No Ordinary Bloke (5 page)

If she’d said a younger age, I’d believe that she’d put it behind her, but not at thirteen. My father was alive, but he became dead to me when I was about that age. The passing years had given me perspective, but it didn’t change facts that forever altered my life. I couldn’t imagine it would be any different for Allison.

Still, I let it go. I didn’t know her well enough, so I took a drink and said, “I’m terribly sorry.”

“Thanks,” she said, tightening her lips. She seemed happy to have the subject behind her. “So there you have it. I grew up on a farm. I went to Wellesley and left it behind, and then I went to Wall Street and began working in HR.”

“Which you appear to excel at.”

“Thanks. I’m really happy to have this promotion.”

“Any farming skills come handy? Herding employees must be a little like herding cows.”

“Farming skills? Uh. No.” She laughed. “I’ve never had to milk a cow at work.”

“Well, I can’t milk a cow at all.” I glanced at the ceiling and considered what it might entail. Maybe it wasn’t a completely foreign idea, so I chuckled. “Though I bet I could easily get the hang of it.”

Her mouth dropped open, and then she looked down trying not to smile. After a moment, she lifted her head and said, “I’m sorry. Please don’t be offended, but I feel like so much of what you say has sexual innuendo.”

“Good God. I hope so,” I said completely deadpan. Then I winked. “I’d be hugely disappointed if you didn’t notice.”

“Disappointed in me or you?”

“Both.”

She wagged her finger at me. “You are a cockney scoundrel.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“I’m sure you will.” She nodded. “Your turn. I want to hear your life story.”

“Nah…” I ran my hand through my hair. “That’s not interesting at all.”

“Are you kidding? I’ve never met anyone like you.”

“Sure you have. You just never talked to them for very long. Blokes like me—we’re your carpenters, your bartenders, your mechanics.”

“I don’t believe that at all. That may be where you come from, but that’s not you.” She looked around the cabin and then gestured to our meals. “Look where you are. And if you’re working with Trey on deals, you’ve got to be some kind of Vice President of something important over at Barclays.”

I shrugged. “Maybe that’s where I’m at now, but that’s not me.”

“Oh, get over yourself.” She laughed. “Tell me your damn story. You made me tell you mine.”

“All right….” I rattled off some facts. “I was born in northeastern London. I think I already told you about my parents. I’m an only child, but my cousins Adam and Sylvia are like my brother and sister. I got in trouble a lot at school, but I always did well in maths. My mother really worked with me on it. I went to the London School of Economics. Eventually, I was recruited by a firm in the City, and that’s my story.”

“What sort of trouble at school?”

“Usually fighting.” I held up my hands helplessly. “Occasionally gambling.”

“Gambling? How do you gamble at school?”

“Dice, of course. Later it was poker. I’d run a poker game every lunch hour at school.”

“Ah, okay. Do you still like to gamble?”

“Hell, yes. What about you?”

“I haven’t done it that often.” She furrowed her brow. “You mentioned fighting. Back at the terminal when you were holding your niece, did you get in a fight with that guy? I thought I might have overheard something.”

“Nah…” I felt like I’d been caught by my mum.

“Oh, okay. I just wondered,” she said, not appearing convinced. “So when you were young why did you fight so much?”

“Oh you know, the usual. Sports, girls, gambling, tur—”

“I didn’t ask what you fought about. I asked why did you fight.”

“Dunno.” Her eyes were focused on me like a laser. I got the feeling that I had to give her something, or she’d think I was the shallowest bastard on earth. I was intrigued enough by her not to want that, but I wasn’t going to tell her everything. I glossed over the trauma of my life. “My parents split when I was twelve. After that, I could be a little shit.”

“Who did you live with?”

“Me mum, of course.” I tapped the table, hoping the interrogation would end soon.

“Are you still close with your dad?”

What a question. There were a thousand ways to answer it that wouldn’t generate any more interest or any red flags. Those were my usual responses, and they were all lies. I locked eyes with Allison, deciding what to say. Gosh, she was pretty—and too sweet to lie to—especially if that arse, Trey, was jerking her around. I’d also impolitely asked about her dad simply because of my own curiosity. I owed this lovely girl a little more, so I told her the truth, but I ended the conversation.

“No. We’re not close in the slightest.” I raised my glass as a sign I was ending the conversation. “So there’s my life story. I’m taking some clients to a casino in a few days. Want to go? There will be a group of us.”

“I don’t know,” she said slowly.

I wasn’t sure if she was hesitating because she was still absorbing what I’d disclosed or if she wasn’t interested in spending any more time with me. I steered the conversation to safer ground. “So what’s going on in your Singapore office?”

For the next hour, we talked about our work over dessert and then an after dinner drink. When the meal had come to its natural end, she still seemed engaged enough to continue talking, but it was time for me to retreat again. If I was going to see her in Singapore, I needed her to be left hanging. Without much warning, I looked at my watch and said, “I need some sleep now. You probably do, too.”

