The Learning Curve (15 page)

‘Tell me,’ she whined again.

‘I’ll tell you when we get to the car.’

They got to the car. Just as she was about to whine again, he said, ‘I’ll tell you when we get to your place.’ They got in the car.

‘You’d better,’ she concluded hotly. He returned her fixed glare, then started the car and pulled out.

By the time Oscar and Daisy were being driven away from the fireworks, they had worked themselves up into a state of distraction over missing Miss Hobbs.

‘I love Miss Hobbs!’ sobbed Daisy.

‘Good!’ said Lilith. ‘Perhaps you’ll be able to stay over a few nights a week.’

‘So do I!’ cried Oscar.

‘You
love
your teacher?’ asked Mark, glancing into the rear-view mirror.

The boy nodded. ‘Yes. And I love her kitchen.’

Mark pressed his foot on the accelerator and stared at Oscar in the mirror. ‘What? When the hell did you see her kitchen?’

Lilith turned round to give Oscar a reassuring smile when Mark suddenly slammed his foot on the brakes and swore angrily. Lilith’s neck jerked forward and she closed her eyes in pain.

Rob and Nicky gasped. They’d come within inches of a sporty red number. They were so close they could see the startled expression of the driver. Which was how Nicky found herself staring into the eyes of the amazing guy again. And he was staring straight back at her. His lips were now fixed in a grim, if not hostile, expression. Those wide-set eyes were now highlighted by the fiercely angry set of his eyebrows. (Funny, she hadn’t noticed those before.) The sandy fringe had flopped forward over his forehead.

The children went quiet in the back. Lilith made a strangled sound. And Mark found himself staring into the startled eyes of the fantastic girl and her arse of a boyfriend who had just
tried to kill them all. And she was staring straight back at him. He hadn’t noticed how saucer-like her eyes were before. He was considering smiling at her, when her pillock of a boyfriend reversed the car back into the space it had just come out of and someone hooted him from behind. He drove on.

‘Flash wanker,’ muttered Rob. ‘That car costs five times our annual fucking wage. More money than sense.’

‘Hmm,’ managed Nicky.

As the amazing guy drove on, she got a chance to glance at his car’s passenger seat and, sure enough, she could just make out the shadow of a woman. She looked in the back and spotted the forms of two children. She looked away fast. Were all the good men taken? Was she sitting next to the only attractive, single man in London?

‘Is everyone all right?’ asked Mark, his hands gripping the wheel firmly.

‘Yes,’ replied the children.

‘Osc?’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘Daisy?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘No harm done then.’

‘Lilith?’ said Lilith quietly. ‘Oh! Thanks for asking. I think I may have broken my neck,’ she replied to herself. ‘Apart from that, we’re all fine.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ murmured Rob, watching the car disappear in his mirror. ‘How much money do you have to earn to buy a car like that? A hundred? A hundred and fifty?’

‘Wanker,’ shot Nicky. ‘Two-timing bastard.’

‘Yeah,’ added Rob, ‘probably a murderer too.’

‘Wanker.’

‘Tosser.’

‘Twat.’

‘Miss Hobbs’s whole house is upstairs,’ continued Oscar. ‘I like that.’

Mark was forced to focus on the issue at hand.

‘How the hell do you know that?’ he demanded.

‘We were there on Hallowe’en,’ said Oscar.

‘You were there on Hallowe’en?’ repeated Mark incredulously.

‘I think my neck’s broken,’ breathed Lilith.

‘Would you like to explain how the hell that happened?’ Mark turned to Lilith.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘it happened when you braked so suddenly.’

‘You went to their teacher on Hallowe’en,’ said Mark, ‘and didn’t tell me?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Lilith crossly. ‘We happened to trick or treat her.’

‘And she invited you in?’ asked Mark.

‘I was very grateful, as it happens,’ said Lilith. ‘We hadn’t had dinner and had been going for about three hours in the freezing cold, because Oscar was still waiting for you to turn up. She took pity on us and made us hot chocolate. We were there when you texted him to let him know you weren’t going to make it or come home that night.’

Mark tutted. ‘God, how sad is that?’ he said. ‘She must have no friends.’

Lilith raised her eyebrows. How was it possible for men to always extract the least important piece of information?

‘It wasn’t sad!’ cried Oscar. ‘It was nice. And you weren’t there, so you don’t know.’

‘Good,’ muttered Mark. ‘She sounds like a complete weirdo to me.’

Lilith was going to tell him that she wasn’t, but instead she just said, ‘Ow.’

