Love to Hate You: Three's a Crowd

Chapter Thirty - She

Love was in the air. Mattie and Rafe were rampant once more, Xander and Amy had said the "L" word (despite being unable to fully consummate their love), and Rudy and Vicky were blissfully pregnant (whilst Isla demonstrated that she was truly her mother's daughter). Tobias was not to be left out. He didn't need to be, because he had a date. A very surprising date, which had come out of left field, but which he'd been rather looking forward to.

Now he was looking at it, because it was happening in Lydia's favourite restaurant. She tended to wear what he thought of as "power suits" to work; well-tailored trousers, shirt and blazer, with a flattering cut, but not revealing. Not giving a glimpse of her personality outside of work. Now he saw her in a nude knitted dress which clung to her hips and backside, before draping in careless folds across her torso and breasts. The sleeves hugged her forearms, before disappearing into the oversized neck of the dress, which sat hanging off one shoulder. He thought it was the perfect balance between revealing and modest. It was playful, too, teasing at a hint of cleavage if the large neck should shift and slip further down her shoulder. It did not. She was too put-together to wear clothing which malfunctioned.

Her hair was down – she always wore it pinned up at work – and it sat in honey-coloured waves about her shoulders. Worn loose, it changed the shape of her face, and with eyeshadow and lipstick, he found it hard not to stare at her green eyes. She was an attractive woman. Mature, but not old, she was feminine in a powerful, commanding way, yet she was not beautiful. She had never been beautiful. Not to Tobias. Not before that night, when he saw who she really was and not merely who she wanted her colleagues to see.

'You look great,' Tobias told her, feeling totally out of his depth. He'd dated strange women, average women, and impressive women who knew how to toy with a man. He'd never dated anyone like Lydia. Anyone so quietly self-assured. Anyone... older, he realised, as he took in the lines about her eyes and mouth. She must have been in her fifties, he supposed. Not really that much older than him, but he'd dated almost-exclusively younger women.

'Thank you,' Lydia replied, with a curl of her lips. Her eyes crinkled, too. 'Are you nervous?' she asked, with an amused smile, though her voice was kind instead of teasing. Tobias frowned.

'A bit,' he answered.

'Why?' she pressed, setting her elbows on the table and leaning towards him. The neckline of her dress shifted with the movement and drew his eyes to her chest. He thought he was about to catch a glimpse of her cleavage, but alas, it was not to be. The smile in her eyes told him that she'd noticed him looking, knew what he'd been hoping for, and appreciated his disappointment.

'Well...' he told her, 'I didn't think you liked me. At all, really, so this date is... unexpected. Good of course!' he rushed, 'but unexpected. I'm not sure what you're thinking.'

'I've never disliked you,' Lydia told him. 'I have found you irritating, but perhaps not for the reasons you thought.'

'Oh?'

'I liked you – have done for some time – and I'll admit, I've found it tedious listening to you whine about women who are clearly not right for you.'

'You were jealous?' Tobias asked, agape. Her, jealous, over a Ford Fiesta?

'"Jealous" is too strong a word. It's also not how I operate.'

'How do you operate?'

'If a man can't see what I have to offer, then he's not worth my time. Jealousy doesn't come into it, because if I've reason to be jealous, he's not worth it, ergo I don't want him.'

'I, um...' He hesitated. He had a feeling that he ought not to disagree with her, and yet he wasn't a complete doormat. 'I like the sentiment, but if you've really liked me the way you said, then I think you play your cards too close to your chest. I thought you hated me. I'd never have asked you out because I'd have expected to be shot down. Besides, you were kind of scary.' Her smile split her face; teeth broadly on display, cheeks rising high, crowned with warm, glistening eyes. For someone who was not beautiful she was truly very beautiful to him when she smiled.