Читать книгу One Summer Night - Emily Bold - Страница 6

This One Moment

‘I hate this weather!’ Lauren complained to herself. She kept the engine running for a little while even though she was already parked in the right spot, just so the heating system could keep pumping hot air into the inside of her car. The wipers squeaked over the steamed-up windscreen, but they were useless against the sheer amount of water pouring down. It was raining by the bucketful, and Lauren felt no desire to leave her car and run over to the diner in these conditions.

She wondered if Rachel had already arrived and was waiting for her. Lauren pressed her lips together and cursed under her breath. The rain pelting down was drowning out even the radio, and the longer she waited the worse it got. The puddles on the gravelled parking lot got deeper and deeper, and slowly the humidity started creeping into her car.

Finally, she shut off the engine and slipped the keys into her jacket pocket. She turned the rear-view mirror to her face and fished a lipstick from the glove compartment. Quickly she reapplied color to her lips and rubbed them together. The eyeliner above her green, slightly mascaraed eyes was still all right, and today she was actually more or less happy with the way she looked – except of course for her freckles, which refused to be tamed even with foundation and powder – but she had lost six pounds over the past several weeks. Besides, it wasn’t exactly as if she was going to meet the love of her life today! If such a thing even existed. Any steady relationships had, until now, only brushed past her, like vehicles that had lost control. Most guys were just too superficial, Lauren concluded, despite the fact that she was always worried about being a little too on the plump side herself. After several years of yo-yo-dieting she had managed to slim down enough – even if every little transgression would go right back on her hips. But now that she was sitting in her car, teeth chattering, she almost wished she had her six pounds back, for warmth.

In two minds, she rapped her fingers against the steering wheel and eventually shrugged her shoulders.

‘Oh, screw it!’ She tied her strawberry-blonde curls into a loose knot, which she stuffed into the hood of her summer coat. Then she silently counted to three and yanked open the driver door.

She bolted from the car and ran hell for leather across the parking lot in a low crouch and up the four slippery steps to the diner. With all her might she pushed open the door and took shelter inside, letting go of her coat which she had been holding closed with one hand.

She was welcomed by warm air and the smell of fried eggs, bacon and coffee. Several heads turned in her direction after this sweeping stunt, curious, but by the time she had pulled the rain-soaked hood off her head and patted the water from her face, people had already lost interest. A little out of breath from her jog she gasped for air, got rid of her wet coat, and pulled her curls from the hair tie. In frustration she realized that the bottoms of her boot-cut corduroy pants were completely soaked from the water rising up from the ground, and were now tightly clinging to her boots. Great, just great!

As inconspicuously as possible, she tried to at least fix the damage to her hair with her fingers, all the while scanning the booths with their shiny red tables for Rachel. At a table right behind the counter decorated with vintage tin advertising signs and lit by a red halogen fixture, she was able to make out her friend’s chocolate-colored bobbed hair. Rachel gave Lauren her widest smile and called out her usual ‘Hey, hey!’ over a song blaring from the speakers.

Lauren waved but was stopped by a voluminous waitress with a fully loaded tray. On one hand the waitress was balancing the tray full of plates of scrambled eggs and pancakes, while with the other she was pouring coffee into a pretty blonde’s cup. Lauren’s mouth started watering when she saw the breakfast that the waitress put down in front of the blonde beauty. She was obviously not on a diet. And the guy who was sitting opposite her, holding her hand! Piercing blue eyes, designer stubble that looked soft and well-groomed, and dark-blond strands of hair falling into his face. Lauren’s heart skipped a beat when he turned his ice-blue eyes to her and smiled.

The curvaceous waitress took a step aside to put more plates down on the table, and Lauren found a gap wide enough to squeeze past the woman’s broad hips. It was about time, too. She had to force herself to pull her eyes away from Mr Perfect and put one foot down in front of the other; otherwise Miss Blondie might start wondering why she was staring at her boyfriend with her mouth open.

She slipped past the waitress, leaving wet footprints all across the diner, and over to the table where Rachel was waiting.

