“Thank you, Michael. I'd like that.”
I smiled, unable to mask my delight. “Good. I know a little restaurant just down the road that I think you might enjoy.”
“That sounds fun,” Anna said, linking her arm in mine. I guided her through the departing throng.
As we strolled together down the Aldwych, Anna continued to chat about the play, comparing it favorably with a production she had seen at the Haymarket some years before.
When we reached the Strand I pointed to a large gray double door on the other side of the road. “That's it,” I said. We took advantage of a red light to weave our way through the temporarily stationary traffic, and after we'd reached the far sidewalk I pushed one of the gray doors open to allow Anna through. It began to rain just as we stepped inside. I led her down a flight of stairs into a basement restaurant buzzing with the talk of people who had just come out of theaters, and waiters dashing, plates in both hands, from table to table.
“I'll be impressed if you can get a table here,” Anna said, eyeing a group of would-be customers who were clustered round the bar, impatiently waiting for someone to leave.
I strolled across to the reservations desk. The head waiter, who until that moment had been taking a customer's order, rushed over. “Good evening, Mr. Whitaker,” he said. “How many are you?”
“Just the two of us.”
“Follow me, please, sir,” Mario said, leading us to my usual table in the far corner of the room.
“Another dry martini?” I asked her as we sat down.
“No, thank you,” she replied. “I think I'll just have a glass of wine with the meal.”
I nodded my agreement, as Mario handed us our menus. Anna studied hers for a few moments before I asked if she had spotted anything she fancied.
“Yes,” she said, looking straight at me. “But for now I think I'll settle for the fettucini, and a glass of red wine.”
“Good idea,” I said. “I'll join you. But are you sure you won't have a starter?”
“No, thank you, Michael. I've reached that age when I can no longer order everything I'm tempted by.”
“Me too,” I confessed. “I have to play squash three times a week to keep in shape,” I told her as Mario reappeared.
“Two fettucini,” I began, “and a bottle of ⦔
“Half a bottle, please,” said Anna. “I'll only have one glass. I've got an early start tomorrow morning, so I shouldn't overdo things.”
I nodded, and Mario scurried away.
I looked across the table and into Anna's eyes. “I've always wondered about women doctors,” I said, immediately realizing that the line was a bit feeble.
“You mean, you wondered if we're normal?”
“Something like that, I suppose.”
“Yes, we're normal enough, except every day we have to see a lot of men in the nude. I can assure you, Michael, most of them are overweight and fairly unattractive.”
I suddenly wished I were half a stone lighter. “But are there many men who are brave enough to consider a woman doctor in the first place?”
“Quite a few,” said Anna, “though most of my patients are female. But there are just about enough intelligent, sensible, uninhibited males around who can accept that a woman doctor night be just as likely to cure them as a man.”
I smiled as two bowls of fettucini were placed in front of us. Mario then showed me the label on the half-bottle he had selected. I nodded my approval. He had chosen a vintage to match Anna's pedigree.
“And what about you?” asked Anna. “What does being âin the restaurant business' actually mean?”
“I'm on the management side,” I said, before sampling the wine. I nodded again, and Mario poured a glass for Anna and then topped up mine.
“Or at least, that's what I do nowadays. I started life as a waiter,” I said, as Anna began to sip her wine.
“What a magnificent wine,” she remarked. “It's so good I may end up having a second glass.”
“I'm glad you like it,” I said. “It's a Barolo.”
“You were saying, Michael? You started life as a waiter ⦔
“Yes, then I moved into the kitchens for about five years, and finally ended up on the management side. How's the fettucini?”
“It's delicious. Almost melts in your mouth.” She took another sip of her wine. “So, if you're not cooking, and no longer a waiter, what do you do now?”
“Well, at the moment I'm running three restaurants in the West End, which means I never stop dashing from one to the other, depending on which is facing the biggest crisis on that particular day.”
“Sounds a bit like ward duty to me,” said Anna. “So who turned out to have the biggest crisis today?”
“Today, thank heaven, was not typical,” I told her with feeling.
“That bad?” said Anna.
“Yes, I'm afraid so. We lost a chef this morning who cut off the top of his finger, and won't be back at work for at least a fortnight. My head waiter in our second restaurant is off, claiming he has flu, and I've just had to sack the barman in the third for fiddling the books. Barmen always fiddle the books, of course, but in this case even the customers began to notice what he was up to.” I paused. “But I still wouldn't want to be in any other business.”
“In the circumstances, I'm amazed you were able to take the evening off.”
“I shouldn't have, really, and I wouldn't have, except ⦔ I trailed off as I leaned over and topped up Anna's glass.
“Except what?” she said.
“Do you want to hear the truth?” I asked as I poured the remains of the wine into my own glass.
“I'll try that for starters,” she said.
I placed the empty bottle on the side of the table, and hesitated, but only for a moment. “I was driving to one of my restaurants earlier this evening, when I spotted you going into the theater. I stared at you for so long that I nearly crashed into the back of the car in front of me. Then I swerved across the road into the nearest parking space, and the car behind almost crashed into me. I leapt out, ran all the way to the theater, and searched everywhere until I saw you standing in the queue for the box office. I joined the line and watched you hand over your spare ticket. Once you were safely out of sight, I told the box office manager that you hadn't expected me to make it in time, and that you might have put my ticket up for resale. After I'd described you, which I was able to do in great detail, he handed it over without so much as a murmur.”
