‘I’m not avoiding her,’ he said. He kind of was.
‘So go and speak to her.’
Dan closed his eyes for a second. He really didn’t need this from his sister. He’dliketo snap at her, but it was her engagement party, and also they were now adults, not bickering children.
‘Please?’ She gestured with her sceptre, narrowly missing his eye. ‘Not for my sake, or your sake, but forEvie’s.’ Her voice was very piercing and several people turned to look. Fantastic. ‘Once you’ve had a chat in public, that will be that. It will all have blown over.’
Dan nodded. ‘Good plan,’ he said. It probably wasn’t, but it didn’t feel like he had a lot of choice now.
He started walking across the room towards Evie, aiming for a saunter, which didn’t work well, it turned out, when you were dressed as a Tudor king.
‘Hey, Evie.’
‘Hello.’ She gave him a small smile.
‘Great costume.’ Always a failsafe conversation starter at a fancy-dress party. Evie was dressed in an incredible all-in-one flared trouser and top thing, in bright-blue satiny stuff, and high platform boots. ‘ABBA?’
Evie gave him a slightly bigger smile. ‘Yes. Liking yours, actually. I’m a little bit surprised by it if I’m honest.’
‘Yeah, my initial instinct was to wear my one and only ten-year-old dinner suit, and get myself a toy gun.’
‘James Bond?’
‘Yup. And that was the plan I was going with until I realised that Sasha would be loudly disappointed in me, and, more importantly, that she might find a costume for me herself.’
‘Definitely safer to choose your own.’
‘Indeed. Although I’d like to make it clear right now that this wouldn’t have been my number one choice. There were only three options in my size and the other two were Superman and Harry Potter.’
Evie sniggered. ‘I’d have liked to have seen you in a Superman costume.’
‘Yeah. I decided to embrace my inner wife-murderer instead.’ Oh, for God’s sake. Why had he mentioned the wordwife? This was the effect Evie had on him. She made him lose his mind slightly. ‘Can I get you another drink?’ He gestured at her nearly full glass.
‘Hi.’ The blond man had reappeared and put his left arm round Evie’s waist as she was opening her mouth to reply to Dan’s question. He held his right hand out to Dan. ‘I’m Matthew.’
‘Dan,’ said Dan, shaking Matthew’s hand. He looked between the two of them. ‘So you’re…?’ How long had they been together? And did he have any right to be angry however long it was? No, he didn’t, so he should try to act like he didn’t want to punch Matthew or shout at Evie right now. What a ridiculous reaction, actually. And, now he thought about it, ofcourseshe hadn’t already been with Matthew at Christmas. He was sure she wouldn’t do that, and also Matthew would have found out about their Vegas trip on social media.
‘Yeah,’ said Matthew, apparently impervious to what Dan felt simmering between himself and Evie. ‘Been seeing each other for about three weeks now, haven’t we?’ He smiled down at Evie. ‘Although we’ve known each other for a few months. She finally consented to go out with me after she’d hit me in the eye.’
‘With a shuttlecock.’ Evie smiled at Matthew and didn’t completely meet Dan’s eye. ‘By mistake.’
‘Aw,’ said Dan. ‘That’s sweet. Well, great to meet you, Matthew.’ He was pretty sure his voice was almost shaking with insincerity. ‘Good to see you, Evie.’
Evie murmured, ‘Lovely to see you too,’ while Matthew shook Dan’s hand enthusiastically again.
Dan turned round and walked away, tempted to shake his head.
He made himself busy chatting to old friends and relatives and he had a perfectly pleasant evening. Except for the fact that he actually had a physical pain now in his neck from surreptitiously eyeing Evie and Matthew the whole time. He really hadn’t been expecting her to be with anyone tonight. No reason she shouldn’t be, of course, but it still felt off.
Matthew seemed like a nice enough guy. Much better than the man she’d been with at Lucie’s wedding a few years ago. Not a great guy, though. Not good enough for Evie. Not someone she’d necessarily have a lot of fun with.
God. The way he was thinking, it was like he wasjealous.
Twelve
Then – October 2016
Evie
