Page 50 of Ask Another Day

‘Save it Rose. I love Natalie with all my heart. But she’s a pretty prominent catch for some people.’

Rose blew her breath out with a flutter of her lips. Holly’s attention was drawn to the damp beer mat Rose had picked up and was now absent-mindedly ripping up.

Narrowing her eyes, she snatched what remained of it from her hands, ‘You’re holding out on me, Rose. Come on, spit it out.’

Rose caved immediately.

‘So there might be a teeny, weeny, catch,’ she whispered, pinching her thumb and index finger together to make her point. Holly noted she wouldn’t meet her gaze.

‘Rose,’ she drew out her name, the warning lilt to her tone unmistakable.

‘Have you told her yet?’ Luke called out, his voice reaching them before his face appeared behind Rose.

‘I was building up to it,’ she hissed out, playfully lashing out behind her to elbow Luke in the stomach.

He laughed and spun her to face him, ‘You’ll have to try harder than that if you’re trying to hurt me, Rose.’

‘Jeez, can you two knock it off for 30 seconds so I can hear what’s wrong with Nikolai?’

Rose struggled to spin herself back to face Holly, her face flushed. ‘There’s nothing wrong with him. He just doesn’t…’ she winced, ‘he doesn’t speak English,’ she rushed out, like ripping off a plaster in one quick move.

‘I’m sorry - what?’ Holly spluttered out, praying she’d misheard.

‘He’s Russian.’

‘Russian?’ Holly repeated, eyes wide at why on earth Rose had kept this from her.

‘Yes. But he’s gorgeous Holly, so who cares what language he speaks?’

‘Well, it will make our date a bit quiet for one,’ she groaned, suddenly feeling deflated. She’d expected an odd hobby, or maybe a nervous habit. She’d been waiting for something to go wrong, but it delivered a punch when she was proved right and it felt more insurmountable than whatever she’d been imagining.

‘Oh, don’t worry. She’s planned for that,’ Luke laughed, dodging another elbow, this time aimed a little lower.

‘You’re not helping.’ Rose turned again, this time to glare at him.

‘Tell her, go on. Tell her the plan,’ he said with a waggle of his thick eye brows.

Rose pushed away from Luke and brushed down her dress from where he’d creased it with all the hugging and spinning.

‘So you know Mrs Becker?’ Rose winced at the end of her question, revealing her nerves at this solution to the language barrier Holly was about to face.

The question hit Holly out of left field. Mrs Becker was the last person Holly expected to come up in relation to a date. She was a nice enough old lady, but that’s what she was. When Holly used to pop in to check on Eleanor at The Book Nook, before Rose moved in to work there, she’d sometimes interrupt the scrabble group. That was the only time she really saw Mrs Becker.

‘Eleanor’s scrabble buddy?’

‘Yes, her. So, she used to work in Russia and is fluent in the language.’

‘And she’s going to sit in and translate for us?’ Holly laughed. The sound died when she saw Rose’s earnest expression. ‘Absolutely not, Rose.’

‘It’s the perfect solution,’ Rose countered, reaching out towards Holly who had managed to manoeuvre herself back towards her camp bed.

‘It. Is. Not,’ she enunciated each word with wide, disbelieving, eyes.

‘She has loved helping out.’

‘Wait. Why did you say she has loved helping out? The date hasn’t happened yet?’ Holly was confused.

‘Oh. Well, you see, I knew I needed help when his first message came through in Russian, so I got Mrs Becker to help. Apparently, he’d been let down by internet translations in the past, so doesn’t trust them.’