The Look of Love (2 page)

Victoria was
already with Jo and Chrissy, the three of them making plans for
Friday night, when Angela introduced her to Louise after the
lecture. Louise felt even more uneasy standing so close to her. She
needed to say something memorable, but like usual she couldn’t
think of anything.

“I’ll pay you
back,” Victoria said to her, stuffing the notes she had taken under
her arm and handing Louise back her pen. “I’ve got all my stuff in
the halls of residence where I’m staying.”

“It’s alright,”
was all Louise managed to say. Even Victoria’s voice was
attractive. “It’s only some paper.”

“Yeah, but I’ve
got to catch up, so I needed them today.”

Jo quickly
butted in, pulling Victoria away. “Where have you been, Tori? Why
didn’t you turn up on the first day?” she asked.

“I was busy
doing other things. I wouldn’t have come today, but the registrar
told me I had to start attending classes or flunk out.”

“Don’t you want
your degree?” Jo then asked her. “You got three A’s, and you
finished top of our year. It would be silly not to do a degree
after all that.”

Victoria
shrugged. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Are you still
with Zach?” Chrissy wanted to know.

“Sometimes,”
was the almost too casual reply.

Then Angela
remarked, “I thought you’d dumped him. It would be about time.”

Victoria
shrugged again, but didn’t reply.

Louise stood
by, watching but not really listening as the four of them went back
to talking about going out in the evening. It was the first time
Louise had been so close to Jo and Chrissy, and she took the
opportunity to have a longer look at them. Jo was quite slim with
long, light brown hair and brown eyes, while Chrissy was a bit
shapelier, and she was the tallest. She had brown eyes and her jet
black hair was held up with a plastic clip. Louise had noticed that
she always kept her hair up like that. Both Chrissy and Jo were
dressed in the usual baggy tee-shirts and jeans. They were both
very pretty, but in the end, it was Victoria that Louise couldn’t
take her eyes off.

Even though she
looked generally scruffy, Victoria was still quite remarkable. Her
green eyes sparkled. In fact, all her features were so exquisite;
her face could only be described as angelic. Her blonde hair was
very long, reaching down to the small of her back. It was very
shaggy and slightly matted in places, with lots of loose ends. Her
sweat-shirt still hung over one shoulder and Louise stared at
Victoria’s exposed neck and collar bone, admiring her smooth skin.
She could see the strap of her bra over her shoulder, and as she
looked down at the many holes in the sweat-shirt, she could just
make out the edge of the white bra through one of them.

As she chatted
with her friends, Victoria stood with her hands crammed into her
pockets, pushing her jeans down slightly over her hips. Louise
could just see her navel and a narrow band of skin under the
tattered hem of her sweat-shirt. Louise kept her eyes on that bare
skin, contemplating how beautiful Victoria’s body was. It was then
that a light bulb went off in her head and she suddenly looked up
at Victoria’s face and announced, “You can borrow my notes if you
like.”

Her voice had
been slightly too loud, and her remark had nothing to do with the
current conversation, so there was a slight pause as Victoria and
the other three girls all stared at her. Louise kept going. Now
that she had started she wasn’t going to give up, no matter how
embarrassed she might feel. “If you want to catch up, like you
said, you can borrow my notes. I’ve been to every class; I haven’t
missed a single one.”

“Okay,”
Victoria replied. “I’ll see you in the Library tomorrow, about ten.
Is that alright?”

Louise nodded.
“Yes, I’ll be there.”

“Okay.”

Victoria moved
off, still chatting to Jo and Chrissy. Louise was left with Angela.
She breathed out slowly, surprised and excited by her own audacity.
For once in her life she had acted instead of being frozen to the
spot. She felt marvellous.

Angela smiled
at her. “We’re going out for a drink Friday night. Pub then club.
Come with us Louise, it’ll be a great laugh.” She nudged Louise as
she spoke. “You haven’t seen Tori until you’ve seen her strutting
her stuff on a dance floor! She’ll cause havoc! Come on, what do
you say? Or is there really something that exciting on telly?”