‘What was that?’ Rachel asked in her velvety blues voice that was almost a little too deep for a woman.

‘What do you mean?’ Lauren threw her coat across the soft seat cushion and squeezed into the bench next to Rachel rather than taking a seat across from her. She strained her neck to keep an eye on the man of her dreams across the heads of all the other diners.

‘Uh . . . Lauren? What do you think you’re doing?’

‘Hm?’ Lauren asked, paying Rachel attention for the first time. ‘What did you say?’

‘I was asking why you’re straining your neck to look over there, with your eyes almost popping out of your head.’

Sheepishly, Lauren reached for the menu, while grinning at her friend from across the top of it.

‘Do you see that guy?’ She tilted her head in the direction of the gorgeous couple.

‘Hm, sure? But I also see his date!’

‘Yeah, yeah, I know – I see her, too, but if it were up to me that guy right there would be my future husband!’

Rachel laughed and pushed Lauren from her side of the bench, finally getting her to sit across from her.

‘Once you’re married you’re going to see each other plenty – so go take a seat over there so we can talk properly!’

Lauren grunted and slipped into the opposite bench to keep Rachel happy. She tugged her white, oversized blouse into place and used a napkin to wipe an old mustard stain from the table.

‘If you continue like this I won’t let you be my maid of honor!’

‘Well, if you continue like this, the sexy blonde is going to have your head on a platter and eat you for breakfast.’ Rachel warned her with a laugh, running her hands through her hair in an elegant gesture. This was something Lauren had always admired about her. Whatever Rachel did she always looked so sophisticated and graceful. Was it because of her long, slender fingers with the subtle nail polish, or because of her chin-length bob hairstyle that was reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy? Or was it maybe because of Rachel’s slightly raspy voice that lent each of her words a certain gravitas even when she was cracking a joke? Lauren, by contrast, would never come across as cool and lofty. Not even when she did something a little more Earth-shattering than wiping away a mustard stain. Her long, copper-colored locks were softly flowing at best and unruly at worst. But when it was thrashing it down outside like today, her hair was beyond salvaging. Today she was no match for the skinny blonde with her luscious lips. Which was a shame she thought, sneaking another glance at the man of her dreams.

Her heart skipped another beat when his blue eyes met hers once again. And once again he offered her a grin. Lauren quickly turned around and leaned over the table to Rachel.

‘Call me crazy, but there’s something going on between us!’

Rachel, in turn, strained her neck and nodded. ‘Yes, you’re right. You are crazy! Because right now he’s got his tongue all the way down her throat.’

‘What?’ Lauren almost threw her back out as she squinted over the back of her bench.

‘Dammit! But you have to admit that he looks as if he’s a really good kisser – which is the cornerstone of a good marriage!’

Rachel tugged on Lauren’s blouse, making her plunk back into her seat.

‘Right, I am sure those two are going to have a great marriage, but one which, I regret to say, you are not going to be a part of!’

Lauren glared at her from across the table, and was once more reaching for the menu when she noticed the waitress making her way over. In all the Prince Charming excitement she still had no idea what she wanted to eat.

‘Breakfast number two with coffee, please,’ she ordered on the spur of the moment and impatiently waited for Rachel to make her order, trying to suppress pangs of guilt that she hadn’t gone for the low-cal option. She wasn’t trying to lose more weight, after all. She was only trying to maintain it.

When the waitress finally shuffled away, Rachel changed the subject.

‘How are things going in Maine, anyway? Is your art professor still crazy in love with your room-mate?’

Lauren rolled her eyes. ‘It’s ridiculous! The guy is at least fifty, and Vicky is our age; only twenty-three.’ Lauren shook her head. ‘The other day when I came home, he was standing in our room in his underpants! It was creepy! And I am supposed to listen to him in class after seeing that? Can’t do it, I tell you!’

Rachel chuckled. ‘At least there’s stuff going on in your life. Me, I have nothing interesting to report. My brother’s got a new girlfriend, again. She works at the gas station. And Mason – you know the good-looking dentist?’

