What are you doing here? Ive never seen you in Anathema before, didn’t think it would be your kind of scene. Amelia said in her silky and seductive voice, answering her own question for me.

I was getting pulled into her aura again, just like a week before at the gallery. Neither of us seemed capable of looking anywhere other than into the pair of eyes directly in front of us. I wanted to be brave and forget about how I was supposed to behave, and concentrate more on how I wanted to behave. But the more I thought about it the harder it was to just be natural around Amelia. Now I knew how guys felt when trying to chat up a really attractive woman. Ok, I was beginning to empathise with men, that was not a good sign.

Lizzie brought me here. I said, really not knowing what else to say.

Once against the proverbial cat had got my tongue, well and truly ripped it out and ran off with it.

I was wondering whether you two had gotten home safely on Friday, I was kind of hoping I would receive a call from you to let me know. Amelia subtly hinted, her look straying from my eyes and sweeping over me from head to foot. It was sly but not sly enough.

Ok that last point was pretty unequivocal. She was flirting with me for real now, I was actually being chatted up by a ***** and I wasn’t doing anything to stop it.

Sorry, I didn’t want to bother you. I thought you would be busy or something. I rambled, stopping myself before I said something stupid. It had never even crossed my mind to call her, well it hadn’t in a realistic way.

I needed some more drink, at least at the gallery when I had been talking to her I had been a bit drunk. Now I was stone cold sober and talking *****, as usual.

Lucky for me I think Amelia was finding my blundering state of shyness cute, or endearing or something. Because she smiled warmly at me, her eyes twinkling in the light, causing my heart to flip flop as it tended to do these days.