Penny for them?’
Startled, Violet looked up from her table in the pub snug, knocking her notebook off the corner. ‘Please, allow me…’ The man who had addressed her retrieved her splayed notebook from the floor, keeping it face down out of discretion.
Violet’s face burned. She recognised this guy. He had waved her ahead of him at the bar the other week, saying, ‘After you. I’m only here to ask Vic to top up Hector’s water bowl.’
Exhausted after her first day in her new job, she had ordered a mineral water, and had a brief chat with the man.
Now she realised she was staring at him. He was around her own age and disarmingly attractive – something she noticed even in her currently fatigued state.
Luckily, he hadn’t detected her unsubtle scrutiny. In fact, he had cast an uneasy glance away from her and seemed slightly embarrassed.
‘Sorry,’ he said, palms raised and brown eyes returning to face her. ‘I’d no right to… What I mean is, I’m not one of those blokes who sees a woman on her own in a pub and thinks it’s OK to intrude.’
She had to smile at his anguished expression. ‘Actually, I’d welcome a brief interruption,’ she admitted. ‘No dog today?’
He grinned. ‘Don’t recall you seeing him the last time we bumped into each other! Hector may be a figment of my fevered imagination, for all you know.’
‘What, so the one who wanted a water-filled dog bowl?’ she laughed. ‘If you were that thirsty, you could have just asked for it