Anna put down her glass of wine and stared across at me with a look of incredulity. “I'm glad he fell for your story,” she said. “But should I?”
“Yes, you should. Because then I put two ten-pound notes into a theater envelope and took the place next to you. The rest you already know.” I waited to see how she would react.
She didn't speak for some time. “I'm flattered,” she eventually said, and touched my hand. “I didn't realize there were any old-fashioned romantics left in the world.” She squeezed my fingers and looked me in the eyes. “Am I allowed to ask what you have planned for the rest of the evening?”
“Nothing has been planned so far,” I admitted. “Which is why it's all been so refreshing.”
“You make me sound like an After Eight mint,” said Anna with a laugh.
“I can think of at least three replies to that,” I told her as
Mario reappeared, looking a little disappointed at the sight of the half-empty plates.
“Was everything all right, sir?” he asked, sounding anxious.
“Couldn't have been better,” said Anna, who hadn't stopped looking at me.
“Would you like some coffee?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Anna. “But perhaps we could have it somewhere a little less crowded.”
I was so taken by surprise that it was several moments before I recovered. I was beginning to feel that I was no longer in control. Anna rose from her place and said, “Shall we go?” I nodded to Mario, who just smiled.
Once we were back out on the street, she linked her arm with mine as we retraced our steps along the Aldwych and past the theater.
“It's been a wonderful evening,” she was saying as we reached the spot where I had left my car. “Until you arrived on the scene it had been a rather dull day, but you've changed all that.”
“It hasn't actually been the best of days for me either,” I admitted. “But I've rarely enjoyed an evening more. Where would you like to have coffee? Annabels? Or why don't we try the new Dorchester Club?”
“If you don't have a wife, your place. If you do ⦔
“I don't,” I told her simply.
“Then that's settled,” she said as I opened the door of my BMW for her. Once she was safely in I walked round to take my seat behind the wheel, and discovered that I had left my sidelights on and the keys in the ignition.
I turned the key, and the engine immediately purred into life. “This has to be my day,” I said to myself.
“Sorry?” Anna said, turning in my direction.
“We were lucky to miss the rain,” I replied, as a few drops landed on the windscreen. I flicked on the wipers.
On our way to Pimlico, Anna told me about her childhood in the south of France, where her father had taught English at a boys' school. Her account of being the only girl
among a couple of hundred teenage French boys made me laugh again and again. I found myself becoming more and more enchanted with her company.
“Whatever made you come back to England?” I asked.
“An English mother who divorced my French father, and the chance to study medicine at St Thomas's.”
“But don't you miss the south of France, especially on nights like this?” I asked as a clap of thunder crackled above us.
“Oh, I don't know,” she said. I was about to respond when she added, “In any case, now the English have learnt how to cook, the place has become almost civilized.” I smiled to myself, wondering if she was teasing me again.
I found out immediately. “By the way,” she said, “I assume that was one of your restaurants we had dinner at.”
“Yes, it was,” I said sheepishly.
“That explains how you got a table so easily when it was packed out, why the waiter knew it was a Barolo you wanted without your having to ask, and how you could leave without paying the bill.”
I was beginning to wonder if I would always be a yard behind her.
“Was it the missing waiter, the four-and-a-half-fingered chef, or the crooked bartender?”
“The crooked bartender,” I replied, laughing. “But I sacked him this afternoon, and I'm afraid his deputy didn't look as if he was coping all that well,” I explained as I turned right off Millbank, and began to search for a parking space.
“And I thought you only had eyes for me,” sighed Anna, “when all the time you were looking over my shoulder and checking on what the deputy barman was up to.”
“Not
all
the time,” I said as I manoeuvred the car into the only space left in the mews where I lived. I got out of the car and walked round to Anna's side, opened the door and guided her to the house.
As I closed the door behind us, Anna put her arms around my neck and looked up into my eyes. I leaned down and kissed her for the first time. When she broke away, all she
said was, “Don't let's bother with coffee, Michael.” I slipped off my jacket, and led her upstairs and into my bedroom, praying that it hadn't been the housekeeper's day off. When I opened the door I was relieved to find that the bed had been made and the room was tidy.
“I'll just be a moment,” I said, and disappeared into the bathroom. As I cleaned my teeth, I began to wonder if it was all a dream. When I returned to the bedroom, would I discover she didn't exist? I dropped the toothbrush into its mug and went back to the bedroom. Where was she? My eyes followed a trail of discarded clothes that led all the way to the bed. Her head was propped up on the pillow. Only a sheet covered her body.
I quickly took off my clothes, dropping them where they fell, and switched off the main lights, so that only the one by the bed remained aglow. I slid under the sheets to join her. I looked at her for several seconds before I took her in my arms. I slowly explored every part of her body, as she began to kiss me again. I couldn't believe that anyone could be that exciting, and at the same time so tender. When we finally made love, I knew I never wanted this woman to leave me.
She lay in my arms for some time before either of us spoke. Then I began talking about anything that came into my head. I confided my hopes, my dreams, even my worst anxieties, with a freedom I had never experienced with anyone before. I wanted to share everything with her.