Free A Hopeless Romantic by Harriet Evans Page B

the rickety twisted stairs, but she reminded herself once again that this choice of location for their summit meeting must be a good thing. Dan was reading the paper, but as he caught sight of her he leaped to his feet, folded it up, and shoved it into his back pocket. He smiled at her, his eyes huge, then drew her into his arms, kissed her, and hugged her tightly for a long time.
    “Hello, babe,” he said, resting his forehead against hers. “How are you?” He smoothed the hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear.
    “I’m fine,” Laura said, smiling back at him. She wound her arms round his neck. “I’m okay. Yeah, fine.”
    “Good,” said Dan, looking over her shoulder. “Sorry, I thought that was…no, it’s fine. So you’re really okay? I missed you, baby. I really missed you.”
    He pulled her down onto the bench next to him, and casually put her hand over his crotch. Laura smiled at his cheek, still the same Dan, and looked at the menu board.
    “Yep, I’m really okay,” she said, pretending to ignore him but moving a little closer.
    The couple at the next table looked at them with distaste.
    “Perhaps I should move there,” said Laura, pointing at the chair on the opposite side of the table.
    “No,” Dan said, and kissed her ear gently. He whispered, “Please, I want you near me. Who knows when we might be together next?”
    “Well,” said Laura weakly, “that’s what we need to talk about, kind of, isn’t it?”
    Dan was looking at the menu board and didn’t answer. He snaked his arm around Laura and gently cupped one of her breasts. Laura wriggled with pleasure and nerves. This wasn’t going the way she’d anticipated. She leaned into him, gave into it.
    “I missed you, too.”
    “Hm?” Dan said. “I’m having the lamb and mint pie, what about you?”
    Food. A day spent at home mulling over her problems and failing to come up with solutions had not calmed Laura down one jot. It was sweltering outside, even hotter inside, and she was feeling fairly emotionally fraught. She had eaten very little that day, and had actually been sick before she came out, in a kind of wretched, stressed way. A lamb and mint pie was not really what she was in the mood for.
    “Um,” she began, knotting and unknotting her hands in her lap. “I’m not that hungry, you know. I feel a bit funny. I might just have a salad.”
    “Really?” Dan looked at her as if she were insane. “You’re okay, aren’t you?”
    “Yes,” Laura said, beginning to be slightly irritated that the question kept being asked yet not followed through on. She steeled herself and put her hand on Dan’s wrist. “Look at me,” she said.
    He turned to face her.
    “I am fine,” she said. “I’m really fine, in fact. But we need to talk. There’s…things we need to discuss. Tonight.”
    Dan looked slightly alarmed. “Right. Why aren’t you hungry?” he said after a pause.
    “Well, I was a bit sick today, but that’s normal…nothing. Look—”
    Dan’s reaction to this news was unexpected. His jaw dropped and he gaped at her, then gasped several times as if short of breath. “You were sick?” he said. “Why?”
    Laura wanted to be touched by his concern, but he was looking genuinely horrified. She found it a little off-putting. How could she explain everything to him? Why couldn’t he understand? “I…well. I haven’t been feeling too good lately.”
    “Are you…ill?” Dan said, his jaw muscles clenching. “Have you been off work?”
    “Well…actually, I have. Something’s happened. That’s what…” She swallowed. “Things are going to be difficult over the next couple of months, Dan,” she said softly. “That’s why I have to know what’s going on with us. I have to know, I can’t do it anymore.”
    She sat back in her seat, shaking with adrenaline, and reached out to take his hand, but Dan put his head in his hands and was silent. Laura watched him, a growing sense of unease welling