The waitress returned with their breakfast, interrupting their conversion and, zombie-like, started putting down their two plates of pancakes with maple syrup, cups of coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice.

‘Doctor Mason Howell! He’s getting divorced from his wife as we speak. All I want is a date with him! I made an appointment at his dental practice, just so that I could see him,’ Rachel gushed. ‘He’s so fine! He’s tall and so . . . distinctive!’

Lauren raised the steaming cup to her lips and started slurping her coffee.

‘But that sounds great! And you were saying that nothing is going on around here.’

‘Yeah, but it’s much longer since I last saw a man in his underpants.’

‘Trust me, it was not a pleasant sight!’ Lauren spluttered, trying to rid her mind of the image of her half-naked teacher while pushing a forkful of delicious pancake into her mouth.

She loved the sweet stickiness of the maple syrup and the soft, fluffy consistency of the pancake, even though eating it meant that she would have to be mindful of what she ate for the rest of the day. Rachel, too, devoured her food greedily, and so they sat and ate in silence for a while, listening to the clatter of dishes inside the diner and the voice of Mariah Carey droning from the speakers above their heads.

‘How long are you going to be home for?’ Rachel picked up their conversation with her mouth still full.

‘Another four weeks. And then classes are starting again.’

‘Well, that gives us plenty of time to celebrate our birthdays. Any ideas yet?’

Lauren shook her head and smoothed back her curls. She and Rachel were born on the same day in the same hospital and – it seemed to them, at least – they had been friends ever since. When they were younger they would often joke that perhaps they had been switched at birth and actually belonged to the other’s family. Which, of course, wasn’t the case, because Lauren looked exactly like her mother, but whenever they would get into a fight with their parents they found the idea of it quite comforting. Maybe I’m not even related to that family of bores, Lauren would often wonder at the height of puberty. And, of course, when they were children they celebrated every single one of their birthdays together. Their twenty-third birthday was already a week old but wasn’t going to be an exception.

‘We should at least invite the dentist, and . . .’ Lauren turned around one last time. Blondie had disappeared, only Mr Blue-Eyes was still there, drinking his coffee. ‘. . . and my husband-to-be!’

‘No way! It would be super embarrassing to talk to a complete stranger!’ Rachel was dead set against it.

‘It’s not that embarrassing, really. Complete strangers chat us up in bars all the time!’ Lauren defended her suggestion.

‘Yeah, but at least they’re buying us drinks – and in the end we’re still telling them to buzz off! Which is exactly what would happen to me if I were to take your advice.’

Lauren had no response. As inconspicuously as possible, she once again turned around to look at the man of her dreams. Was he getting more handsome by the minute or was she only imaging it? She noticed a dimple on his chin as he was chatting and laughing with the waitress, who was suddenly anything but zombie-like, and holding his cup up for a refill. His magic worked on others, too, then.

‘How about we take some time to think about our party, and give each other a call. Or I stop by your house after work. I gotta go now; Mr Mathison’s tensed-up shoulders won’t straighten themselves.’

Lauren looked out the window and into the gray, cloud-covered sky and the thick rain that was still pelting down against the windowpanes.

‘You really want to go out there?’ she asked doubtfully, reaching for her cup of steaming coffee and glad that she got to stay inside a little while longer.

‘Want? No, but duty calls.’ Rachel got up and smiled. ‘Besides, you know me and my brilliant mind. I just happen to have brought an umbrella along – imagine that!’

She placed a banknote on the table and, triumphantly, held up the umbrella in question.

Lauren rolled her eyes but got up, too, and hugged her friend goodbye. She followed her with her eyes as she left the diner, grateful that her parents had made it possible for her to follow her passion and attend art college in Maine. They hadn’t forced her into a job that she didn’t enjoy. A job in which she had to touch the shoulders of men like Mr Mathison, she added to herself. To make up for it, she would help her dad in his law firm during term breaks. Peter Latham would have liked for Lauren to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. Instead, she filed documents and destroyed old, outdated case files.

