of giant question marks exploding out of her head.
‘I can’t believe you thought I was gay.’ Gabe was breathing, heavily too.
‘But ...’
‘Oh shit, this is all going wrong. I thought I could do it but I can’t.’
Before she could react, he was gone. The door of the flat slammed shut behind him and Sally heard his footsteps clattering down the staircase. She sank down onto the sofa and clutched her hands tightly together to stop them trembling. Her palms were damp too; desperate though she was for a glug of Pernod she knew the glass would slip through her fingers and crash to the floor.
OK, concentrate. Gabe had jumped to the wrong conclusion. And so had she. He wasn’t gay, she was certainly convinced of that now And if he wasn’t jealous at the thought of Nick being involved with someone else, then it stood to reason that he had to be jealous at the thought of her seeing another man...
Shaking now, Sally replayed the incredible thought in her mind. But how could this be happening, exploding like a bomb in front of her with no warning at all?
And why was she feeling, amongst all the confusion and disbelief, as if it was something she’d been longing to happen for months?
But so secretly that she’d barely even acknowledged it, because it was simply the most unlikely scenario on the planet.
Sally wrapped her arms around her waist, rocking back and forth in order to think more clearly.
Had she, deep down, been seriously attracted to Gabe since the first time she’d clapped eyes on him?
Yes.
Had she ever considered doing anything about it? No.
Never.
Because it was like fancying George Clooney from afar. Millions of women did, it was an absolutely harmless pastime. But they also knew that if they happened to bump into George Clooney, the chances were that he probably wouldn’t fancy the pants off them in return and pester them for a date.
And that was pretty much how it felt, inwardly acknowledging that Gabe was gorgeous and funny and pretty damn fanciable – if a bit over-zealous in the tidiness department.
However – and it was a big however – you didn’t expect for a millisecond that anything would ever come of it because you knew so categorically you weren’t Gabe’s type.
Stumbling awkwardly to her feet, Sally headed for the chair over which he’d flung his leather jacket. Her heart flip-flopping like a landed fish, she felt in the inside pocket and pulled out his keys. His wallet and phone were in there too. He wasn’t going to get far without them.
But she couldn’t bear to sit here waiting for Gabe to come back. She had to find him before he had time to change his mind about her. Limping across to the window and flinging it open, Sally leaned out and searched the street below.
It was one thirty in the morning and there was no one inRadley Road. How much of a start had he got on her? Lifting her head, she called out, ‘Gabe,’ as loud as she dared. Then, louder still,
‘Ga-aaaaaabe,’ like a lone wolf howling in the forest.
After a few seconds she heard a window being thrown open somewhere close by and a male voice bellow, ‘Shut the fuck up.’
But it was OK, it didn’t matter, because the voice didn’t belong to Gabe. (That would have spoiled the moment.) Sally reached for her walking stick and hurried out of the flat. Where was Gabe? It was a cold night and all he was wearing was jeans and an old polo shirt. Clunk-step, clunk-step went the stick against the stairs, interspersed with the sound of her rapid breathing.
Then halfway down the staircase she saw the outline of a figure in the shadows, a scruffily dressed figure with messy hair leaning against the far wall of the darkened hallway.
Sally abruptly stopped. Now that she’d found him she didn’t know what to say. ‘I heard the front door. I thought you’d left.’ Gabe shook his head. ‘I was going to. Then I realised I didn’t have my keys.’
‘Or your jacket. You’d have been cold.’
‘That too.’ The whites of his eyes gleamed in the darkness. ‘You could have stayed upstairs,’
said Sally.
‘I couldn’t. Too scared. I told you, I never expected to feel like this.’
‘Me neither.’
She saw him nod. ‘Bit of a shock?’
‘Quite a lot of a shock.’ Gathering her courage, Sally said, ‘But a nice one.’
He was watching her carefully. ‘Really?’
‘Really. I thought I drove you mad. That’s why I’ve been trying so hard to be tidier.’
This time she caught a flash of white teeth. ‘I thought you were doing it to impress Lola’s dad.’
Sally shook her head, wondering if he could hear the frantic thud-thud-thud of her heart from down there. ‘No, not him. You.’
‘I’m impressed.’
‘Well, don’t be. It’s not going to last.’ Sally felt it was only fair to warn him. ‘I gave it my best shot but the novelty’s wearing off.’ She paused. ‘Is that going to make a difference?’
‘I don’t know. Not if you’re moving up to Yorkshire.’
How could everything change so drastically in a matter of minutes?
‘I suppose I don’t have to move up to Yorkshire. Seeing as the main reason I was planning on doing it was to get away from the miserable old git I was sharing a flat with.’
Gabe stepped out of the shadows, came to stand at the foot of the staircase. He touched his chest.
‘Me?’
‘Yes, you.’ Feeling braver, Sally said, ‘Come here.’
He climbed the stairs separating them. This time she knew he was going to kiss her. What she hadn’t expected was for her trembling knees to give way, mid-kiss. Smiling broadly, Gabe gently lowered her onto the stairs and carried on kissing her. God, he was so good at it and his neck smelled so gorgeous, he was ... whoops .. .
The walking stick she’d left propped against the banister toppled over and went clattering down the staircase. Sally squeaked, ‘Oh no!’ and attempted to muffle her laughter against Gabe’s shoulder.
Gabe whispered, ‘Don’t worry, he’s asleep.’
He wasn’t. The door to the ground floor flat was wrenched open and Mr Kowalski, his white hair standing up like acockatiel, bent down and picked up the walking stick. He turned, in his green and white striped flannel pyjamas, and eyed Sally and Gabe balefully.