“Um. Sure. I should get going.”

“I’m sure Natalie’s already turned down your bed.”

“You think so?”

“Natalie always does me right.”

She let out a tiny gasp and laughed. “There you go again. You make the simplest thing sound…”

“Never mind me. I’m just trying to get a rise out of you.” I smiled, gazing at her in the hopes to make a connection. When I spoke again, I was more serious. “Thank you for having dinner with me. You’re the prettiest and most charming dinner companion I’ve had in quite some time.”

Her eyes twinkled at the compliment, but she shook her head. “That’s just because your normal dinner companion is a male investment banker.”

I pushed back on the table and called her bluff. “I think if you learned anything about me tonight, you know that’s not true. I’m a good judge of women—and people in general for that matter. Take the compliment, princess.”

A slow smile formed on her lips. “I’ll take it, if you don’t call me princess.”

“All right.” I pointed down the aisle. “Go get some rest, love.”

“Good night,” she said shyly and returned to her seat.

For the rest of the plane ride, I left her alone. I’d smile if I passed her seat, but I didn’t stop to chat. My next conversation was going to have a purpose. After the plane landed, I caught up with her as she headed down the jet way. Tapping her shoulder, I said, “Excuse me.”

“Oh, hi,” she said.

She stopped to talk, which was a good sign. If she’d continued walking, I knew I didn’t have a chance at all with her. I smiled at my good fortune. “May I have your card? In case you might want to go to the casino with my clients and me.”

I needed to stress that it was a group outing. If I was going to take a taken woman, I couldn’t move too quickly or I’d cock everything up.

“Sure,” she said before digging in her bag. She handed me her card. “Maybe I’ll have time.”

I gave her my own card in return and said, “I hope so.” Adding nothing more and not waiting for any response, I quickly walked ahead of her and soon out of sight.

T
he following day I waited to call Allison. I needed to work, and no doubt, so did she. I also had that dinner with Gregory, which I couldn’t skip, so a dinner date with Allison was out of the question. The more that I thought about it the more I believed that was a good thing. Another soul-searching dinner wasn’t the best next move. We needed to have some fun first.

After lunch, I gave her a ring. She seemed a little flustered when she heard it was me. “Um. Hi. How are you doing?” she asked in a staccato voice.

“Brilliant. The day is going well. I’m a bit tired though.”

“Me too. I need some sleep.”

“But we have to fight the jetlag if we want to exist in this time zone.”

“That is true.”

“So I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight.”

“Yeah…you know I can’t go out for dinner. It just really isn’t a possibility for me. I already—”

This was the other reason not to ask her to dinner. The woman was primed to reject me. She was most likely already feeling guilty over our long conversation the night before, which was ironic because I was confident Trey-boy wouldn’t have thought twice about it if he’d had a similar conversation with a girl. But I had to offer Allison a guilt free evening and ratchet things down between us. “I can’t make dinner either,” I said bluntly. “Sorry about that.”

“Oh. Okay. What did you have in mind then?”

“I thought we might go to the zoo.” This was a bit of a test. If she rejected me outright, I needed to move on. If she didn’t want to go to the zoo, I didn’t want to be with her anyway. She was a drag.

“The zoo?” she asked like she didn’t understand me. “Is that a club?”

“No, love. A zoo with animals. Singapore has a night zoo.”

There was silence on the other end, but finally, a chuckle came over the line. “Okay. That sounds fun. When do you want to go?”

“My dinner ends early. What about yours?”

“Mine will too. My body clock is out of whack from the time change.”

“Eight o’clock then. We’ll take a taxi. Where should I pick you up?” I asked.

“I’m at the Four Seasons.”

“Brilliant. I’ll see you in the lobby at eight. Cheers.”

Later that night, I walked into the Four Seasons and looked for Allison. She sat on one of the sumptuous chairs of the posh lobby, staring at her phone. As I made my way over to her, she glanced up and a smile spread across her face. My smile grew as well when she stood and I saw the cute little sundress she was wearing. Thank God for being so close the equator. You simply couldn’t wear very many clothes.

“Hello, love. You’re a beautiful sight after a long day at work.”

“Thanks. It’s good to see you too.”

She patted her hair, which was up again. Why was she so self-conscious? Guilt? Embarrassment? Regardless, I gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”

In the taxi, we chatted about our workdays, though she wouldn’t go into any details about her meetings. When she demurred twice from elaborating on some of her meetings, I had to say, “I think human resources is the perfect job for you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You are amazingly discreet. I can’t imagine that all of your meetings were boring trainings. There has to be some juicy office drama.”

“In this office? Not so much. In our European offices, it can be so hard to keep people in line.” She then turned her whole body to me and asked directly, “Tell me. Why do men chase women in the office? It’s such a stupid move.”