‘That’s so sweet of you, but I’m fine, honestly.’ Now that Dan was here, he was really the only person in the room she’d like to dance with. ‘It’s quite nice sitting and watching the world go by.’
Dan grinned at her. ‘Old before your time. Next thing you’ll be saying you can’t hear yourself speak and slippers are ever so warm and comfortable and that your neck’s feeling a lot better now you’ve found the perfect pillow and from now on you’re going to take it on holiday with you.’
‘Idohave the perfect pillow and I wouldtotallytake it on holiday with me if I weren’t scared that I’d lose it.’ Evie rubbed Autumn’s back again in response to a gurgle but it was no good. Autumn lifted her head and yelled.
‘Good lungs,’ Dan said.
‘Let me take my daughter.’ Evie’s mum had supersonic hearing when it came to Autumn; she could hear her cry from several hundred metres away, so a loud party was nothing. She reached down, picked Autumn up and started rocking. ‘Hi, Dan. Why don’t you two go and dance now?’ She did a huge pantomime wink and eyebrow wiggle as Dan pulled Evie to her feet.
‘Good job she doesn’t know about our pact,’ Evie said to Dan as they walked away from her mum. A joke was always the best way to deflect her mother’s unsubtle attempts at setting her up with people. Although at least Dan wasnice, unlike a lot of the men her mum chose for herself and tried to choose for Evie. Sometimes, Evie could really do with her mum having a more conventional love life.
‘Hah,’ Dan said. ‘At least she’ll have no problem finding a hat for the wedding.’
Evie felt a smile spread over her face as they walked towards a group of people near the fireplace. She loved Dan’s company. She loved talking to him. She loved his sense of humour. And his kindness. And he was gorgeous in his own rugged way. Maybe something would happen between them tonight.
They reached the group and a tall, blonde and beautiful woman who Evie didn’t recognise took Dan’s hand.
Oh.Oh. They were quite clearly together.
Why hadn’t Evie thought of this? Mortifying. Although at least no-one would ever know what she’d been hoping for this evening.
Dan turned to the woman he was holding hands with and said, ‘Manda, this is Evie, Sasha’s best friend; Evie, this is Manda.’
‘Hi, Manda!’ Evie realised immediately that that had not come out of her mouth the way she’d wanted it to. She’d been aiming for nonchalant but she’d just sounded peculiar. Manda was smiling and blinking her very long eyelashes a bit too much, like she thought Evie was a bit weird. What Evie needed to do now was sound completely natural, not like she was mentally kissing goodbye, with real sadness, her mythical marriage to Dan in seven years’ time. And remembering their kiss last year and thinking with distaste of him kissing Manda. ‘So where did you two meet?’
‘Just at a party,’ Dan said.
‘Great,’ Evie said. ‘Well, I should go and say hi to a couple of friends over there who I haven’t seen for a while. Good to meet you, Manda.’ She fake-wide-smiled at them both. Bloody Manda did not return her smile.
‘I don’t like her,’ Sasha said a few minutes later.
‘Why not?’
‘She’s really unfriendly and kind of scornful. Not to sound incredibly judgemental about someone I’ve barely met. I don’t know. I just get negative vibes from her.’
Evie nodded. She didn’t like the look of Manda either, but she was pretty sure that she wouldn’t have liked the look of any woman who was with Dan.
But, really, what did she expect? Dan was amazing. He was gorgeous, funny, kind and a doctor. He could have any woman.Obviouslyhe’d never have more than a passing interest in Evie, at the most. God, she actually felt slightly tearful, and like she’d rather be anywhere but here. Frankly, she’d rather just go home and have a hot bath and get into bed with a good book. But this dress was dry-clean only, so she wasn’t going home now. That would be a waste of at least a tenner’s cleaning bill.
She was going to ignore Dan and Manda and have a good evening anyway.
Nine
Then – December 2014
Dan
Dan kept his arm round Manda’s shoulders and tried hard not to watch Evie dancing. She looked amazing in her sparkly blue dress.
The last time he’d seen her they’d been doing some pretty intense – and pretty amazing – kissing on her front doorstep.
He’d thought about that night far too much afterwards, and then he’d managed to put it out of his mind, because Evie was absolutely not someone he should date but, now he was in the same room as her for the first time for a year, it was difficult not to remember again.
Manda turned to look at him. ‘Shall we get out of here? Kind of boring?’ she said.
Shit. He’d been standing next to Manda, thinking about Evie. Terrible behaviour, although clearly no-one could read his thoughts.
‘I’d quite like to stay,’ he said. ‘There are a lot of people here I’d like to talk to. Old friends who I haven’t seen for a while.’ Other than his father. He’d happily avoid one-on-one father-son time.