Louise stared
at Angela for a moment, and with sudden determination, she said,
“Alright, I will!”

They smiled at
one another, and linked arms as they walked down the corridor
together. As they walked along, Louise asked, “Tell me, Angela, why
do you call her Tori Canyon? It doesn’t sound very nice.”

“It was Jo that
gave her that nickname when we were at school. I think it was the
name of some ship that sank years ago off the coast down south
somewhere. It was a tanker that spilled its oil and caused a big
disaster. So what with her name being similar and everything, it
seemed to fit.”

“Everything?”

“Well, you saw
what Tori’s like. She was the same at school. Always brainy and
together when it comes to work, but everything else, including
commonsense, and she’s a complete wreck!”

Louise felt
elated. For the first time in her life she had actually done
something. She had seen somebody she liked, and actually spoken to
them. Of course, she had to thank Angela for the introduction. If
she hadn’t gone to school with Victoria it might not have worked
out so well. But it couldn’t be better. Not only was she going to
see Victoria in class, but she had already arranged to meet her on
her own in the library tomorrow. And on Friday night she would be
going out with her! Louise felt marvellous! It was like she was a
different person.

Her change in
mood must have been more obvious than even she could tell, because
no sooner had she got back to her flat than her neighbour from the
floor below came up to visit.

Louise opened
the door when she heard the knock and said, brightly, “Hello,
Rosie, how are you today?”

“Gosh! What a
change!” Rosanna Williams replied in amazement as she followed
Louise into her flat. “I thought I heard you pottering about and
humming to yourself. I said to Dave, that can’t be Louise, she
sounds too happy! Dave suggested you had been replaced by a seed
pod during the night. So what’s happened? Have you won the
lottery?”

“No! Much
better than that!” Louise closed the door and added, “Do you want a
cup of tea?”

“Only if it’s
accompanied by a good old chin wag!”

“I think I can
manage that! Come on!” Louise led the way into the kitchen. And
while Louise put the kettle on, Rosanna sat down at the kitchen
table.

Rosanna and
David Williams had been in the flat below since before Louise had
moved in. Rosanna had liked Louise as soon as she saw her, and had
quickly taken her under her wing. Louise had liked both Rosanna and
David, and got on well with them. And when she told them about her
sexual preferences, it hadn’t made the slightest bit of
difference.

Rosanna was
thirty years old and four-foot-eleven at a stretch. Her husband was
thirty-five and almost a foot taller. She worked part time in a
nursery while David travelled around from building site to building
site for the construction company he worked for. Because of David’s
job, they often moved around the country, never managing to put
permanent roots down in any one place. This was the longest they
had gone without moving for quite awhile. Louise would miss them
terribly if they left.

Rosanna watched
Louise intently as she made the tea and started to chat about her
day. She had never seen her looking so happy and animated. There
had to be only one reason for this change. As soon as they were
both sat down at the kitchen table together, tea in hand, Rosanna
spoke up.

“You’ve met
someone, haven’t you?” she asked, suddenly. “Come on! Who is it?
Out with it!”

“God! Talk
about cutting to the chase!” Louise said in surprise. “You don’t
waste any time, do you?”

“Not when it
comes to good gossip!” Rosanna replied. “Who is she then?”

“Her name’s
Victoria. Victoria Kenyon.”

“So what’s she
like?”

It was like
opening the flood gates. Once Louise started talking, she couldn’t
stop. “Oh, she’s beautiful, Rosie! Really beautiful! She’s tall,
and blonde. And she’s got beautiful green eyes. At first I thought
she wouldn’t like me, but she was so nice and friendly! Not at all
the way had she first looked. She’s even on the same course as me!
You have to see her, Rosie! I like her lots! You’ll like her too,
I’m sure you will!”

Then Rosanna
asked, “But is it serious?”

Louise
immediately looked deflated and sat back and hugged her mug of tea.
“Well, I don’t know yet…”

“Does she feel
the same way you do?” Rosanna pressed.

“Rosie! Give me
a chance! I only met her today!”

