A couple of hours later, when they’d finished their omelettes, plus some chocolate mousses Evie had bought for a treat, Euan said, ‘Thank you. That was very nice.’ He reached out and held Evie’s hand for a moment. ‘We should go engagement ring shopping together when I’m better.’
‘That would be lovely.’ Evie smiled at him and tried to push a tiny feeling of doubt out of her mind. Euan was perfect. She looked round his lovely, tidy, tasteful pale-grey sitting room. He’d be a wonderful husband.
By Saturday, he was well enough to go for a walk, which was very nice, but not well enough for ring shopping, he said.
Midway through their walk in a nearby wood, he put his arm round Evie’s shoulders and pulled her close to him.
‘I’m lucky to have you,’ he said. He leaned his head down towards Evie’s upturned face and then pulled back, saying, ‘No, I don’t think my mouth’s sufficiently recovered to kiss yet.’ He pulled a little mirror out of the pocket of his – very well-ironed – chinos and inspected his face while Evie waited.
Euan was tired after their walk, so Evie went home after agreeing a shopping trip and lunch in two weeks’ time – when Euan thought he’d definitely be better – to buy the ring. Which was very exciting. Quite exciting, anyway. Well, a bit exciting.
Maybe it should feel more exciting than it actually did.
* * *
‘I’m going for the bullseye,’ Sasha said the following Thursday evening, holding her third dart horizontally ahead of her between her forefinger and thumb.
‘You look like an actual darts player,’ Evie said, nodding encouragingly.
They were in The Crown, Grant’s pub in Little Bishop. He’d just set up a darts league and had invited Evie’s mum to get a team of four together for it. She’d been a little bit upset that he didn’t seem interested in her romantically – Evie suspected hewasinterested but was maybe keen to take things slowly after his nasty divorce – and had then decided it sounded like fun and had asked Evie and Sasha and Sasha’s mum Fiona to join her. Grant had provided them with large, pale-blue men’s team t-shirts to wear, so both Evie and Sasha’s mothers were looking very different from their usual respective low-cut dressy-topped and twin-setted selves, which was still making Evie giggle slightly every time she focused on one of them. The four of them were also wearing matching little pale-blue hats, knocked up in two evenings by Evie’s mum, which were lovely but, frankly, weird-looking with the t-shirts.
‘Iaman actual darts player.’ Sasha let fly, with a lot of force, and her dart hit the board’s wooden surround, ricocheted off and just missed an elderly man nursing a pint at the bar.
‘Good try, darling,’ Fiona said as the man clutched his heart.
Grant hurried out from behind the bar, saying, ‘Great enthusiasm, Sasha,’ and helped the man to a bar stool further away.
Evie’s mum turned and glared at their (orange-t-shirted) opponents, who had clapped. She turned back to her team, frowning. ‘So unsporting. Right. I think we need to take this more seriously. I’m thinking we need to get some practice in before our next fixture. If you’re going to do something, do it properly. Could you all do next Wednesday evening?’
Fiona and Sasha both said they could, while Evie thought. She wassupposedto be seeing Euan. But she’dso muchrather play darts with her mum, her best friend and her best friend’s mum. What did that say about her relationship with Euan?
‘I’m free too,’ she said. She and Euan could go to the cinema another evening.
They stayed for another drink after they’d finished losing their match, and finally spilled out of the pub at about eleven, escorted to the door by Grant.
‘He’slovely,’ Fiona said, when he’d finally kissed all their cheeks and gone back inside.
‘Just a friend,’ Evie’s mum said. ‘Blatantly not interested in sleeping with me. But, yes, a very nice man.’
‘I’ve just got a text from Millie asking about Dan,’ Sasha said, scrolling through her phone. ‘She’s so obvious about liking him.’
Evie could see where Millie was coming from. Her heart had literally just leapt at the mention of Dan’s name. She took her own phone out. And there was a message from Euan replying to hers about postponing their cinema date. And the sight of his name caused her no heart leap at all; in fact, it made her feel vaguely flat, like her mood was suffering from a slow puncture. If she was honest, she didn’t want to postpone the cinema trip; she wanted to cancel it forever. And she even more didn’t want to go engagement ring shopping with him.
Because, if she was honest, she really didn’t want to marry him.
She’d better tell him tomorrow. Shortest engagement ever. Just under two weeks. Like her mother, she made some rubbish choices when it came to men. Although in a different way.
Fifteen
Now – March 2022
Dan
‘Happy St Patrick’s.’ Dan adjusted his leprechaun hat, handed a packet of chocolate buttons to Minnie, the little girl in the bed next to the window, and smiled at her. ‘Your special challenge is to not eat all your chocolate at once.’ The paediatric ward had had a big donation of chocolates, and they’d decided to use any excuse to cheer the kids and their families up by dressing up and doling treats out.
‘Thank you, Mr Leprechaun.’ Minnie’s mother smiled a bit tearily at him. ‘It’s so nice that you can visit all the children.’
‘I’ll tell you a secret, Minnie,’ Dan said. ‘Soon my friend the Easter bunny will be visiting too.’ Minnie had a chronic condition, which meant that she’d be in hospital for a while.
