Trying Not To Love You

Part Fifty Five

Chapter Fifty Five

They’d not spent an evening together, deliberately or intentionally before, and it was so nice, after everything that had happened, to be normal. They kissed in the taxi, like teenagers on a first date, then in Northbury, he led her to a pub he knew well. With drinks they sat in a booth and Sonny turned to her.

                “So, today? How was it?”

Martha sighed, sipping at her glass of wine, “well Ethan loved school. That’s a relief.”

Giving her a hand a squeeze he waited for the ‘but’.

                “Then I called to Helen’s salon.”

He reached out and ran a hand through her hair, “and it looks amazing.”

She smiled up at him, “but it was my first real appearance...”

                “Since Scott?”

Laughing she reached for her glass and took a drink, “and you...and Ethan...”

                “Ah.” He took his own drink and gave her a moment to reply.

                “It was like a rollercoaster; it started with, ‘can you believe Scott is dead?’” She rolled her eyes ironically at him. “Then you were mentioned, not in relation to him, but reading between the lines I think I’m the envy of the whole village, especially the ladies, as Sylvia from the bookies who was also having her hair cut, was keen to tell me that you’d never shown up in the pub with the same woman twice.”

He laughed, “what did you say to that?”

Giving him a glittering smile that made his jeans suddenly far too tight, she said, “I corrected her, said that you’d turned up with many women, but you were very selective who you left with more than once.”

Bending in half he laughed loud and hard, “I wish I’d been there to see that.” He wiped at a tear, then saw her face, “how did it go with the Ethan story?”

She shrugged, “I didn’t say much, I kind of left it up to them. I’m not ready to answer questions about him yet, especially with Scott being the hot topic of gossip at the moment.”

He slid an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, “people will do the maths at some point, but until then, just relax and ignore.”

                “You’re good at that, I’m not so.”

He nodded, wanting to ease her tensions, but not knowing how to, “come on, let’s go eat.” The last thing he wanted was her dwelling on sad feelings. This was meant to be a fun night, him showing her how special she was to him.

He took her to an Indian restaurant; it was new and had been raved about in local media. Sitting opposite him, Martha watched him as he joked with the waiter who had showed them to their seats, then ordered drinks. She was starving and the menu looked delicious, and she told him that when they were left alone.

                “Well then fill your boots Miss, tonight you are going to have EVERYTHING you want.”

She cocked an eyebrow and gave him her most flirtatious look, “everything?”

Again her comment was met with laughter, which only increased when she both ordered tons of food, but then proceeded to eat it all too.