Straight to You Page 0,13

with Samantha. Although I was glad to be with her, I felt slightly awkward with her mother in the house and I could think of little to say. There was a brief flash of headlights in the window and a car pulled onto the drive.

'Dad's home,' she shouted to her mother and, within a couple of minutes, he was inside the house. He walked straight past me and kissed his daughter on the cheek.

'Sorry I didn't get to you. Got stuck with something important,' he mumbled. He turned to face me 'Who's this?' he asked. 'New boyfriend? It's about time you got yourself sorted out with a bloke.'

Samantha blushed.

'This is Steven...' she began. Her mother reappeared in the kitchen doorway.

'You know, the one she was telling us about,' she interrupted.

'Taking a special interest in my Samantha's case are you son?' he asked and, before I could reply, Mrs Hill took his arm and dragged him into another room.

'I think I'd better go,' I said. 'I'll speak to you soon.'

Samantha seemed embarrassed by her parents.

'Don't worry about him,' she said nodding her head in the direction in which they had just disappeared. 'He's harmless.'

I smiled and made my way towards the front door. She walked out with me to the car.

'Thanks for the lift, anyway,' she said, smiling. 'Sorry about those two!'

'That's all right. I'll be in touch as soon as I hear anything.'

I climbed into the car and drove away. I watched Samantha's reflection in the rear view mirror until she disappeared out of sight and then I sped quickly home. I was disappointed that her parents had been allowed to spoil what could have been a very pleasant evening - I sensed that her father had taken an immediate dislike to me and hoped that it was nothing personal. I imagined that he would be the same with any man who showed an interest in his daughter and I could understand why entirely. Samantha was a very special girl - a fact that I was beginning to realise with every extra moment that I spent in her company.

It was ethically incorrect, I knew, but I made up my mind on the way home to ask Sam out the next time we were together. If I was taking advantage of my position in the company to get to her then that was just too bad - I knew exactly what they could do with their job.

I felt so relaxed and calm when Samantha was around that I could not stop myself from thinking about her and I was quietly confident that she felt the same. At least her father had done me a favour and confirmed that his daughter was single and unattached at present.

I knew that I had nothing to lose (except my job - and that was becoming less important with each passing day) and I made a silent promise to myself to take her out. Could it be that my days as a single man were finally going to end?

Chapter Six

The weekend flew by. Although I did little with my time - as usual - the two days that I had away from the office seemed to disappear within the blinking of an eye. It seemed that one minute it was Friday evening and the next it was Monday morning.

The temperature had risen continually over the two days I had spent at home. I looked back in the morning papers and noticed that it had been increasing almost uniformly at the rate of one degree centigrade each day and on Monday it had climbed to a staggering twenty-six degrees. The only thing that kept me going through the first long day back at the office was the thought of going out for a cool, relaxing drink that night with Mark. Typically, however, things did not go according to plan and at half-past seven I was still rushing to get ready so that I could pick him up at eight.

My lateness would have normally put me in a bad mood but today, unusually, it did not seem to matter - everything else was going well. Earlier in the day I had telephoned head office. The best part of a week had passed since I had interviewed Samantha and had sent her application up to be processed and I was growing tired of waiting for a decision. Once I had managed to locate the person who was dealing with Samantha's case (and after they had left me hanging