‘Get in,’ said Dan, grinning.
Within a few bars they were both belting the words out, going for some serious a cappella extras at the end.
The third song to come up was ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.
Dan shook his head. ‘So predictable. But also so good.’
And then they both really went for it, Evie with some extreme soprano notes and Dan some very deep ones.
‘We’reamazingsingers,’ Dan said a couple of songs later.
Evie nodded. ‘We really are.’
If she was honest, she’d have to admit that right now she was really glad that her car had broken down. This was a lot more fun than driving home by herself.
Nineteen
Then – Christmas 2019
Dan
Evie’s playlist moved on to ‘Last Christmas’ and Dan laughed out loud.
‘It’s very satisfying to be right,’ he told her. ‘Sopredictable. But you can’t beat cheesiness at Christmas.’ She’d already started singing along to this one. She wasgood. She’d been like this at Lucie’s wedding too, now he thought about it. Excellent on lyrics. ‘Do you know the words to all songs ever or have you just listened to these ones a lot?’
‘I’ve got to say, Iamgood with lyrics. I wasreallybad at remembering a lot of stuff at school, like languages and sciences, things like that, but I’ve always been able to remember songs. I always used to wonder whether the reason that my French vocab and chemistry facts wouldn’t stay in my head was that it was already full of lyrics. And I wish there’d been a song-lyrics GCSE.’
‘They actually should have a popular music GCSE.’ Dan indicated right, moved into the outside lane and speeded up. ‘Finallywe can go at a normal speed. The traffic’s insane today.’
‘Everyone’s going home for Christmas,’ Evie said. ‘And so are we. I’m actuallysoexcited. I can’t wait.’
Dan smiled and shook his head slightly. Still so ridiculously uncynical.
A few minutes later, ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ came on, as they were slowing down for another traffic jam.
Dan felt himself go slightly rigid. And he was staring straight ahead. Was that normal? Yes, it was normal. You always looked straight ahead when you were driving. God, he was behaving like a child. Surely he could act naturally around Evie when the wordsmistletoe and winewere mentioned. It was years since that time they’d made their pact under the mistletoe and kissed. It had been a fantastic kiss, but, again, it was years ago, and a one-off, and he’d seen her a fair few times since then without thinking about it. Why had it come into his head now?
They were stationary now. He took a sideways look at her. She was staring straight ahead too.
It wasn’t often that you could get to just look at someone’s face in repose but at close quarters. He loved the curve of her cheek.
After a few seconds, she turned to look at him, perhaps sensing his eyes on her.
And said nothing. And nor did he. They were looking at each other and Cliff Richard was singing the cheesy song to end all cheesy songs and they were just… looking. And, certainly in Dan’s case, remembering.
Evie swallowed visibly. And Dan swallowed too.
God, she was beautiful. And sweet and funny and lovely and kind. And still gazing at him. As he was at her.
Just the two of them. With all the opportunity in the world right now to say whatever they liked to each other.
It felt like this could be a big moment. One of those moments where you chose which course your life might take. Was that fanciful? Probably. But… She was take-your-breath-away gorgeous and she was fantastic company. It was easy to imagine being around Evie alot. Beingwithher. And it was easy to hope that if he made the first move she might be interested.
Except he couldn’t do this. It would be a killer if things went wrong in a relationship with someone like Evie. It would hurt too much. And, realistically, they would go wrong. So many relationships did. Especially his.
Evie was biting her lip now.God.
No. Better never to go there again.
