Still, he was disappointed to see her there. Now over sixty, she didn’t come in to see the kids as much, and Paul had been hoping to sneak a read of Slavic Girl’s file. None of the volunteers were allowed access to the files. Relevant information was shared in weekly meetings on a need-to-know basis by Jeremy, the youth club manager, so Paul had to develop his own system of getting the information on the girls. This was usually through his own conversations with them, but he’d built up a good enough rapport with Jeremy to get an overview. It didn’t hurt that he’d also had great success with his tutoring, and while the youth centre was primarily a place for kids to come to relax and enjoy activities rather than to study, there was talk of setting up a more official tutoring programme. In fact, Jeremy had shared the info just last week that Gloria was keen to look at something as soon as this year.

So why isn’t she talking to me about it herself?

Despite all his efforts with Gloria, he’d never clicked with her as he thought he would. Oh, she was polite of course, never rude. But still, he sensed that she kept her distance from him. Who was he kidding? He knew that she just didn’t like him. It was as simple as that.

‘Hi, Gloria, looking lovely today. Pink suits you,’ said Paul, turning on the charm, hoping to strike up a conversation about Slavic Girl.

‘Thanks, Paul,’ she replied without looking up.

Stuck up cow.

‘Busy?’ he tried again.

‘I am rather – did you need the room?’

‘Nope. Was just dropping my things.’ Paul slowly placed his bag in the locker giving Gloria an opportunity to make conversation, but he knew it was a waste of time.

‘Right then, I’ll get started.’

‘Thanks, Paul.’

‘Nice to see you, Gloria.’

Cow.

‘Likewise.’

Paul left the room knowing he would have to either sneak back into the office later to read the file when no one was around or pick Jeremy’s brains. He didn’t like his chances of the first option, mainly because it was impossible to find anything and there was always a high chance of being caught as volunteers were in and out of there all the time. Jeremy wasn’t in until tomorrow. He never liked to go in blind with a girl – he liked to have the advantage of knowing something about her before approaching, but tonight he had no choice. He would just have to talk to her himself. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

*

‘Oh man! What’re ya’ doing?’

Paul picked up the ping-pong ball that had whizzed past him with a grin. ‘Sorry, mate, you’re clearly on top form today!’