“What kind of not professional?” Evie said.
“I don’t understand.”
“I just want to be clear. So I know. Are you hitting on me or something?”
Natalie thought for a moment. She might be sobering up a little, but she still seemed to need to concentrate to think. “I’m not sure,” she said in the end, terribly solemn.
“Oh,” Evie said, surprised. “Well, I’m a girl. You noticed that right?”
Natalie nodded.
“So do you usually hit on girls?”
“Usually, yeah.”
“Oh,” Evie said. “Okay.”
“How about you?” Natalie said. “Do you?”
“Usually,” Evie said, after a moment. “Yeah.”
They looked at each other.
“Do you have somewhere else to be?” Natalie said.
“Not really, no.”
“So why not?”
Evie looked at Natalie, and wondered again if something terrible had happened. Natalie wasn’t really flirting. She was saying things that almost might be, but saying them terribly seriously, in a way that wasn’t flirty at all. It seemed as much like she just needed someone to talk to, needed company, as much as she wanted Evie’s especially. Evie wasn’t sure what to make of that, but decided she didn’t want to leave Natalie on her own. It was just a drink. Working out the rest of it could wait until later.
“Okay,” Evie said. “I’ll have a drink with you, but not here.”
“Of course. Anywhere.”
Evie got out her phone. “And I’m texting someone. Saying I’m with you.”
“Of course,” Natalie said, but like she didn’t understand why.
“In case you’re a serial killer,” Evie said.
“Oh,” Natalie said. “Right.” She said it like it hadn’t occurred to her to even think about that.
“Maybe you should too,” Evie said. “In case I am?”
Natalie shook her head.
“I might be,” Evie said.
“I’ll trust you,” Natalie said, and looked like she was trying not to smile.
“Okay,” Evie said, and put her phone away. “Well, I’m ready.”
They walked through the lobby, to the hotel’s front door, then stopped and looked outside. It was dark now, and the rain had become a steady drizzle, blown around by a gusty wind, and the air though the open door was so cold it almost hurt. Evie stood there trying to make up her mind what they should do. They were near the city, near enough there should be an open bar somewhere down the road, but it wasn’t really the weather to just walk around in, looking for one.
“So where to?” Evie said. “I don’t really mind.”
“Me either.”
“We should probably get a taxi or something.”
“My car’s here,” Natalie said.
Evie looked at her and wondered again about her driving. Causing a senior partner’s drunk-driving conviction probably wasn’t a good career move.
“Maybe,” Evie said. She thought for a moment. “I’ll drive.”
“Oh,” Natalie said, then seemed to realize. “Yes, you’d probably better.”
“I don’t have a change of clothes,” Evie said, still thinking.
“You look fine.”
“I look like a waitress. So I don’t want to go anywhere too nice.”
“That’s a shame,” Natalie said. “I’d hoped to go somewhere nice.”
It took Evie a moment to realize she was joking. She smiled.
Natalie looked back across the lobby, at the hotel restaurant. It was loud and open and probably not very nice, but it also had a bar that didn’t involve going out in the rain. Evie could almost tell what she was thinking.
“No,” Evie said.
“Oh,” Natalie said. “Do you want to smoke? I mean…?”
She glanced around, so furtive it was obvious what she meant. So furtive Evie wasn’t completely comfortable with her looking that suspicious when she was still holding.
“I just finished work here,” Evie said. “That’s all. Why? Do you?”
“No, just… you won’t be able to in a bar. Smoke anything.”
“Yeah,” Evie said. “I know. Stop it.”
Natalie looked confused.
“You look really guilty. Stop looking around.”
Natalie nodded. “I just meant… That might be tricky. For cigarettes too.”
Evie sighed.
“I live in town,” Natalie said. “In an apartment.”
“Okay.”
“It’s right there.” Natalie pointed out the glass doors, to one of the taller buildings in the middle distance. Evie wasn’t sure if she actually meant that one, or just one over there somewhere.
“That’s just a thought,” Natalie said, sounding unsure. “I don’t want to scare you off, and if you don’t want to I understand, but it might be easiest…”
She stopped.
“What might?” Evie said.
“We could just go there? To my place?”
Evie thought about that, and could quite decide.
It didn’t seem smart to be going off with Natalie. Then again, it was the middle of town, and she knew who Natalie was, and she seemed very unlikely to be a serial killer. And mostly, it just make sense to go somewhere she could stay dry while she smoked.
“You don’t mind if I smoke inside?” Evie said.
Natalie shrugged.
Someone came through the hotel door, hurrying, pushing through without looking, dripping, almost bumping into Evie and Natalie. Someone who looked cold and miserable for being out in the rain.
That decided Evie.
“Yep,” she said. “Okay. Let’s go to yours.”
*
“So your car,” Evie said, looking at the rain. “I don’t suppose it’s in some kind of underground car-park? Some sort of nice, dry place we can get to without going outside?”
