Evie reached down to her bag and sneaked her phone out and into her pocket. When everyone was really focused on the film, she could re-read his email without disturbing anyone. Maybe she could look at it now while people were watching the trailers.
‘Are you having a laugh?’ The man behind her, who’d been rustling his popcorn bagreallyannoyingly loudly for the past five minutes, poked her in the shoulder. ‘Put that away. I can’t watch a film with a phone light below me.’
‘Areyouhaving a laugh?’ Priya had turned round and was glaring at him. ‘Looking at a phone’s a lot less disruptive than eating really loudly right behind people. And kicking the chairs in front.’
‘Sshhh,’ said about twenty people around them.
Evie said, ‘Sorry, everyone,’ put her phone back in her bag and hunched down in her seat.
‘Waiting for you to apologise too,’ Priya told the man behind them.
Evie screwed her face up and hunched further down. The man kicked both their chairs, hard, and cruncheddisgustinglyloudly on some more popcorn.
Priya got her phone out and turned the light on and waved it above her head.
Evie put her hands over her face.
An hour later, Evie sneaked a look at her watch during a very brightly lit scene. There was about an hour to go. The film wasn’t bad, actually. Except for the fact that it was a drama involving a sexy doctor and Dan was a sexy doctor – although red-headed and rugged as opposed to dark and suave – so it was very hard not to keep thinking about him.
Snippets of different conversations with Dan were replaying in her head now.
She really wanted to know what his letter said.
She did not want to sit through the rest of this film.
Maybe she could go out to the foyer and wait there.
She whispered to Priya, ‘I’m going to pop outside for a few minutes,’ and half rose to go.
‘Sit down,’ growled the popcorn-and-kicking man from behind.
‘Stand up if you want to,’ hissed Priya.
‘I’m fine,’ whispered Evie, hunching in her seat again.
‘Sshhh,’ said several people.
Honestly. What if she’d just wanted to go to the loo?
Finally, the – to be fair, very good – film finished, and everyone watched and cheered the credits, for, honestly,ages, and then they made their way out to the foyer.
‘Such a shame that it’s too late for a drink,’ Claire, one of Evie’s friends, said.
Evie nodded. ‘I know. Next time.’ It was actuallysucha good result. She really wanted to go home and get on with obsessing about Dan in peace.
They all hugged goodbye and the others left Priya and Evie, who were going back to Vauxhall together.
‘This looks interesting.’ Priya stopped Evie in front of a large poster advertising the nextStar Warsfilm and started reading out the names of the actors in it. Weird. Priya didn’t strike her as aStar Warsfan.
‘Haven’t heard of any of them,’ Evie said. ‘Do youlike Star Wars?’
‘Kind of.’ Priya did the same in front of the next poster, which was advertising the new Disney film. That one did have a lot of famous actors in it.
‘This is going to be either a mega hit or a mega flop,’ said Evie, ‘with all these people in it.’
Priya didn’t reply. Evie looked round to see why not. It turned out that she had her back to her and was talking to a man, who looked a lot like the popcorn-kicking man. She was gesticulating like mad. Evie really hoped she wasn’t going to start afightor something.
She was talking very animatedly.
