‘As long as you don’t keep throwing yourself at me.’ Josh risked a joke.
She blushed but was smiling. ‘Sorry about that,’ she said. ‘My reaction, I mean. My former boyfriend was… Well, let’s just say it was a relationship I was well out of. He really did think all women were ready to fall at his feet. Full of himself, you know?’
‘In which case, I apologise.’ Josh felt bad. ‘I obviously touched a raw nerve.’
‘Not necessary,’ she assured him. ‘You weren’t to know. What about you? Have you managed to patch things up with your girlfriend?’
Josh eyed her, surprised.
‘I couldn’t help overhearing your phone conversation the other day,’ she explained.
Right. Josh guessed she had heard him pleading with his ‘girlfriend’ to meet up with him. At least talk to him. She’d refused, again. He felt a knot of anger tighten inside him. ‘It’s… complicated,’ he said. It had been complicated from day one. His mother didn’t like her the first time he’d gone out with her. They’d been just sixteen then, determined that love would win through. Obviously, it hadn’t, for her.
‘Ah.’ Kim nodded understandingly. ‘Not something you want to discuss in public with a near stranger. I get it.’
‘No, it’s not that. It’s just…’ Josh hesitated. He would actually very much like to discuss the situation. He was desperate to confide in someone who would give him their take on whether he was being selfish. Adam would be his first choice, but how fair would it be to ask him to keep it from his wife?
‘I get it, honestly,’ Kim repeated. ‘It’s none of my business. Don’t worry about it.’ She turned to look out of the window, leaving Josh feeling uncomfortable. She probably thought from his silence that he was hinting she should butt out.
She was quiet for several minutes, and then, ‘I feel the same as you do about the snow,’ she said.
Josh looked up from his phone.
‘At Christmas,’ she went on, her gaze still on the window. ‘It makes everything seem… untouched, somehow.’
‘Untainted,’ Josh agreed.
She nodded, a wistful look in her eyes as she turned to him. ‘My sister’s desperate for it to snow. She’s bought my nephew a sledge. Personally, I think it’s her who wants to use it.’
Josh laughed. ‘Yup, I understand the attraction of that. Do you see her at Christmas?’ He only wondered because being an only child he’d missed having a sister or brother around.
‘I see her all the time,’ Kim said. ‘I live with her up on the new Ravens Wood estate. Do you know it?’
‘I do. Nice properties.’ Josh was impressed. They were for sale at upwards of three hundred and fifty grand as far as he knew.
‘What about you?’ Kim asked him. ‘Do you see your family at Christmas?’
‘I, er…’ Josh wasn’t sure how to answer that. He opted for ‘I’m hoping to.’
Kim looked at him curiously.
‘I had an argument with my mother,’ Josh admitted, finding her easy to talk to. ‘I decided to move out. We didn’t part on great terms. I’d hate to turn up and make everyone’s Christmas miserable.’
Kim looked astonished. ‘I can’t imagine you would ever do that,’ she said. ‘You seem really easy-going.’
Josh smiled reflectively. ‘Yeah, maybe too much,’ he said with an expansive sigh. It had been a stupid argument, looking back. His mother had accused him of taking her for granted, expecting her to run around cleaning up after him. Josh hadn’t realised he was. He’d told her to stop banging on at him, which was pretty juvenile. She had been a bit, but then she hadn’t been well, not sleeping due to the steroids she was on. ‘I should call her, I suppose,’ he added, wondering at his ability to mess up every relationship in his life.
‘You should. At least then you’d know where you stand,’ Kim said, glancing through the window and then picking up her bag. ‘We’re here. Will I see you tomorrow?’
‘You can count on it,’ Josh said, glad that they’d broken the ice. She was nice. He was slightly bemused that he’d opened up to her like that, but he felt better for it. Smiling, he reached to grab his own bag.
When he glimpsed a figure hurrying away from the school as he walked across the playground at the end of the day, Josh wondered if he might be mistaken. He wasn’t, though, he was sure of it. There couldn’t be many girls her size wearing the exact same blue jacket and fur-trimmed hat. He