Which was what was waiting for her over the next few days, and so she decided to enjoy her last day off. And just as she was wondering what could make a day better that had started with a great breakfast with Rachel, the stranger’s face popped up in her mind. She threw an inconspicuous glance over her shoulder. He was still there. A sign, surely!

Lauren tried to check out her reflection in the windowpane, but it was pointless. Looks-wise, she wasn’t at the top of her game today, but if that stopped a guy from talking to her then he wasn’t the right guy to begin with. Besides, she reminded herself silently, he couldn’t be the right guy anyway because he had a girlfriend. Still, she made herself get up and casually strolled over to his table. The weight she had recently lost gave her a little extra self-confidence, and she even seductively swayed her hips.

There was a moment, when she looked at him full of expectation and he at her, full of surprise and interest, when he raised his eyes and smiled . . . This moment seemed to last forever. Lauren breathed in and out again. Her heart was beating fast inside her chest and she was nervous, her fingers were trembling when she ran them through her hair.

‘Hi,’ he said, and the corners of his mouth twitched. Lauren’s head was suddenly full of thoughts. Except her reason for crossing the diner. It was the amused expression on his face that was to blame, because Lauren knew what it meant: women talked to this guy all the time. Flirted with him, too, probably. Women like her, who dared to approach him and then . . . what? Who wanted to marry him? Women who, like her, couldn’t take their eyes off his full upper lip with the tiny scar and who almost climaxed just because he said hi? Whatever the reason, women flirted with him and she didn’t want to get in line, didn’t want to be one of those stupid women who, more than likely, were far better looking than she.

‘Uh – excuse me . . .’ she muttered, desperately trying to find a reason, any reason at all, why she had crossed the diner and was standing in front of him. There had to be something!

Lauren desperately looked around. Saw the cup in his beautiful hands.

‘Your coffee . . . Did you find . . .’ Jesus, even his hands were beautiful! ‘. . . Did you find that it was too hot?’ she managed to squeeze out the pitiful question and could feel herself blushing.

Well, this sure was embarrassing! But all right. She didn’t want to get in line with all his other conquests anyway, so it wouldn’t be so bad if he thought she was a little loopy.

‘Too hot?’ He seemed confused, and his beautifully shaped eyebrows rose quizzically. Lauren gave him the gravest nod she could muster and stared at the tips of her boots. The bottoms of her pants were almost completely dry again. A little bug was crawling across the joint from a black floor tile to a white one. She kept an eye out for the crack in the ground that was going to open and hopefully swallow her whole, to spare her the embarrassment. But there was no crack. She had to go through with it. ‘Yeah, hot,’ she explained as matter-of-factly as possible.

‘I’m only asking because . . . because I just burned myself on the coffee . . . and . . . and if that were generally the case, I . . . I would tell the . . . the waitress. I mean, I wouldn’t want . . . anyone to get hurt or anything.’

Phew! That was quite a struggle but, hey, not too bad. Quite satisfied with herself, Lauren now straightened up and turned to an older couple sitting at the opposite table.

‘What about your coffee? Hot? Not too hot?’

* * *

‘Oh God, how embarrassing!’ Lauren giggled and snuggled deeper into Tim’s arms.

Even though the fire was still burning, the nightly cold had started rising from the earth.

‘That wasn’t embarrassing at all, it was . . . entertaining,’ Tim retorted with a grin.

Rachel, who was sitting on the opposite side of the bonfire, laughing and shaking her head, inched a little closer.

‘Why has nobody ever told me this in all these years? If I had known, I would have blown my appointment with good old Mr Mathison and stayed to watch the show!’

‘Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad. I thought you were cute back then at the diner. But I really only took notice of you later – at the law firm,’ Tim recounted.

‘So you don’t think I’m cute anymore?’

Tim kissed the back of Lauren’s neck and lovingly rubbed her arms to keep her warm.

‘Of course I do. And all I can wish for today is that we get the time to laugh about so many more things to come.’