When Love Knocks Twice (A Contemporary Love Story) Read Free Page B

here I am, still
wondering if it was the right move.”
    There
was a minute or two while they paid attention to their coffee, now
cool enough to drink.
    Gail
broke the silence. “You look on your time here with fondness,
happy times?”
    “ Yes,”
replied Tom after a moment's consideration. “Generally
speaking. Every teenager has their ups and downs but yes, I look on
them as happy times.”
    “ That's
good. I do too, but when you've lived here most of your life I don't
think it segregates the place as much.”
    “ What,
like I attach it to my youth, whereas you associate it with several
periods of your life.”
    “ Exactly.
That's exactly it. Gordon could never understand it because he didn't
come from round here, but that's exactly what it is. It doesn't
generate the same level of nostalgia.”
    “ Ah,”
sighed Tom. “Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.”
    Gail
laughed.
    “ That
sounds good,” stated Tom.
    “ What
does,” asked Gail.
    “ The
sound of you laughing.”
    “ I
seem to remember you used to make us all laugh in the old days.”
“Ah
yes, always the clown trying to overcome my shyness.”
    There
was an awkward moment, and Gail took the opportunity to check her
watch.
    “ Oh,
I need to go. I've shopping to do before everyone comes round this
afternoon.” She hesitated. “Where are you staying?”
    “ At
the Bull.”
    “ Oh
no. Please don't eat alone in a hotel. Why don't you come round for
dinner tonight? I need an excuse to entertain.”
    Tom
nodded. “If it's not any trouble, I'd really enjoy that.”
    “ Good,”
confirmed Gail, scribbling down an address on the back of the bill.
“Come early, say, five-ish.”
    “ Looking
forward to it. I'll see you at five,” agreed Tom.
    Gail
scrambled away towards the door, avoiding the dilemma of how to say
goodbye to a long-lost friend.
    Tom
stepped out into the sunshine and stood on the pavement for a moment,
taken aback by the whirlwind of memories stirred up by his meeting
with Gail. He crossed the road and took a closer look at the old
school. Standing up pretty well for its age. Better than me, he
thought. But it had had alterations as well, bits added and bits
knocked off. Just like us I suppose.
    Without
making a conscious decision he wandered up a side road, and ten
minutes later arrived at some tennis courts. At least the tennis club
is still here, he mused. Remembered some good times there. Recalled
playing Gail and others, and getting beaten. Gail was a better player
than he had been, much to his chagrin. The old green wooden clubhouse
had disappeared, replaced by something more sleek in concrete and
steel. I guess they had to do something or it would have fallen down
of its own accord.
    His
thoughts meandered back to Gail. A strange meeting. It created an odd
sensation in his brain. Did he regret it? No, definitely not. Did it
throw him out slightly? Yes, it did, but in a positive way. Yes, in a
positive way. As he sat on a bench watching a trio of teenagers
knocking a tennis ball around, he was taken right back. In his mind's
eye he could see himself, Gail, and others, many of whom he could no
longer put a name to, all playing around at the end of the teaching
session they had finished giving to some younger ones. Good times
they were. Good times.
    He
sat for quarter of an hour until the heat of the sun became too much,
and then strolled back into the town centre along the railway
embankment in the shade of overhanging trees. He had left his car
back at the hotel before he had set out that morning, and checking
his watch, decided he could do without lunch if he was eating early
that night. So an ice-cream sufficed to keep him going on the two
mile stroll back to his hotel, for a shower and a lie down before he
had to go out.

    Gail
found herself in more of a turmoil than Tom. She had had no inkling
of nostalgia when she set off from the house that morning, but now
she found herself transported back some forty years,