on the specials menu and it had been many years since Clive had enjoyed that particular home comfort. It was an easy choice when Tess asked for his order and she offered him a wink, knowing they were all in cahoots.
‘She knows you’re here then?’ Tess said in a whisper.
‘With full permission.’ Clive nodded in confirmation.
He wasn’t au fait with dating. The modern culture of using the internet or phone apps to find love was not something he was familiar with, so it was as much for his entertainment as anything.
Not that entertainment was the right way to think of it. He wasn’t here to laugh or make unfavourable comments. He was here to observe, as if taking part in a study on human behaviour. He was pretty sure that was the way Keisha looked at it.
Clive thought about his love life, but those memories weren’t there. There were only fragments. Those moments would be whipped away as soon as they arrived. It was odd. His delirious episode did mean he knew what it felt like to be in love. But Keisha wanted to know whether the pulse rose or if the heart contracted when it fell in love. And much like the research project he was part of, in the same way that a heart wasn’t usually monitored when it broke, the same was true of when it fell in love. It was unlikely there would be anyone present at the time to check the heart rate and blood pressure and good job, quite frankly. It would rather ruin the special moment.
Clive had settled on a pink shirt today, to blend in with Tess’s pastel shades. He’d not gone as far as adding sequins to really fit in with the décor. He doubted Keisha would regard that as camouflage.
He stopped daydreaming when the café door rang and for a second he didn’t know where to settle his gaze. He didn’t want to stare; that would be too obvious. At least he’d picked a better vantage point this time.
The man who had walked in was tall and gangly and his Adam’s apple was too pronounced, as if he hadn’t quite grown into his features. He may well have been one of the local students popping in for his lunch.
Clive glanced over to Keisha, her fingers lightly placed on her wrist in a way that made what she was up to unobvious. There was no flush to her cheeks, if anything she was paler than usual.
The lanky guy, or date forty-two as he would become known, bought his coffee and went and sat with Keisha. He looked like a nervous interview candidate, already aware he was unqualified for the job.
Clive wasn’t close enough to hear what was being said (maybe he’d strike third time lucky with his stakeout spot), but they were talking and that seemed like a good sign. He wished he was able to lip read, but he was already conscious of staring more than he should. He was doing his best to be inconspicuous.
One thing he had noticed was that Keisha wasn’t smiling. Whatever was being said hadn’t even made her curl her lip, and there was a complete lack of any laughter. Those were things that struck Clive as essential in a relationship. Those were the things that made the heart love a little harder. Those moments that made it easier to appreciate a person more each day.
A shiver ran through him as if someone had jumped on his grave. The complete sense of having loved pushing though his core. It was a shame that they weren’t able to do a lie detector of the heart. For now he had to accept it for what it was. He knew how to love even if he had nowhere to place it.
Keisha got up. She said something to the man and nipped to the toilets. She didn’t look at Clive so there was no exchange of glances to know how it was going.
Clive looked to Tess instead. She would know if this was a good or a bad thing.
From his vantage point, Clive noticed that rather than heading for the toilet at the back, Keisha ducked sideways to the kitchen.
A moment or two later, Tess joined him at his table, delivering his corned beef hash at the same time. ‘This is the interesting bit,’ she said.
‘How so?’ Clive asked, tucking in.
‘Seeing how long it is until they notice.’
‘What? That she’s gone?’ His hushed tone came out rather more theatrically