business itself as well as the ideas he had for the space, pushing against his thoughts for it and testing her own. He was as eager as she was to explore the possibilities, and she was surprised when she realised that they’d been talking for over an hour.
‘I think you’d be a great fit for us,’ he said. ‘How about I chat to Bethany and see what sort of proposal I can put together to make this happen?’
‘Sounds good,’ she said, and shook his hand.
It was only after she’d left that she wondered if he could possibly be the one.
But she dismissed the thought almost as soon as she had it.
As Pat Rice lived on the other side of town, Grace had agreed to meet him in the city centre on Saturday morning. They both arrived at the Starbucks in College Green at exactly the same time, which made Pat observe that she was one of the few punctual women he’d ever met in his life.
Grace knew that he was divorced with two children and that he’d been living on his own for the past five years. She remembered Ken sympathising over his situation, arguing that men came off worst in most divorces, usually having to leave the family home while still having to pay for it. But Grace knew nothing of the circumstances of Pat’s divorce, nor how old his children were.
‘Twenty-five and twenty-two,’ he told her when they’d sat at a table near the window and were exchanging pleasantries. ‘Michael is a psychotherapist. Angelique is studying engineering. And how are yours?’ he added. ‘Ken was very proud of them.’
Grace smiled and told Pat that they were doing well. Then she decided there’d been enough chit-chat and asked about the USB. Pat took it out of his jacket pocket and put it on the table in front of them.
‘I’m surprised you’re here already,’ he observed. ‘Ken told me it might be some time before you came for it. If at all.’
‘Did he give you any instructions for if I didn’t contact you?’ she asked.
For the first time, Pat, who until now had radiated a kind of urbane charm, looked uncomfortable.
‘Well?’ she asked.
‘He told me that if you didn’t contact me by the end of July, I was to get in touch with you and ask what had happened. And if you said you hadn’t gone on the trip, or hadn’t been able to solve the treasure hunt, I was to give you a different USB.’
‘There’s a second one!’ She looked at him in surprise.
‘There was,’ he said. ‘I destroyed it.’
She looked at him in surprise.
‘That’s what he told me to do if you called me first,’ he explained.
‘And you really did destroy it?’
‘What else would I do?’ he asked.
What else indeed. Grace was all too aware that in the same circumstances she – and every woman she knew – would have given it to the person it was intended for, regardless. She wondered if such a lack of curiosity was a male thing, or if academics generally were a special breed.
‘I know Ken would be thrilled that you’re here,’ said Pat. ‘He was excited about your treasure hunt.’
‘Was he indeed.’
‘He said it was to make you think,’ said Pat. ‘And to make you realise you could manage without him.’
‘I knew that already,’ said Grace.
‘Ken told me that you were very capable and competent, but he wasn’t sure you could think outside the box,’ said Pat.
‘You seem to have chatted rather a lot about me.’
‘We talked about our wives from time to time. After my divorce, he told me that I should find someone like you.’
Grace was startled. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. He said you were the kind of wife every man should have.’
‘I’m not entirely sure that’s a compliment,’ said Grace. ‘It makes me sound far too much like a doormat. Which,’ she added, ‘I probably was.’
‘I doubt that,’ said Pat. ‘I doubt you could ever be anything other than very lovely.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You’re a lovely woman,’ Pat told her. ‘Elegant, attractive, smart – Ken was right in everything he said about you.’
Grace felt herself blush.
‘Anyway, he also asked me to keep an eye out for you,’ Pat said. ‘You know, if you needed anything done around the house or help with . . . well, anything at all you might need a man for. Advice on stuff.’
‘So despite all my elegance, attractiveness and smartness, my late husband thought I needed a man to organise me?’
‘That’s not it at all,’ Pat said. ‘He