Tales of the City 04 - Babycakes

it’s called?”
She nodded. “Michael named it that.”
“Ah.”
“Don’t get too much now. You look a little pink already.” He pressed the flesh on his forearm. “Well … it’s proof, at least.”
“Of what?”
He gave her a gentle, bemused smile. “My defection to sunny California.”
“Oh … right. Sorry it hasn’t been nicer for you.”
“Quite all right.”
“It’s been just as bad in London, according to Michael.”
“So I hear.”
She sat down on the courtyard bench, several feet away from him. “I can’t believe you’re leaving in two days. It seems like just yesterday. Olive Oil’s, I mean.”
He looked puzzled.
“The bar where we met,” she explained.
“Oh … yes, it does.”
“What will you do … when you go back?”
He shrugged. “Something civilian, I daresay. Publishing, perhaps. I rather fancy the idea of that. My Uncle Alec works at William Collins. I expect he’ll put in a word.”
“That’s a publisher?”
“Mmm. They do the Bible. Among other things.”
“I see.” She smiled at the thought. “That sounds a little … dignified.”
He smiled back at her. “I am a little dignified.”
She giggled. “I guess you are.”
He was quiet for a moment, his dark eyes boring into her. Then he said: “Your friend … uh … Connie stopped by earlier today.”
“When?” Was there no shaking that woman?
“When you were exercising. She seemed disappointed to have missed you.”
“Oh … well …” She didn’t really give a damn, and she didn’t care if it showed.
He smiled. “I take it you aren’t disappointed?”
“Well, she’s kind of a pest, actually.”
He nodded.
“She’s one of those childhood friends who won’t go away. She’s all right, I guess, but we don’t have very much in common. Did she … uh … want anything in particular?”
“No.”
“Is she still pregnant?”
“Very.” He smiled.
She rose. “Well … I’ll leave you in peace. Are we still on for tonight?”
“Dinner?”
“Right.”
“Lovely,” he said.
She headed toward the house, then stopped. “Watch that sun now.”
Three hours later, as they sat at a table overlooking Washington Square, she remarked on how easily he tanned.
“Yes,” he replied “It’s rather odd, I must say. Both my parents were quite fair.”
“It’s very becoming,” she said.
He looked out the window, seeming faintly ill-at-ease. “I like this place. You come here often, do you?”
She nodded. “Usually for breakfast. It feels almost like home.”
“Well … the name helps, I suppose. Mama’s.”
“Yeah. Only my mother wasn’t much of a cook.”
He smiled at her. “Nor was mine. And no one had the heart to tell her. We lived for the limes when Nanny would cook.”
She remembered suddenly, “Shit,”
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“I forgot to give you your messages.”
He didn’t seem particularly distressed.
“Michael said to tell you he’s leaving the keys with your nanny.”
“I know,” he said. “I talked to her yesterday.”
“Oh.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah. Somebody named Fabia stopped by. She’s gotten married, and she wants you to come to a party this summer.”
His lip flickered sardonically. “Did he say who she married?”
“Uh … a guy named Dane who makes potato chips.”
Another flicker.
“You know him?”
He nodded. “Poor bastard.” He seemed to acclimate himself to the idea as he sipped his wine. “Well … he has the money she’s after, if not the breeding.”
She hesitated, then asked: “Was she after you?”
“She was after everyone. She all but went into mourning when Prince Charles announced his engagement.”
“Well,” she teased, “Michael got the impression you had broken her heart.”
“Fabia? No one has ever mistaken that for a heart.”
She laughed.
He smiled warmly at her. “I know about hearts,” he said.
She felt herself reddening. What did he mean by that? She scrambled to change the subject. “You … uh … have a nanny, huh? I mean had.”
“Have, actually. She’s still very much around.”
“I guess that’s pretty common in England. I mean … not common, but …”
He chuckled. “Widespread.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s not. actually. It’s gotten frightfully expensive.”
“It’s a nice tradition,” she said.
His dark eyes squinted as he summoned something. Then he began to recite; “ ‘When the world was but a cradle, Nanny Marks, when our jelly faces called within the dark, it was you that made us