You, Me and Him by Alice Peterson

down and he was going out anyway. ‘I thought her name was Sandy?’
    ‘Sandy. Sandra. Much the same.’
    ‘Great, have a nice time.’
    ‘I will.’
    As I was about to leave Mikey had asked me where I’d like to go for our drink. I had to make up a quick excuse that I’d forgotten it was my dancing class tonight.
    We sat by the window. Finn wanted to be ‘someplace quiet’. I told him we had two options: we could try and find an image from a dance or film book which I could scan onto the computer; or I could draw him something. ‘Draw me exactly what you drew on that napkin,’ he insisted, moving closer. He was almost childlike in his enthusiasm, settling in to watch me as if waiting for his favourite movie to begin while he clutched a box of buttered popcorn.
    As I drew, I could feel a tension between us, something I’d never felt before. Up until now I’d had lots of kisses but only one serious boyfriend, Jonathan. We went out during our ‘A’ levels. I can remember the floor was sticky with beer as we danced to George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’ and shared our first kiss. Jonathan had bouncy brown curls and an easy open smile, but he didn’t exactly make my pulse race. One night we had rented a movie and were sitting alone in the dark. He wanted to go ‘all the way’. I was more interested in unwrapping Quality Street. ‘Everyone else is getting past second and third base,’ he’d complained.
    ‘It’s not a rounders match,’ I replied, watching him reluctantly return his attention to Steve Martin and wondering what was wrong with me? Why didn’t I want to do it? ‘Perhaps you just don’t want to do it with
him
,’ Tiana had reassuringly explained.
    ‘Damn,’ I whispered. I’d given my lady too large a head so carefully had to rub out my mistake, blowing on the paper gently. Finn lowered his head too; our lips were only inches apart. ‘What have you done?’ Normally I wouldn’t have liked anyone sitting so close to me while I drew. ‘Her head’s too big,’ he commented. I could feel his breath on my cheek.
    ‘I know. Don’t back-seat draw.’
    He laughed. ‘Have you been to New York?’
    ‘No. Why?’
    ‘Just wondered. I started going there in the holidays with my twin brother, that’s when I started to collect records.’
    ‘You have a twin?’
    ‘Ed. We’re nothing like each other.’
    ‘Is he good-looking?’ I started to laugh at my own joke.
    ‘Very. That’s the one and only thing we do have in common.’
    Damn. Why did he have an answer for everything?
    ‘Actually that’s not quite true. We have good looks and music in common.’
    ‘You sound close.’
    ‘Yeah, we are. There’s no competition between us which is great. The last thing he’d want to be is a doctor and I’d never go into acting. I think he’s deluded. There’s no money in it.’
    I laughed. ‘Unless you’re successful like Robert Redford, he’s my pin-up.’
    ‘You’ve got a nice laugh. Sexy, like you’ve got a sore throat. Is it natural or do you put it on?’
    ‘It’s natural, thank you. Now, how about that?’ Finn leant in much closer than he needed to, our arms touching. ‘She’s more in proportion now.’
    ‘That’s better,’ he agreed, but his eyes weren’t on the drawing.
    ‘Shh,’ said one of the readers.
    ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’
    ‘Where?’ I looked out of the window. It was raining heavily.
    ‘My room? Don’t worry, it’s not far. Then we can make all the noise we want,’ he suggested with that raise of the eyebrow.
    Finn gallantly held his file over my head as we ran across the gravelled path. Already I felt protected by his height. He must have been six foot three. It was rare that a man was taller than me. I followed him into an old dark building. Students’ names were painted on a wooden board at the foot of the stairs.
    He opened the door. ‘Well, this is my space.’ He led me into a sitting room with pale walls and an old wooden