Natalie looked at her and started to smile. “No,” she said. “Sorry. It’s out there.”
“Yeah,” Evie said. “I thought it might be.”
“It’s right there, though,” Natalie said, pointing to the row of parking spaces along the front of the hotel.
“At this end?” Evie said hopefully.
“No.”
Evie nodded. “Of course not,” she said. She looked at the rain, which was getting heavier. She was going to get soaked on the way to the car, but she supposed it would be worse running for a bus.
“I’ll go and get it, shall I?” Natalie said, after a moment. “Then come back for you.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“I really don’t mind,” Natalie said, sounding very polite.
“Yeah,” Evie said. “Except how you can’t, remember? Because of how you’re drunk and I’ll need to be the driver…”
“Oh,” Natalie said, as if she had actually forgotten. “True.”
They watched the rain for a while.
“I don’t think it’s stopping,” Evie said.
“I don’t either. I think it’s getting worse.”
“We might as well just run. Or stand here all night.”
Natalie nodded.
“Should we?” Evie said. “Go?”
“Yes,” Natalie said.
“Hold on,” Evie said. She pulled the bottom of her shirt out of her skirt, and stuffed her bag up underneath it, against her tummy.
Natalie looked at her, then took her jacket off and held it out.
“No,” Evie said. “I’m fine.”
“Just wear it,” Natalie said.
Evie looked at her for a while.
“You took it before,” Natalie said. “Please?”
Evie didn’t know what to do. She was a little surprised by Natalie’s thoughtfulness. After a minute, she reached over and took the jacket. It seemed easier to take it than to stand in the doorway arguing, and she didn’t want to seem ungrateful, either. She put down her bag, and pulled Natalie’s jacket on, and said, “What�
��s with you and lending clothes?”
Natalie just grinned.
“Okay,” Evie said, and picked up her bag. “Let’s go.”
Natalie opened the hotel’s door, and they both started walking. Walking fast, but only walking. The rain was cold and heavy and soaked Evie through before she was halfway across the car-park. She moved as fast as she could. Natalie beeped a car halfway down the row of parking spaces, so its lights flashed, then ran the last couple of steps to get the car before Evie. Natalie pulled the driver’s door open, and then somehow they got into a tangle, bumping into each other in the soaking rain.
Evie had forgotten she was supposed to be driving. She was concentrating on getting out of the rain. When Natalie started towards the driver’s door, Evie had gone the other way, towards the other side of the car, without thinking. Natalie had opened the driver’s door, and then gone that way too, and suddenly Evie was in her way. They ran into each other, then stopped, confused.
“Aren’t you…?” Natalie said, over the noise of the rain.
“What?”
“Weren’t you driving?”
“Oh yeah,” Evie said, and wiped wet hair off her face. “Sorry.”
Natalie was opening the door for her, Evie suddenly realized. Even as they both got drenched, even as Natalie stood there in just her shirt, and the inside of her car probably got rained on, she was trying to open doors for Evie.
Evie didn’t know what to do.
“Get in,” Natalie said. “For god’s sake.”
Evie nodded, and did.
“Thank you,” she called, but Natalie didn’t hear. She had run around the back of the car to get in the other side. She jumped in, and slammed the door.
“Thank you,” Evie said again.
Natalie grinned.
Evie sat there for a moment, breathing. Her hair was soaked. Her feet were wet from puddles. She was dripping onto the leather seats, and they were already steaming up the windows. She leaned forward and started trying to take Natalie’s jacket off, but it was tricky. The cloth was damp, and sticking to her arms.
“It’s probably easier to leave it on for now,” Natalie said.
Evie nodded, and did.
They sat there a moment looking at each other. Evie wanted to laugh.
She wanted to do something, she realized, and it might not be laugh. She was looking at Natalie, and not quite the way she had been a few moment’s before.
Evie was soaked, and Natalie was too, dripping all over her own car. Natalie’s hair was drenched, and starting to come out of its bun, and her shirt was so sodden it was sticking to her skin. She looked nothing like the tax lawyer Evie had met earlier in the day. She looked like someone else, something else, and Evie didn’t know what. Evie looked at her for a moment without speaking, and had a strange urge to do something. She didn’t quite know what.
She didn’t know, and the not knowing seemed very interesting right then.
She shouldn’t be thinking complicated things, things like she was thinking. She shouldn’t be noticing wet clothes and damp skin. She shouldn’t be thinking about people making passes, and thinking about wanting to kiss. She should have having a quiet drink for the sake of her career, and that was absolutely all. But instead, she was looking at Natalie’s loose hair and damp shirt and the way water was still running down her face, and thinking about doing something she wasn’t sure she ought to do.
