The Blind Date Surprise

‘Theo?’ Mel’s voice rose an octave. ‘Theo as in Dr Theo Grainger?’

‘Yes.’ In defence Annie added, ‘I told you I spoke to him this morning. And he’s invited me to meet his dog.’

Mel collapsed against the wall in helpless laughter.

‘What’s the big joke? You know I’m nuts about dogs.’

‘Oh, yeah, sure, Annie. You’re fascinated by Theo Grainger’s dog. But hello—half the UQ philosophy undergraduates are nuts about Dr Theo.’

Annie couldn’t hide her surprise.

‘The female half, that is,’ Mel amended. ‘Not that it gets them anywhere. Apparently, he has a policy of never dating students.’

‘Good for him.’

‘But that’s why I’m so gobsmacked. How did you wangle this date with him?’

‘For crying out loud, Mel. Walking a dog is not a date.’

‘Yeah?’ Smiling, Mel shook her head. ‘That’s like saying a foot massage has nothing to do with sex.’

To her dismay, Annie found it difficult to meet her friend’s gaze.

There was an awkward silence while she stared at the floor and then Mel said more gently, ‘Well, don’t worry. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that jerkishness doesn’t run in Damien’s family.’

Impulsive decisions often had unpleasant repercussions, Theo reminded himself the next morning as he waited at the northern end of the Goodwill Bridge and watched the blue and white City Cats ferrying passengers up and down the Brisbane River.

He suspected that the impulse to invite Annie McKinnon to join him on a walk with his dog had been foolish. But she’d been badly misled by his nephew and he consoled himself that his sense of obligation to her was a worthy motivation.

After spending almost a decade as a university lecturer, he was well aware of the pitfalls of offering even the most casual friendship to an attractive young woman. But in Annie’s case it should be quite a simple matter to guard against repercussions.

He’d kept the invitation very low-key. He’d even been ungallant enough to let her find her own way to the bridge, but now he wondered if she might get lost.

He switched his attention from the river to the traffic speeding to join the network of concrete ribbons that formed the freeway system and in his peripheral vision he caught sight of a hand waving.

Annie.

She was waiting at the pedestrian crossing on the other side of the road. The lights changed and within less than a minute she came hurrying up to him.

‘I hope I’m not too late,’ she said, panting slightly, as if she’d been running.

‘Not at all.’

She dropped to her knees, and focused her attention entirely on the dog. ‘Oh, Basil, you’re beautiful. I could recognise your gorgeous black and white spots when I was still a block away.’

She ruffled Basil’s ears and made a great fuss of him and Theo tried not to notice the way her hair shone in the sun, or how slim and lithe she looked in her black shorts and sleeveless pale blue top. He turned quickly to study the clusters of apartment block towers built close to the river.

‘So which way are we going?’ she asked, jumping to her feet.

‘Over the bridge. Ready?’

‘Sure.’

The Goodwill Bridge was restricted to pedestrians and cyclists and as they set off across its gentle arc the city buzzed around them. At this early hour the air was still and cool, the sky clear, and the parks and gardens green. Brisbane looked clean and at its best.

‘Hey, Theo, is that Italian writing on your T-shirt?’

Annie had the most disturbing way of asking unexpected questions. ‘Yes,’ he admitted, looking down at the slogan on his chest. ‘It’s an ad for coffee.’

‘Can you read Italian? Do you know what it says?’

‘It’s something like…For people who really care about the coffee they drink.’

She looked excessively impressed. ‘Have you ever been to Italy?’

‘Yes, many times.’

‘Wow, I’d give anything to see Rome or Venice or Florence. I’ve read all I can about them and I drool over the pictures.’

‘Italy’s beautiful. I think it’s my favourite European country.’

‘Really?’

To his surprise she looked puzzled.

‘You have a problem with that?’

‘No, it’s just that it’s Damien’s favourite country too.’

‘But he’s never been to Italy.’

She came to a sudden halt and Theo tugged on Basil’s lead. ‘Hang on, boy.’

‘This is weird,’ she said. ‘Do you think Damien has been pretending to be someone like you?’

‘I can’t think why. What makes you think so? Because of the dog and Italy?’

‘Not only that.’ She turned to look out at the river where an old wooden ferry was chugging from one side to the other. ‘He used to tell me things about philosophy, too.’

Theo laughed. ‘Philosophy? Damien doesn’t know the first thing about philosophy.’

‘Well, he sounded knowledgeable to me.’ She turned back and offered him a sheepish smile. ‘But then I wouldn’t have a clue. I’m more of an old movie fan. As far as I know, Scarlett O’Hara’s “Tomorrow is another day” could be philosophy.’

‘And you wouldn’t be too far off the mark.’

She shook her head. ‘I’m beginning to feel so stupid about this. I can’t believe all the things I lov—liked about Damien were all make-believe.’

Not make-believe, Theo thought. They were me.