Rob parked dramatically outside Nicky’s house. They sat in silence for a while, Nicky’s breathing coming fast as if her body had too much breath in it.

‘Well,’ she said, sharply, ‘thanks for the lift. It’s good to confront your mortality every now and then.’

After a pause, Rob turned to her. He spoke slowly. ‘If you invite me in for coffee, I’ll tell you what happened last night.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ she muttered. ‘You know how to spin a yarn, don’t you?’ She opened her car door. ‘Come on, then.’

Ten minutes later, they were in her kitchen and the kettle was on. It felt good to have a man in her kitchen, especially while she was wearing these jeans. She pictured the man at the display, his eyes when he’d looked at her, and then his neat, 2.4 family in his car.

‘Tell me now,’ she said impatiently, ‘or you’re not getting your coffee.’

He sighed and eventually started to talk. ‘Amanda said some silly things about us. She was very drunk. And some people happened to overhear,’ he said.

She stared at him. ‘
Us?
’

‘Us.’

She went on staring. ‘You-and-me us?’

‘I believe that’s what “us” means, yes.’

She was frozen to the spot. Rob took the hint and told her.

‘She’s guessed that you and I have a history,’ he said slowly. Then he shrugged. ‘That’s it. I promise.’

Nicky stared at him. And kept staring at him.

‘And?’ she said. She didn’t know what made her say it. Maybe it was the fireworks. Maybe it was nearly having an accident. Maybe it was Rob’s temper. Maybe it was the way that guy had looked at her. Maybe it was his kids in the back of his car.

‘
And?
’ she repeated.

Rob sighed. Then he looked up at her, right into her eyes, with an expression she hadn’t seen for a long, long time.

Mark parked his car outside Lilith and Daisy’s flat.

‘How’s your neck now?’ he asked Lilith.

‘Oh, fine,’ she muttered. ‘It’s amazing what a reckless car drive can do for a broken neck.’

‘Can you move your extremities?’

Lilith looked at her hand. ‘I don’t know.’ She slapped him sharply on the cheek. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Good.’ Mark smiled, rubbing his cheek.

The children laughed and started play-slapping each other.

‘Ah, look,’ said Mark fondly, turning round to watch them in the back. ‘You’re such a good example to the littl’uns.’

Lilith turned round to Daisy. ‘Shall we get out of the madman’s car now, sweetie?’

‘Yes,’ said Daisy. ‘Can I hit him too?’

‘No, darling. That’s just for Mummy.’

She smiled at Mark. ‘Thank you for a great night,’ she said. ‘I’ll call you when I can feel my feet again.’

He watched from the car as Lilith opened her front door and waved goodbye. ‘Right,’ he said to Oscar. ‘Where to, sonny? The Casino Royale? Soho?’

He heard gentle snoring and turned to see Oscar slumped in his seat, out cold.

Nicky stared at Rob across her tiny kitchen, the sound of the

clock suddenly magnified.

‘Rob,’ she said.

‘OK,’ he replied. He paused and then spoke. ‘She says she thinks there’s more than history between us.’

‘Oh for goodness’ sa—’ started Nicky.

‘She thinks there’s . . . chemistry too.’

Nicky raised an eyebrow in amazement.

‘You mean . . .’ she said slowly, ‘Amanda made a pun?’

Rob smiled.

‘I see,’ she said thoughtfully.

‘I think . . .’ began Rob, his voice barely louder than a whisper, ‘that if we’re both honest with ourselves . . . she’s more perceptive than we thought.’

Nicky’s spine tingled. And then melted. And then a far more key part of her body got in on the act and tingled, then melted. Sex! she thought. She was going to get sex tonight. The thought was so overpowering that she almost forgot Rob was there.

‘Don’t you?’ he asked, the bass of his voice causing her body to start a soft, rhythmic throbbing. Just in time, she remembered he was there. Feminine intuition told her that he was staring hard at her. She knew because her jeans were
trembling. And it took a lot to make these jeans tremble. Her head started an internal conversation – for even at times like this, Nicky Hobbs’s brain had been known to take over when it was not wanted. ‘Hmm,’ it said. ‘This is an unexpected and intriguing position to be in. I must consider it carefully before I –’ But her tingling, melting, trembling and rhythmically throbbing body was remembering the guy from the fireworks display, just before she and Rob met in the middle of her kitchen and kissed for the first time in seven years.

FIVE MINUTES LATER,
Rob finally pulled himself away and stared at Nicky in disbelief, his pupils slowly shrinking.

‘You don’t mean it,’ he moaned softly in her ear.

