Love at Second Sight Read Online Free PDF Page B

the set?’ I could see he was waiting for me to
say something about his band.
    ‘Yeah. Um . . . quite good.’
    Finn laughed again. ‘Quite?’
    ‘Yes. I thought some of the songs were a bit similar.’ A warning voice in my head told me to shut up. I always do this when I speak to a boy I fancy – try to sound cool but end
up sounding like I’m being critical. So not the same thing.
    Effy knows me well and could see I was in danger of saying something stupid. ‘You’ve also seen me in my mum’s estate agency’ she blurted out.
    Finn looked at her and nodded. ‘Oh right,’ he said.
    ‘Yeah. Two doors down. Davis Reed?’
    ‘Oh right! My parents are looking for a new place, preferably with an outhouse or soundproof garage so I can rehearse.’ He smiled and Effy flashed me a ‘told you so’
look. ‘I don’t think they can stand my music any more. They don’t even think it’s quite good.’
    ‘It’s not that bad,’ I said, then put my hand over my mouth. ‘I think I might shut up now.’
    ‘Good idea,’ said Effy. She turned to Finn. ‘See, it’s Jo who needs the medication and doesn’t know how to behave in public. Not me.’
    ‘I also think I’ll go and sit down now,’ I said and for some inane reason, I bowed. Bowed? Albeit a small one. More of a bob. When I got back to our table, Tash was
looking at me open-mouthed.
    ‘So . . . yes . . . that went well,’ I said. ‘Where are the boys?’
    She indicated outside the café window where Owen, Dave and Mark were now hanging out. ‘Don’t think they liked having competition.’
    The café door opened again and two tall, leggy girls entered, spotted Finn and went over to him. One of them was the girl he was with on the Heath, the other had long blonde hair and
looked so posh she could have stepped out of the party pages of Tatler. Probably an Arabella or Cordelia. She looked down her nose and gave Effy a look as if to say, Who the hell are
you?
    This time Effy did get it. ‘OK, later,’ she said to Finn.
    He grinned. ‘Yeah, later.’ I could see that he liked being seen with an admirer by the two girls. God, he’s so transparent , I thought.
    Effy scuttled back to join us. ‘I think he likes you,’ she whispered. ‘He remembered you from yesterday.’
    ‘He remembers my jacket,’ I said. ‘And now he certainly won’t forget me from today. He must think I’m an idiot! Anyway, it looks like he has a girlfriend, maybe
even two.’
    Effy was never one to give up. ‘Might not be serious,’ she said.
    I shook my head. ‘I’m so not interested. I think he’s arrogant. Probably got an ego the size of a bus.’
    Opposite me, Tash was making ‘zip it’ signals and shaking her head.
    ‘What?’ I asked.
    She pointed behind me. I turned to see that while I’d been talking, Finn had got up from his table to head for the counter. He must have heard every word I said.
    ‘Jo was talking about someone she saw on telly, not you,’ Effy called to him, making it a thousand times worse.
    ‘Sure,’ he said. Like he believed her. Not.
    We finished our drinks and headed out of the café to join the boys. Our plan for the day was to mooch around the shops, which is one of my favourite things to do, but
    we quickly found that everything was closed because it was a bank holiday. Instead we had to make do with a bit of window shopping. At least the boys seemed happy about having escaped being
    dragged into every single shop.
    A book in the window of an antique/junk shop caught Owen’s eye as we passed by. ‘Give me a mo,’ he said as he peered in the window. The others went ahead but I waited for him
and together we looked at the usual mix of stuff on display: odd bits of china, paintings, frames and trinkets.
    Owen pointed to a sepia photo in a silver frame showing a young woman from the Victorian era standing next to a pillar with a plant. ‘Hey look–’
    ‘Don’t even say it, Owen,’ I interrupted.
    ‘Say what?’
    ‘That she