Courtship

Part 31

The following weekend they were both at a party and despite her best efforts Marina knew she'd lost the battle to avoid speaking to him tonight. But at least it was much later in the evening when Marina and her date, Nick met up with Rafe and Claire. Marina was standing out on the balcony when Rafe and Claire approached. She had contemplated pretending not to have seen them and ducking in to the room next door, but that she decided looked desperate. She saw from his eyes that he was fully expecting her to bolt, and she thought he looked somewhat puzzled by the fact she would consider it.

Rafe stepped onto the balcony with Claire and his eyes remained trained on Marina. Of course he knew she was avoiding him. He just wished he knew why. After their chat at that wedding reception he thought she had allowed bygones to be bygones. So why was she avoiding him? He intended to find out tonight.

"Evening. I believe you know each other?" Rafe asked as the women acknowledged each other with easy going smiles. They nodded in unison. "Nick seems to have deserted you." Rafe stated, knowing full well that her partner this evening had a few moments ago left her side.

"Yes, Claire and I went to the same school. Nick's gone to get me a juice." Marina told him and glanced over her shoulder in an attempt to spot her errant date. She'd only agreed to go with Nick to this party because he'd kept pestering her! She and Nick had been friends for years, but they did not fancy each other, which meant he was a safe date. Safe? Leaving her to fend Rafe was not safe! She hadn't expected to see Rafe at this party, but then he was probably here because it was Claire's party and he was her brother's friend.

"Pretty hot in there." Claire added for want of a reason for stepping out onto the balcony. She studied Marina with open curiosity. Rafe had mentioned Marina's name several times this evening. Initially Claire thought it was because as he said, they had worked together. But now that Claire felt the air crackle around her she wondered what was going on here. She had known Rafe for years given he was her brother's friend. Which is how he came to be invited to her party. She had in her teenage years fancied herself in love with him, but she had grown out of that phase. Which was just as well, for the man seemed to have no shortage of women believing themselves to be in love with him! The difference here though was that he was giving out signals she had never seen him give out before. And even more intriguing, Marina was doing her best to ignore those signals! But you couldn't miss the sizzle of electricity that seemed to ramp up the minute she and Rafe had stepped onto the balcony and spoken to Marina. Claire flicked a quick look across at Rafe, then Marina, trying to see whether that spark she had seen arch between Rafe and Marina had been noted by either of them!

Marina nodded and tried not to fidget. She folded her arms, was that too defensive, she wondered and unfolded her arms. Now what was she supposed to do with them? She would kill Nick when she saw him. He was not supposed to leave her to deal with Rafe. Not after he'd caught her groan of dismay when she spotted Rafe at the party a few minutes after they had arrived! She practically begged Nick to leave, and then been forced to explain why she wanted to leave the moment they had arrived. At which point he'd dragged her into the party and professed to stay close for the duration of the evening! Liar! He'd gone to get them a drink. How long did that take?

"Claire said you'd both gone to the same school." Which begged the question why he hadn't seen Marina at Claire's parties over the years. Probably given the crush, they'd more than likely attended and not been in the same room at any one time. Marina nodded and looked surreptitiously around, hoping to catch Nick's eye and compel him to return. Rafe decided to be direct. "Have you been to Claire's parties before?"

Marina shrugged as she havered about how to explain that Claire's circle of friends did not fall within her social scene. She was only here because Nick was here. "No. Don't think so." She said with a smile that looked rather too forced.

"No, I can't recall seeing you at one." He grinned, "But given how Claire's parties are always packed to the rafters I thought we might have missed each other in the crush."

Marina could have told him that she'd never had an invite, but that would be churlish. It was simply that Claire and Marina had a different circle of friends. She knew of Claire at school, but they weren't close. So it had never occurred to Claire ask Marina to any of her previous parties. They knew each other but they did not socialise together, which given they went to the same school for years, was rather odd. For most of the people Claire went to school with came to her parties.