Evie would miss Josh and Mia if she moved out. She’d have to move out one day, though. They couldn’t live together forever. Maybe Josh would want to move in officially with Fergus soon.
‘Evie?’ Matthew’s smile was faltering a little bit.
Evie cleared her throat. Clearly, she needed to give him an answer, and she needed to do itright now. This was huge, though. It required thought. Matthew looked very serious. It felt like the next step – and maybe quite soon – might be a very carefully thought-out actual marriage proposal.
She suddenly thought of the pact she and Dan had made all those years ago. And Vegas. Dan. It was ridiculous to think of him now. Her crush – because that’s what it was – might as well be a crush on Ryan Reynolds or someone. It wasn’trealand it didn’t mean anything.
Real was lovely Matthew kneeling on the ground in front of her with a now very uncertain smile and a very anxious look around his eyes.
There was only one sensible answer.
Oh, but she wanted even just a fraction of the excitement and longing and fun she felt when she was around Dan.
She couldn’t do it. All she could think about right now was Vegas.
Thirty-One
Then – 23rd December 2021
Evie
Celine Dion impersonator (they hadn’t been able to get tickets to actual Celine Dion) smashing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ – tick. Feather boas, glitter, glamour, the works – tick. Everyone around their table all dolled up to the nines – tick. Piles of chips waiting for them later in the casino after they’d been instructioned-up on how to play – tick. Plus a great menu and a tableful of cocktails. Basically, your perfect Vegas last-night-of-your-twenties evening just starting.
So Evie should reallynotbe constantly trying hard not to look over her shoulder to check whether Dan had arrived. And she should accept that there was no way it would look anything other than odd to ask Sasha to check her phone to see if he was definitely still coming.
And, honestly, why did she even care that much? She hadn’t seen him for several months and she was with her old schoolfriends and this was going to be a fab evening. Best thirtieth birthday dinner she could ever have hoped for.
Their waiter – a man called Joe sporting a floral cowboy outfit – salsa-danced himself over to them with another two jugs of bright pink and bright orange cocktails.
‘Come on, birthday girl,’ he said. ‘Hit me with your order.’
‘Okay.’ Evie looked again at the starters section. ‘I can’t decide between garlic prawns and the quail’s eggs on crostini to start with.’
‘You gonna be spending anyqualitytime with a partner tonight?’ Joe asked. ‘Because if you are, I’m thinking quail’s eggs. Those prawns aregood, I’m not saying they aren’t, but they’re very garlicky, you know what I’m saying?’
‘I’d go eggs,’ Anita said from across the table. ‘I think tonight’s the night to end your dry phase. There are a lot of nice men here.’ Therewerea lot of men here, but they weren’t necessarily allnice. Evie definitely wouldn’t mind ending her dry phase, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that with a one-night-Vegas-stand.
‘I think eggs too,’ Sasha said. ‘You need togetsome tonight. Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs.’ She started swinging her arms in a conducting motion. ‘Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs.’
‘Sasha, we haven’t even had ourstartersand you’re chanting,’ Evie said. ‘Drink some water.’ She was going to go with the prawns. Shewasn’tgoing to ‘get some’ tonight and shelovedgarlic prawns.
‘Honestly, you sound like Dan,’ Sasha tutted. Her gaze switched to beyond Evie’s shoulder. ‘OMG, Daaaaaaaan,’ she screamed, standing up and pointing.
Evie turned round, her heart suddenly beating faster. It was totally okay to turn round when someone hadpointed; it totally wasn’t desperate-looking. And no-one would know that she wasreallyhoping that itwasDan. Unless they saw the huge smile that she could feel spreading across her face, because itwashim. Looking extremely Dan-like. No concession at all to the glitz of Vegas. He was dressed in straight-legged blue jeans and a bottle green needlecord shirt, teamed with Timberland deck shoes. Pretty much the same style of clothes that he’d been wearing every time Evie had seen him since forever. She felt her heart swell with thenicenessof how solidly reliable he was.
People were looking at him as he walked across the room, because that did happen with Dan – there was something about the way he carried himself. He always seemed completely unaware of it.
When he reached them, Sasha made her way round the table and chucked herself on him with an enormous hug.
‘Hey, sis,’ he said, laughing. ‘Good to see you too.’
‘Sit here.’ Sasha did some sleight of hand with chairs and cutlery and suddenly there was a free space right next to Evie.
‘Great, thank you. Hi, everyone.’ Dan nodded round the table and sat down. ‘Happy birthday for tomorrow,’ he said to Evie. ‘And I’m honoured to be sitting next to the birthday girl. Pride of place. How’s your evening going?’
‘It’s going very well,’ Evie said, beaming. It had felt like a good evening before; now it feltwonderful.
‘Welcome to our special new arrival,’ Joe said, winking at Dan, who laughed and winked back, which made Evie want to throw herself into his arms, or something;howembarrassing to realise that you hadsuchan immense crush on someone when you were turning thirty tomorrow and you’d known that someone for so many years. But equallyhowcool that he was here and was going to be sitting right next to her for the rest of the evening. Hopefully dinner was going to last alongtime. ‘I’m guessing you’redefinitelygoing quail’s eggs now?’ Joe said to Evie, indicating Dan with a lot of eye and eyebrow action. God, embarrassing. What if Dan thought she’d said something before he arrived?
