“But your stories are far more interesting than mine.”
“I somehow doubt that.” Ash looked at Carmen with such a depth of interest, it stole her breath.
The cab pulled up.
“Well, this is me.” Carmen looked at the cab, then back at Ash, who stood with her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Her pose was confident and strong, her shirt fitting her body like a glove, her face open and welcoming. She looked… Carmen struggled with breath once more as the word gorgeous ran through her mind.
“I hope you get a decent sleep tonight,” Ash said quietly. “And, well, give me a call if you want to meet up anytime, okay?”
Carmen nodded, not sure what she’d say if she tried to form words. What the hell is happening to me? She stepped into the cab, pulled the door shut, and threw Ash a weak smile as the driver pulled them away from the kerb.
Chapter 13
When Damian walked into the studio on Wednesday at a quarter to eight, Ash grinned at him. “Well, you look tons better.”
“Whatever.” He wandered over to the couches and threw himself onto one.
Ash chuckled, then turned back to her client, a woman called Julia, who’d just had a green sea turtle tattooed on her right thigh. The turtle joined the numerous other sea creatures Ash had been inking onto Julia’s leg for the last two years; she now had an almost complete coral reef scene stretching from her ankle to her groin. Ash finished taping the cling film over the site. “All done.”
“Beautiful. Thanks, Ash.” Julia settled up, and they said their goodbyes.
“Okay, give me ten minutes to clean up, and then we can go,” Ash called to Damian as she began collecting up used ink bottles, tissues, and other detritus.
“No worries. Hey, fancy Thai tonight? I haven’t had a decent Thai in weeks.”
“Sure. You choose where. I’m easy.”
“Cool.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way to Tottenham Court Road or rather to one of the side streets leading off it towards the university district. Somehow Damian always knew the best—and out of the way—places to eat in whatever city he happened to be in.
They caught up as they strolled along, Damian filling her in on some more details about the mix-up in Zimbabwe, but mostly talking about Botswana and what a fantastic place it had been.
“You need to add it to your list,” he said as they crossed behind a line of stuck traffic, horns blaring and music pumping all around them.
“Yeah, it sounds like it.”
They arrived at the restaurant, and the waiter led them to a small table along the far wall, where they wedged in between a group of four young women on one side and two earnest-looking men on the other. All their neighbours had textbooks spread out between them.
The waiter handed them worn menus and took their beer order before scurrying off.
Damian opened his menu, ran a finger down page three, then slammed his menu shut. “Sorted.”
“Seriously? I haven’t even looked yet.”
He laughed. “I always know what I want and just needed to check they hadn’t scrubbed it off the menu.”
Ash shook her head. She turned her attention back to her menu and concentrated on making her own choice. It was a good menu, lots of things she recognised and some she didn’t, which meant she had to pick something from the latter category. “Chicken peanut massaman for me.”
“Oh, good choice.” Damian nodded sagely. “I’m having sour soup. The name does not do it justice, trust me.”
“I believe you.” Ash grinned. “But I’ll need a taste, just to be certain.”
They ordered, and while they waited for their food, Damian told her his plans for the next few months. Then he gave her a wicked grin.
“So, how was your not-date last night?”
Ash had done well not dwelling on it since she and Carmen said goodbye the night before. She’d thrown herself into work at the studio today, even doing extra cleaning and sorting of stock to keep herself busy and her mind not on Carmen. But of course, it was too much to hope that Damian had forgotten all about her evening out. “It was a nice evening, but with a bit of a strange ending.” She shook her head. “She’s a nice person. Runs her own business and she’s interesting and smart. We shared some personal stuff that showed we have more in common than I would have thought, given how obviously different our upbringings are. She’s posh, but not in an arsehole way, you know? Anyway, it was good spending time with her and getting to know someone new.”
“But…?”
“But I definitely felt like I’d said or done something wrong at the very end of the night, as we were saying goodbye, because she kind of blew me off. Didn’t really say goodbye, and when I did as she asked and texted her to say I’d got home, I just got an ‘okay, good’ back, but nothing else.”
“But this is just friendship, right? You’re not pining after this woman, are you?” Damian, for once, looked serious, a rare frown on his face.
It was tempting to lie, but this was Damian. He knew more about her than anyone else. She’d been sharing everything with him since the Australia trip, and she couldn’t stop now. “I’m…confused,” she said eventually.
“Ah.”
“I know.” She slumped in her chair.
Damian cleared his throat. “I rarely tell you what to do, right?”
She nodded, wary of what was coming next.
“And I know you’ve shared a lot with me over the years, and I know there’s stuff you haven’t, and that’s cool.” He pulled at the label of his beer bottle, leaving small flakes of paper in a pile on the table.
Ash had never seen him so nervous. What was going on?
“Well,” he continued, “I guess I’m worried. After the way you just talked about this Carmen chick, I’m… Well, I’m worried she’s going to be another Vikki.” He winced as he said
