Sophie Weston - Avoiding Mr Right

Costa chuckled. ‘I’m not a policeman, Christina. As long as the clients pay their bill and don’t break the crockery, they can do what they like.’ He thought about it. ‘They can even break the crockery if they pay for it.’

‘What if they offend other clients?’ she flashed.

‘Don’t worry your head about it. They enjoyed it,’ Costa said soothingly.

Luc gave a choke of laughter. He suppressed it but not quickly enough.

Christina was outraged. She stamped her foot. She made a noise like Sue’s elderly kettle coming to the boil. ‘I didn’t enjoy it.’

‘Then I’m sorry, of course. But I don’t see what you expect me to do about it.’

‘Throw him out,’ she yelled.

The diners began to look interested again. She subsided, rather flushed.

Costa smiled at her paternally. ‘Look at it from my point of view. I can’t throw a man out just because you don’t think he kisses very well,’ he said in a reasonable tone. ‘Besides—’

Christina gave him a steely glare. ‘Besides?’ she prompted dangerously.

He shrugged his beefy shoulders. ‘To be honest, my dear, I’ve seen worse.’

This time Luc did not even try to disguise his laughter. ‘Poor Christina. I don’t think the US Marines are going to speed to the rescue this trip,’ he said when his mirth subsided. He nodded at a table. ‘Why don’t you sit down? Costa can bring us a bottle of his best ouzo and we’ll talk things over.’

Luc and Costa exchanged a look of pure masculine complacency. Christina saw it and recognised an unspoken conspiracy. They thought that she was beaten. She would show them.

Across the café tables Sue was already half out of her seat. Christina bit back her smile. Oh, she would certainly show them. She looked away quickly before Luc could follow her eyes. She had to buy time.

It went against the grain but she said meekly, ‘Oh, all right. I have to go to the cloakroom first, though.’

Neither of the men demurred. She met Sue’s eyes compellingly and turned deliberately. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sue murmur an excuse to her companions and follow her.

In the poky little cloakroom Christina ran her wrists under cold water. She peered in the cracked mirror. Her eyes were wide and a little wild. Her skin felt cold and sensitised, as if someone had coated it with ice. Damn that man. Damn him. How dared he make her feel like this? The door opened.

‘Wow,’ said Sue. ‘That was really something. I take it he’s the “administrative hitch” from this morning?’

Christina glared at her unflattering reflection. ‘No, he isn’t. And he’s not going to be any sort of hitch at all,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m not having a stranger order me around.’

Sue blinked. ‘Have you told him that?’

‘Several times.’

Sue gave a gurgle of laughter. ‘I thought he didn’t look the type to give up easily.’

‘Well, he’s going to have to learn a new skill,’ said Christina with resolution. ‘He’s not pushing me about any more.’

Sue sighed. ‘He could push me about any time he liked.’

Christina turned away from the mirror. ‘You wouldn’t enjoy it,’ she assured her.

‘Oh, yes, I would. He’s gorgeous. If he looked at me the way he looked at you, I’d just lie down and die for him.’

Christina was startled. ‘How he looked at me?’

‘I know you usually ignore the effect you have on men but you must have noticed that,’ Sue said in disgust. ‘From the moment you came in, he couldn’t take his eyes off you. I thought he was going to eat you.’

Christina remembered that devouring kiss. She put up a hand to ease the sudden constriction in her throat.

‘So did I,’ she said in a low voice. She shivered. Instantly, Sue was all contrition. ‘Sorry. I’m a fool. No matter how gorgeous he looks, if he keeps after you when you’ve made it clear he doesn’t turn you on, he’s a heel.’ She patted her friend’s shoulder. ‘Count on me.’

It wasn’t that he did not turn her on, exactly... Christina dismissed it. It was too complicated to explain to Sue, especially when she didn’t entirely understand it herself. And she certainly wanted to escape from Luc Henri as far and as fast as she could.

‘I want to get out of here without him seeing me. And get away before he can follow.’

Sue was thoughtful. ‘Hmm. You can’t go through the kitchen because Costa’s on his side,’ she said shrewdly.

Christina looked surprised at her perception.

Sue nodded. ‘All that machismo. Costa just loves it. He’d tell. Unless he didn’t know.’ She paused. ‘Dustbins,’ she said suddenly.

Sue shot out of the door. Christina stared after her. In less than a minute she was back.

‘That yard is disgusting,’ she said with feeling. ‘No one would eat here if they saw it. Still, that means no one is going to search it too carefully. Go and lurk behind the cabbage stalks and I’ll go and get Geoff. We’ll get some transport from somewhere and come and pick you up. Just keep out of sight for ten minutes.’

Christina went. The yard was quite as foul as Sue had said. She held her breath for as long as she could. After that she breathed through her mouth.

There was a commotion in the kitchen behind her but she could not make out whether it was an irate Luc Henri turning the place upside down in search of her or just normal family give and take. She tensed and held her breath with even more resolution than before. Her heart beat faster. Someone opened the door to the yard, muttered a startled imprecation and shut it hurriedly. Christina breathed again.

Sue and Geoff turned up a few moments later. Geoff’s amused face appeared over the edge of the wooden fence that surrounded the yard and he reached out a hand.

‘Phew. That guy really scared you, didn’t he?’ he said, hauling her out into the road. ‘I wouldn’t have spent three minutes in there on a bet. You’ll probably start to go mouldy.’

‘I’ll watch out for it,’ Christina assured him solemnly. ‘And he did not scare me. I just chose not to argue in public any more. Thanks for the help,’ she added belatedly.

‘Any time. Any friend of Sue’s...’ he said largely. He sounded entertained. ‘What are you going to do now? Get out of town?’

‘Don’t be silly. He’s a civilised man.’ She paused and added with a certain amount of relief, ‘Anyway, he doesn’t know where I’m staying.’

‘He could find out. Looks the kind of guy who wouldn’t have trouble doing just that.’

Geoff had hired a rickety Citroën. It was parked on the corner of the dark lane, Sue hunched anxiously over the wheel. He opened the passenger door and pulled the front seat forward to let Christina scramble into the back.

‘Better crouch,’ he advised, still amused.

Christina disposed herself on the cramped back seat with dignity. ‘He’s not going to send out search parties—’ she began.

Sue said sharply. ‘Don’t be so sure of that. What’s that behind us?’

A stretched limousine had come into the driving mirror. They all looked over their shoulders. It had headlamps like searchlights. It was inching along the kerb as if it was looking for something. It looked horribly purposeful.

‘Duck,’ Geoff said.

Christina abandoned her dignity and flung herself on the floor. Not a moment too soon. Geoff grabbed Sue into a comprehensive embrace, so the headlights of the limousine only illuminated a courting couple totally absorbed in each other. It slowed briefly, then, seemingly satisfied, passed on without stopping. In the grateful darkness, Geoff released Sue.

‘Chris,’ Sue said in a shaken voice, ‘I take it back. You’re right. I wouldn’t enjoy it.’ Geoff hugged her comfortingly.