Page 63 of Outlier

“Thank you,” I said, putting as much feeling as I could into the words which came out a little choked as I had to force them past my tight throat.

He stared at me for a moment with a fierce expression before he put the pan down and strode around to my side of the kitchen island. He turned my chair towards him in that bossy way of his and kissed me. When he pulled away to rest his forehead on mine, his expression was soft.

“That’s okay, love.”

Chapter 22

C-could you stay with me today?

Mike

Vicky was sad,and I hated it.

Since I picked her up about an hour ago, all she’d done was stare out of the window of my ancient Land Rover. The contrast between this Vicky and the Vicky I’d taken out on a date two nights ago was stark.

After the first-date disaster of taking her to a fancy restaurant where she couldn’t actually eat, a second date entailing fish and chips on my sofa—something she seemed thrilled about but which I considered well below wooing level—then a date crashed by all our nosy friends and family, I’d wantedthisdate to be perfect.

So I’d tried to come up with something Vicky would think was perfect. I’d told her to wear her most comfortable leggings and hoodie, picked her up from her house and taken her to a hide in Regent’s Park used by the Zoological Society of London to watch the little prickly guys.

It was the first time I’d ever made a picnic, but I’d done my research. Lottie told me, in great detail, how to make a sandwich that Vicky would eat.

It was all worth it to see the look on Vicky’s face when we arrived at the hide. The way she looked at me, like I’d hung the moon for her, when in reality, I’d made a sandwich and managed to sneak us into a park at night, was almost unreal.

“You like hedgehogs too?” she’d asked with wide eyes.

I’d pulled her into me and hugged her close, saying, “I likeyou,” into her hair.

When I pulled back, she was blinking rapidly, and I could see the unshed tears in her eyes.

Bloody hell, had I actually thought that this woman wanted designer clothes and fancy cars? Had I really believed she thought she was better than everyone else?

She talked about hedgehogs and wildlife preservation for an hour straight after that. When I had to gently tell her to eat her sandwich, she’d blinked as if coming out of a trance, and then a look of mortification had swept over her features.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” she asked, her face flaming red.

“What, love?” I asked with a frown.

“Banging on about my obsessions. I did it again. Y-you should have stopped me.”

“Hey, I want to hear about the hedgehogs too, you know. You can’t be selfish with the hedgehog facts. That’s not fair.”

She tilted her head to the side. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?” Her voice was steady, but I could just about make out a small thread of hurt running through it.

I turned fully to her on my camping chair. “Vicky, no. I’m not teasing. Ilikehearing about the hedgehogs. I like hearing about anything that makes you happy. You listened to me bang on about welding yesterday.”

There was a long pause before she leapt on me and kissed me.

We’d had another standoff that evening when I told her we could sleep together but couldn’t have sex because she’d be sore.That didn’t go down well at all. Then I’d refused to teach her the “logistics of a blow job”, which didn’t go down well either.

We ended up in a ridiculous negotiation over it.

Vicky wanted an exact number of “dates” before I’d teach her. It was insane. Of course, I wanted a blow job. Fuck. But this girl was a virgin three days ago, and we were going to take it slowly, goddamn it.

But now sitting in my passenger seat, she was not babbling about hedgehogs or universal income—another of her pet obsessions, which I got her started on last night on the phone, setting off an hour-long explanation—it was actually fascinating stuff, and I just loved hearing that unbridled enthusiasm in her soft voice. No, she wasn’t talking about anything. And she looked really, really far away. Like she’d retreated from me, like she was back behind protective walls.

I reached out and laid my hand on her leg.

She flinched as if she’d forgotten I was even there.