Natalie wasn’t looking at Evie, and didn’t seem to have noticed Evie’s stare. She wiped her face on her sleeve. Recklessly, Evie thought, when she had make-up on. Natalie wiped, which didn’t really do much to dry her face when the sleeve was so wet, then looked at her arm. Checking she hadn’t wiped off makeup, Evie thought. She hadn’t, because she only had eyeliner on, and because it was expensive. Evie assumed it was expensive, and that expensive eyeliner would stick better, but she didn’t actually know. She did know she wasn’t going to go wiping herself like that and find out how waterproof her own was.
She watched, instead, silent.
Natalie wiped her face, then touched her hair but seemed to decide to leave it, then looked up, at Evie, and saw Evie staring. She stopped for a moment and went still. “What?” she said softly.
Evie shook her head.
“What’s wrong?” Natalie said.
Evie swallowed. Her mouth felt dry, which was odd when everything else nearby was completely wet.
“What?” Natalie said again.
“You shouldn’t have opened the door,” Evie said. “You just got soaked. I could have done it.”
“It’s fine,” Natalie said. “It seemed polite.”
“You didn’t need to,” Evie said. “That’s all. I was fine. But thank you.”
Natalie nodded.
Evie kept looking at Natalie, wondering what she was doing. Wondering if she was about to do something silly.
She almost did, then changed her mind, without quite knowing what she was changing her mind from.
She made herself stop, and held out her hand instead, and said, “Keys?”
They were still in Natalie’s hand.
“Sorry,” Natalie said, and handed them over. Their fingers brushed together, which Evie noticed but Natalie didn’t seem to.
Evie looked down, and found the ignition, and started the car. It seemed like a nice one, although she didn’t really know. The engine was quiet, and the steering wheel turned easily, and the gears were automatic, which made things easier. It felt expensive, Evie thought, with no idea how she could actually tell. The controls were all where she expected them to be, though, which was the most important thing. It wasn’t confusingly foreign.
“Where to?” Evie said, and Natalie pointed.
Evie nodded, and started driving.
*
Evie drove. She didn’t talk. She was a little worried about how terrifyingly expensive Natalie’s car might be, and did her best to concentrate on what she was doing. That meant not talking, and not paying attention to Natalie beside her, and definitely not wondering what Natalie thought of her driving.
Luckily, they only had a little way to travel, a few minutes towards the city, then down a side-road and into an underground carpark. Natalie pointed where Evie needed to go, and then pointed upwards to a remote for the carpark’s roller door clipped to the sun visor above Evie’s head. Evie pressed the button, then drove inside the carpark carefully, very aware of concrete pillars and tight corners. She drove past shiny dim cars and parked where Natalie told her, and once she had, once she’d stopped worrying so much about dents and scratches, she was a little surprised how easy it had been had. The spaces were big, she realized. Bigger than she’d seen in an apartment building before, almost bigger than the supermarket she usually went to. She didn’t care especially about the nice car, but was a little envious of the large spaces, and how easy it was to park in here.
She switched off the engine and gave the keys back to Natalie. Then she sat there, and looked around. The carpark was quite full, but there was an empty space next to Evie. Evie looked at it, curious, and then realized it was Natalie’s too. There were apartment numbers painted on the wall in front the spaces, and the empty space beside Evie had the same number as the one they were parked in. Natalie had two spaces, and Evie suddenly wondered why, whether Natalie had just been allocated two, or if she’d asked especially. And if she asked, Evie wondered whether the extra space was just for visitors, or whether there was someone else who needed that space.
Evie sat there for a moment, thinking. She kept looking at the empty space, wondering about Natalie, wondering what she might be assuming that she should be. It wasn’t that she would necessarily even care if Natalie was with someone, more just wanted to know.
“Are you married?” Evie said.
“What?”
“I just wondered. Are you married?”
Natalie held up her hand.
Evie looked at her, and didn’t understand.
Natalie wiggled one
finger. “If I’d worn one in the first place,” she said. “Which I didn’t, but…”
“Worn what?”
“No ring?”
“Oh right,” Evie said, finally understanding. Rings to mean being involved with someone. “You might have taken it off,” she said, feeling slightly pedantic. “A ring. If you’d had one on.”
“I suppose,” Natalie said. “But to actually think of that? When I first met you? That’s kind of sneaky. It’s planning ahead quite a bit.”
“Yeah,” Evie said.
Natalie looked at her.
“So do you?” Evie said. “Plan that much?”
“No. Not about this.”
“Okay. Well, I didn’t look anyway. At your hands.”
“Oh,” Natalie said, and then was silent.
They sat for a while. Evie seemed to have run out of things to say too.
“Is everything all right?” Natalie said in the end.
“Yep.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yep.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Natalie said. “Hide a wedding ring. Just so you know.”
Evie nodded.
They sat a little longer. Evie wasn’t quite sure why she was staying there, rather than getting out of the car. She was feeling a sudden inertia, and didn’t seem in a hurry to move. She was still thinking, too. She wanted to be sure about Natalie. To be very clear, just so she knew.
Evie's Job Page 4
