“So you love to travel, where was your favourite place to visit?” I asked.
“Definitely Paris, strolling along the Champs Elysee, cruising down the River Seine past Notre Dame Cathedral and I always stay in this fantastic hotel overlooking the Eiffel Tower. It’s beautiful, simply stunning. Have you ever been there Ella?”
I twirled the stem of my wine glass nervously.
“Yes, I spent a long weekend there about a year ago I think it was.” The most romantic weekend ever with Joe was not something I wanted to be reminded of when I was on a date with another guy.
“Did you like it?” He looked at me strangely, he obviously wasn’t picking up on the ‘most romantic city ever, probably saw it with an ex’ kinda vibe I was giving off.
“I loved it.” I smiled.
“Last time I was in Paris I managed to head over to the Alps to get in a couple of days on the slopes. Skiing is a passion of mine.”
Oh hell, not another one. I couldn’t ski for toffee and I’d managed to find the two biggest skiing enthusiasts in the country, great.
“Do you ski?” He asked probably noticing my smirk.
“Not exactly. I’ve had a few attempts at skiing but I am the clumsiest person in the world. I can’t ski very well at all.”
“Have you ever had lessons?”
Boy was this all heading into territory I didn’t want to go tonight.
“A…friend tried to teach me, but all the patience in the world couldn’t co-ordinate these bambi legs.” I joked.
Alistair smiled kindly across at me.
“You’d probably prefer the après ski Ella.” I nodded, “I once tried to teach my cousin how to ski, it was a nightmare.”
“Oh no, why? Was she very young?” I could just picture him helping some little girl on the slopes, making all the female skiers swoon as he gently guided her down the snowy mountains.
“No she’s the same age as me. I swear I have zero patience, I just don’t get how people can teach like that. I ended up leaving her in the chalet most days and going off with the lads to do the better runs.”
I hid my distaste pretty well I thought. Jeez how selfish was that to dump her because she couldn’t zoom across slippery as hell snow on a pair of super thin sticks. I mean when you thought about it skiing was a pretty stupid sport. Plus Joe would never have abandoned me like that, then inwardly I scolded myself for thinking that way. I had to give Alistair a chance.
“So skiing isn’t your favourite thing, but what do you like to do?” He asked as our delicious food came and the waiter placed the dishes in front of us.
“Oh I don’t know, I like going out with my friends, dancing, just being with people really.” I leant over the table to spear some of the food from his plate onto my fork and his mouth dropped open in shock. Oh shit I’d messed up again hadn’t I!
“Do you always steal other people’s food?” He joked but I could see he wasn’t impressed with the plate and food swapping I always instigated whenever I went out. Everyone I ate food with knew I liked trying theirs too, no one had ever highlighted it as a negative before, Robyn and Chris encouraged it and Joe, he used to think it was cute. I even remember him swapping plates with me on more than one occasion when I liked his food more than my own. Oh no there it was again. ‘You really need to stop that and get a grip Ella!’
I tried to steer the conversation away from my obviously weird food stealing habit, and asked him about his family. His face glowed with pride when he talked about his sister, it made me warm to him again. A guy who took such good care of a sibling in need like he did couldn’t be all bad. He described special trips they’d been on together and memories they shared. Theirs was a beautiful brother sister relationship. I was just pondering what it would have been like to have a sibling growing up when he said something that made me stop in my tracks and have to ask him to repeat it again, convinced I’d heard him wrong.
“When I get married my wife will give up her job to care for my sister full time. I’ve always told Erin that would be the deal. She’s my number one priority. She’d move in with us you see.”
I was sure I looked like a demented gold fish how I just stared at him with my mouth open. Was he looking for a life partner or a full time carer? I mean seriously, what a thing to hit me with on our first date.
“I’m sure your sister Erin is adorable and a pleasure to look after, but what if your future wife wants a career and doesn’t want to leave work? There are plenty of wonderful carers out there you know.” I couldn’t let this one slide by, he had to explain himself.
“She wouldn’t be my wife if she didn’t do what I thought was best for my family.”
Jeez this guy was stuck in the 1950s, I was so not the girl for him. I started to panic and struggle for what to say next. I peered down at my plate wishing I could vanish or magically fly out of the door.
“I’m sorry.” He said with some sympathy in his tone, “I didn’t mean to bring you down tonight. I know talking about Erin can sometimes cause people to get emotional.”
Boy was this guy rubbish at reading people. Did he think that was the reason I felt awkward? Seriously? He reached across the table and took my hand in his running his thumb over my knuckles and I froze. The feel of him touching me felt foreign, wrong. I wanted to pull my hand backwards and away from him. He had no place touching me, I didn’t like it, he wasn’t Joe. Oh God he wasn’t Joe was he, he felt like an imposter in the seat opposite me. What the hell was I doing here trying to move on when in all honesty I didn’t want to move on with him. I didn’t want to move on with anyone else.
An hour later, after much stilted conversation the waiter brought the bill over.