Peter’s Predicament – Part 2

After buying the drinks, Peter carried them over to the corner sofas that Lisa had settled in. On his way over, he looked at her, wondering how he could have missed her back at university. How did this gem slip the net?

He placed the drinks on the table and asked Lisa if she wanted any sugar or extra milk. She said no, so he sat down and stirred his tea.

Lisa confidently began the conversation. “So, what have you been up to over the past 15 years?”
“Well, I finished my Literature degree and then went straight into the working world. I started off as a Junior Accountant at Pearson’s and I am now an accountant at Pearson’s. I did do a stint in the middle in London but I moved back a few years ago,” he explained briefly. He didn’t want to go into too much detail because no matter what people might say to him, accounting is a boring job. The pay was mediocre at best and the job was deadly boring. Although he never let on, deep down, Peter hated this job.
Lisa raised her eyebrows at him and looked surprised but didn’t say anything immediately. She looked almost disappointed.
“It’s not that interesting, is it?” he said, smiling uncomfortably.
“No, it’s not that, Peter. I just wouldn’t have pinned you down for an accountant. I thought you would have been doing something rather closer to your degree. I always imagined you as a teacher and a writer. Your writing was so good and people loved you. You would have made a great teacher,” she said, looking at him intently.
Peter smiled at her and decided to believe that he had imagined the dreaminess and admiration in her tone.
“I did used to write quite a lot back in the day,” he said reminiscing back to his university days, before he got married. Why did he suddenly feel that Diane had sapped all the energy he used to have for his interests and hobbies out of him?
After a pause, he quickly turned the spotlight onto her.
“So what do you do Lisa?” he asked with genuine interest.
“I’m a divorce solicitor, specialising mainly in cases where child custody is an issue,” she explained proudly.
Peter was impressed and didn’t hide it.
“Wow! That’s exciting,” he said. “Is that in London then?” he asked.
She nodded as she swallowed the sip she had taken of her drink.
“Yep. I live and work in London.”
“Whereabouts in London?” he asked, feeling a bit envious that she lived in the cosmopolitan.
“I work in Holborn but I live in Shepherd’s Bush,” she said, knowing that Peter was going to like this.
“That’s amazing! I love London. I wish I could have lived somewhere like that,” he said wistfully.
“I’m sure there are many accounting jobs in London,” Lisa said, smiling at him cheekily.
Could Peter ignore that? Her smile said a lot more than Peter wanted to believe. Her eyes glistened, playfully teasing him.
His smile faded slowly.
“Ah, perhaps in another life,” he said sadly, prompting an awkward pause.
To fill the silence, she took another sip of her drink and checked her phone quickly.
“So, what brings you up this way then?” he asked her, trying to sound perkier.
“Ah, well one of the cases I’m working on has the mother and the kids of the family living up here and she wants to keep full custody of them, so I had a routine visit to the house to speak with her and the children,” she explained. There was a sad tone to her voice.
“Oh nice,” Peter said, clearly at a loss for words.
“It’s not really nice though, is it?” Lisa answered, a bit annoyed. “I mean, just because the parents didn’t care enough to use protection, and then got married for the sake of getting married, the children shouldn’t be the ones to suffer. I see it every day. Parents that hate each other and then try to hurt each other using the children. The people that are hurt the most are the kids and it’s long-lasting damage that is caused, you know? It runs deep and the parents just have no idea. They are like children themselves and it just makes me so angry,” she added getting progressively more irate as she went on.
“You sound like you’re really passionate about your work. I admire that,” he said, with sincere respect in his voice.
“Oh I am,” she said nodding. “It’s the children I am so passionate about, always caught up in a mess that isn’t theirs.”

Peter and Lisa’s eyes were locked together in a silent but strangely comfortable gaze when Peter’s phone started to ring. He knew it was Diane but he also knew that he didn’t want to answer it. He was enjoying this time he was having with Lisa. It was like a lovely dream and his phone was like the reality of a morning alarm clock, ringing through disturbing him from this beautiful parallel world he had entered.

Three rings in, Lisa looked down at his pocket and said, “You can go ahead and answer that. It’s not a problem, Peter.”
“Ah don’t worry about that. It’s probably work,” he said, willing the ringing to stop.
After a few more rings, it finally stopped and Peter exhaled a sigh of relief. Before they could continue their conversation, it started ringing again. It was unrelenting, persistent. Lisa looked at him expectantly.
“It’s ok. Honestly, go ahead,” she said.
He quickly stood up and pulled the phone out of his pocket, which made it ring louder and more unforgiving than ever before.
“Excuse me,” Peter said, heading towards the door of the coffee shop.
Peter fended off his wife and bought himself some time. He told her that he got a flat tyre on his way to the hospital and was waiting for the AA to come and change it. She would never know the difference, so as far as he was concerned, this was a white lie he could live with.

When he got back to their table, Lisa was on the phone. She looked happy and laughed, “I told you that would happen! Well, I’ve got to run. I’ll catch up with you tonight. Ok, bye!”
She hung up and put her phone in her bag.
“Sorry about that. It was my flat-mate. She’s trying to feed the cat but they don’t get on very well,” she said smiling.
Peter, relieved that it wasn’t a husband or boyfriend, smiled back and told her that it wasn’t a problem. He sat back down and took a sip of his drink.
“So, what’s your story then, Peter?” Lisa asked teasingly. “Are you married? Got kids?” she added, finally getting to the questions everybody always wanted to get answers to. The real gossip.

Peter was at a crossroads. He could be honest and tell her about Diane and Will and be honest, loyal and faithful. Or he could for the next 15 minutes, live a different life altogether. To Lisa’s knowledge at least. He could live up to this image she apparently had of him. He could be the cool, creative writer who was a free spirit, though he had already tainted this image by telling her that he was an accountant.
Of course there was a lot he was assuming here. The signals he interpreted as flirtatious did not mean that they were actually flirtatious. They did not mean that she had intended anything but being friendly. In fact, they meant nothing at all. Just because he found her deliciously attractive, it didn’t mean that she felt remotely the same about him. For all he knew she could have been engaged to be married. She could have had a child.
The next thing to come out of Peter’s mouth could define the rest of his life…

*Stay tuned for Part 3!*