‘I do,’ she whispered, her voice now joining in the merry throng and trembling as much as the rest of her body.

‘OK,’ he murmured. ‘In a minute.’ He took her by the hips and pulled her gently towards him. It was all she could do not to liquefy at his feet. If he hadn’t been holding her by the hips she’d be a puddle on the floor by now. She’d forgotten how good Rob was.

He started kissing her down the neck so gently that the rest of her body got jealous. And then, for some reason unknown to man, she pictured Miss James, smiling at them both from above. She jolted her head back, knocking Rob with her chin.

‘Ow!’ he said.

‘Come on, Rob,’ she said. ‘I said “no”.’

‘OK,’ he replied, his voice slightly muffled because his lips were busy circling her neck.

Oh what the hell, she thought, and allowed herself two more minutes.

‘Right,’ she breathed, her voice high. ‘Out.’

He slid his hands round and down her bottom, but she pushed him away. Not the bottom, she thought. The bottom had always been her make-or-break point with Rob. She wondered if he remembered.

‘Oh, come on –’ he started, keeping his hands exactly where they were and slowly pitter-pattering its curve with his fingers. Hello, Satan, she thought. Take a seat. I’ll be with you in a minute.

‘No! Out,’ she heard herself say, pushing him away firmly. To be honest, if someone had come in now and asked her why, she would not have been able to give one convincing argument. She knew she and Rob were good together. She knew it would be excellent exercise, and she hadn’t had a chance to get to the gym in ages. She also knew it would ruin her career and, due to the dysfunctional society she lived in, it would be one-nil to Rob. And she did not want Rob to be one up on her. Ooh. Bad phrasing . . .

Rob was staring at her, his focus slowly coming back.

‘Don’t you think you’re a bit old for games like this?’ His voice was gravel.

‘I’m not playing games, Rob,’ she said, flushing. ‘If I was playing games, I’d take you into my bedroom now.’

He pulled her in again. ‘Let’s play Twister,’ he whispered hoarsely into her ear.

Her body told her brain to go and do some homework. Rarely had a man spoken more persuasively and with more sense. Her head told her this was not just a man, it was Rob.

She turned her face gently to his ear and cupped it softly in her hand, placing the other one on his buttock. ‘OUT,’ she said firmly, pushing him, via his bottom, out of the kitchen.

And to his utter amazement, five minutes later, Rob Pattison,
The
Rob Pattison, found himself on the wrong side of her front door, with nowhere for his body to go but home.

He walked as straight and tall as he could to his car, opened the door and got inside. Then he sat for a while, staring straight ahead. When he saw Nicky’s hall light go out, he swore loudly and hit the steering wheel hard, before going home.

As she heard his car start, Nicky stood motionless in the dark hall, her heart hammering. Dare she even think it? Yes . . . It had been everything she’d ever dreamt it would be! And more.

‘Rob,’ she whispered in the silence, knowing that the one tiny syllable, such an inconsequential word, meant something momentous to her now. ‘Rob.’

Oh boy, was this A Moment! She savoured it, standing there triumphantly – though a little bent in the middle – in the dark. This was
The
Moment. The moment she realised her life was about to begin again.

First thing Sunday morning, she woke early. She almost jumped out of bed. She was on a real high. She was on top of the world. She could barely wait to tell Ally her news. It wasn’t often that suddenly everything made sense. She got to the bakery earlier than she’d ever been before and decided to treat them both to chocolate croissants this morning. After all, life was for living. It was only when she was running across the hall to answer Ally’s ring on the doorbell that it occurred to her that she shouldn’t tell Ally what had happened. Ally might not understand; worse, Ally might not support her, and Nicky knew she couldn’t cope with that.
Not after all these years. In fairness, it was a complex situation. It was far more complicated than it appeared. And everything was different now. It would probably be better to speak to Rob first. As she walked down the stairs, she realised that keeping a secret from Ally would make her feel disloyal yet mature at the same time. She was growing up; she didn’t need to offload everything as soon as it had happened. Maybe the rest of her life was already beginning.

As soon as Ally left, she phoned Claire and told her everything. Together they decided that she shouldn’t phone Rob today, but should wait to talk to him first thing Monday. Phones were useless for this kind of epic discussion. It didn’t take a genius to work out that he wouldn’t be phoning her. Nicky slept the sleep of the innocent all Sunday night. She dreamt she was doing a vast puzzle, each piece as big as a suitcase. The last piece was hidden in her bed and she found it! The final puzzle picture was a Barbie birthday cake – the kind she’d always longed for as a child and had never got.