Rosanna held up
her finger. “Exactly! But I know you! You’ll already be happily
living together in your own mind, even though you’ve only just met
her! Why do you do this to yourself, Louise? It’s not the first
time!”

“I know! I
know!” Louise admitted with a sheepish grin. Whenever she did find
someone she liked, it always started with a tremendous high like
this only to end in the depths of depression once more when it
didn’t work out. “I can’t help it, Rosie. It’s not often that I
meet someone I like, and when I do, I know I go off at the deep
end. Yes, I am being premature, and I do hardly know her. And when
I see her again tomorrow, it might all fizzle out. But at least for
today, I’m happy, and excited. You can’t begrudge me that.”

“No, not so
long as your eyes are open. I’ve seen you upset for long enough,
Louise, it’s about time you were happy. Any longer before a smile
and your face would have cracked. But I don’t want to see you let
down again, either. I hope this girl is what you want her to be,
but until you know for sure, come down off the ceiling, okay?”

Louise sighed.
“Okay,” she replied.

Louise was in
the Library well before ten o’clock. But it was only when she got
there that she realised that she and Victoria hadn’t said exactly
where they were going to meet in the Library, only that they would
meet inside. She panicked straight away, and went around the whole
Library twice to check that Victoria wasn’t already there, waiting
for her. She wasn’t.

Satisfied at
last that Victoria hadn’t arrived yet, Louise settled herself down
at a vacant table opposite the busy entrance. She unpacked all her
files from her bag, and waited.

Half an hour
went by, and there was still no sign of Victoria. As each minute
had passed, Louise had become more and more anxious, until,
finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore, and had to have another
quick look around the Library just to make sure that they hadn’t
missed one another by some strange fluke. But no, Victoria
definitely wasn’t here. Louise went back to her place by the
entrance and slumped down in her chair again. Almost immediately
she began to fear that Victoria might have come in while she was
looking around the Library for her. Now she hated herself for
getting up to look around, while at the same time, she fought the
urge to do exactly the same thing all over again.

Finally, when
an hour had gone by, Louise reluctantly gave up. She had almost
finished packing her things away when she heard someone say, “Not
too late, am I?”

Louise turned
to find Victoria standing right behind her, a rucksack slung over
her shoulder. “No, I…I thought you weren’t coming, that’s all.”
Louise couldn’t think of anything else to say. For some strange
reason, she was sure she could smell something sickly sweet.
Chocolate, maybe?

“I’ll have to
find my watch, but I just can’t remember where I left it,” Victoria
was saying. She had instinctively put her hand over her bare wrist
and was looking around as if searching for a clock. She saw one on
the far wall and sighed. It was ten minutes passed eleven. “I never
get anywhere on time.” She turned back to Louise. “Look, if you’ve
got somewhere to go, you go. But I’d still like to borrow your
notes if you don’t mind. I can give them back to you tomorrow.”

Louise had been
looking closely at Victoria while she was speaking. She still wore
the same battered looking jeans and sweat-shirt that she had worn
the day before. “No, I don’t mind, you can still borrow them,” she
managed to reply. “And I don’t have to go anywhere, so I can talk
you through any of my notes that you don’t understand.”

“Fine! But lets
go and sit somewhere away from this busy gangway.” Victoria
suddenly grabbed a surprised Louise and quickly led her to a
different spot in the Library. Louise had to hastily grab her bag
and last file as she was dragged away.

Victoria picked
a much quieter spot well away from the entrance. It was near an
open window down a dead end aisle between two rows of bookshelves.
She emptied the contents of her rucksack on to the table and then
dumped herself down on the chair. Louise sat next to her and
unpacked in a much more sedate fashion. By the time she had
finished, Victoria was already waiting, pen in hand.

“Right, pick a
subject!” she announced.

Louise passed
across one of her files. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just photocopy
it?” she asked.

“Nah! This way
I’ll remember it as I write it, and I won’t have to read it again
later.” Victoria was already writing as she spoke.

“Do you have a
photographic memory?”