With This Fling... Read Free

for that. ‘Thing is, I need to feel as if I’m part of a community today, and this community is the only one I’ve got. Does that sound needy?’
    ‘No.’ Millie’s smile came free and gentle and washed over Charlotte like a balm. ‘It sounds like your community needs to lift its game.’
    For all her inquisitiveness, Millie Peters had a good heart and for the rest of the day she did everything in her power to ensure that Charlotte had company. Half the archaeology department went to the cinema with them that evening. The following evening Millie and her latest beau, Derek, invited Charlotte to dine with them at a local pub.
    Derek was an archaeology student with a builder’s licence in his back pocket, a double degree in geology and ancient history, and a blissfully practical outlook for someone bent on becoming a field archaeologist.
    They found a small round table over by the window, not too sticky, not too wobbly, and settled in for the duration. Derek bought the first round of drinks and the barman went back to filling his fridges, and the pool players went back to smacking their balls around as lazy jazz played softly through oversized speakers. Not bad. Infinitely better than being at home.
    ‘The crispy pork sounds good,’ said Derek, and Millie glared meaningfully at him.
    ‘The crispy pork does
not
sound good,’ countered Millie. ‘Have the beef. Or the duck. No mistaking duck for anything but duck.’ Millie’s face disappeared behind her menu. ‘Remember what I told you about the
long pig
incident,’ she muttered to Derek as quietly as she could, which wasn’t nearly quietly enough.
    Derek slid Charlotte a lightning glance and promptly disappeared behind his menu too. ‘Where’s the duck?’ he said.
    ‘Halfway down the specials list,’ murmured Millie. ‘Have it braised.’
    ‘Why not barbecued?’ Derek whispered back. ‘You’re just
assuming
he was barbecued. They could have braised him. They could have
boiled
him.’
    ‘You’re right,’ muttered Millie. ‘Order the vegetable combo.’
    At which point Charlotte reached across the table and pulled Millie’s menu down past eye level. ‘Psst.’
    ‘What?’ Millie eyed her warily.
    ‘Millie, let the poor man eat pork. I don’t care if he wants it crucified, I promise I won’t see it as a metaphor for him eating Gil.’
    Derek’s menu dipped slowly. Derek’s eyes appeared,followed by a nose, very nice cheekbones, and a wide wry smile.
    ‘I knew she was saner than you,’ Derek told Millie and barely winced when Millie’s menu clipped his shoulder. They were very broad shoulders. Millie might just have to keep this one.
    ‘So what was he like?’ asked Derek. ‘Your fiancé.’
    ‘He’s hard to define, but if I had to sum him up I’d probably go with
useful,’
said Charlotte. Nothing but the truth.
    ‘Useful as in “Honey, could you fix the hot water system?”’ asked Millie.
    ‘I’m sure he
could
have fixed the hot water system,’ said Charlotte. ‘Had it needed fixing.’
    ‘Can’t everyone?’ countered Derek.
    ‘Sadly, no,’ said Charlotte.
    ‘I dare say Gil was modest too,’ said Millie, glancing pointedly at Derek.
    ‘What?’ said Derek. ‘I can be modest.’
    ‘Of course you can,’ murmured Charlotte, eyeing Derek’s frayed shirt collar and shaggy hair speculatively. ‘Gil was a snappy dresser too, in a rustic, ready for anything kind of way.’
    ‘Window dressing,’ said Derek. ‘It’s the body beneath the clothes that counts and don’t either of you try and tell me different.’
    ‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ said Charlotte.‘But just for your information, that was superb too.’
    ‘Well, it would be,’ said Millie. ‘What with all that paddling up the river. I bet the man had fabulous upper-body definition.’
    ‘I was a lumberjack once,’ said Derek.
    ‘Of course you were,’ murmured Millie consolingly.
    A youthful waitress stepped up to their table, smile at the ready as she