And standing in the middle of some very brightly lit loos that smelled of pine bleach and something grim, she had goosebumps all over thinking about what might happen later.
She moved closer to the mirrors. Did her lipstick look okay? Maybe she should have worn a slightly different colour. And was her hair looking alright? She gave it a couple of tweaks.
Okay. She was being ridiculous. Dan probably wouldn’t notice her lipstick or her hair. He wasn’t standing out there feeling like a gibbering wreck. He was just being normal. She was going to pull the tag off the loop and leave the loop itself and Dan would never notice and if he did – which, again, he wouldn’t, because they probably weren’t going to be removing clothes; oh, God, maybe they would – he’d actually never notice or he’d think it was just part of the label of the jumper and he’d never know she’d bought the jumper today just for this evening and everything was going to be fine and she just needed tostop panicking. It was strange, though, finally being on an official date.
She took some deep breaths and left the loos.
When she got back to the cinema foyer, Dan was next to the pick ’n’ mix, holding a big stripy paper bag and an expression of extreme concentration.
‘Oh, wow, sherbet lemons,’ Evie said, pleased that her voice sounded normal and non-jittery.
‘I know,’ Dan said. ‘I couldn’t resist. I literally never eat sweets but these were calling out to me. I was just trying to work out whether to take a punt on what you’d like and go big on just a few of what are in my opinion are the best ones, or whether to get a little bit of everything.’
‘We have to go big on just a few,’ Evie said. ‘Unless you have very bad taste in sweets and we can’t agree.’
‘No,’ said Dan. ‘If we can’t agree, it’ll be becauseyouhave bad taste.’
Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting in the middle of the second from back row of the auditorium, munching happily on the sherbet lemons, plus fizzy cola bottles and pineapple chunks, people-watching while they waited for the film to start. Evie honestly couldn’t remember enjoying a cinema trip this much, even as a little girl. She had a what’s-going-to-happen-this-evening fizz of anticipation inside her even bigger than the fizz from the sherbet lemons.
When the credits rolled at the end of the film and the auditorium lights came on, Evie saw that every seat was taken, which was weird, because it had felt like it was just the two of them for the duration of the film. Then she looked down and realised that she had both her hands clamped on Dan’s forearm.
‘I didn’t know you were a screamer,’ he said, grinning at her.
‘Me! What about you? You gasped so much when that man leapt out with the knife I thought you were going to choke.’
‘I mean, the whole cinema gasped at that point. Whereas the whole cinema did not scream when you did.’
‘Quiet screaming, though,’ Evie said. ‘You gaspedreallyloudly.’
They grinned at each other.
‘Quick drink so we can recover from the screaming and gasping?’ Dan said.
‘Sounds like a plan.’ Should she invite him back to her flat? Cue extreme stomach butterflies. ‘There’s a lovely wine bar up the road if you fancy it?’
As they pushed through the crowded bar, Evie almost wriggled with pleasure, feeling Dan’s hand in the small of her back. It felt intimate, it felt like the promise of things to come later, and it just feltright.
Once they were sitting at a table in the corner, Dan with a bottle of beer and Evie with a glass of white, Evie said, ‘So it’s wonderful that you and Max sorted things out.’
‘Yeah. Thank you, so much, again. We’re in touch a lot more now. It’s nice. He and Greggy are making progress with their wedding plans. By the sounds of it, they’re going to make Sasha’s wedding look almost low-key. You know he asked me to be his best man? I have the job of organising his stag, and he said he has no guidance other than he wants it to be unpredictable and spectacular.’
‘Easy, then.’
‘I know. So far I have no ideas beyond your bog-standard Ibiza or Prague trip, both on a budget. I need something original but not too expensive.’
‘Hmm. Bingo?’
‘That is original and also cheap, but maybe a miss on the spectacular front.’
‘Hey. Have you been to Johnson’s Bingo in Cirencester? Because thatisspectacular.’
At midnight, when the bar closed, Evie wassonot ready to end the conversation, and it seemed like Dan wasn’t either.
‘Can I walk you home?’ Dan asked. ‘For my peace of mind.’
‘Yes, you can, and thank you,’ Evie said. She really wished the bar had stayed open for longer because now it felt like she had a decision to make and she wasn’t sure which way she wanted to go. She didn’t want the evening to end now but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to invite Dan in tonight, because it felt like they could be at the start of something big and like she needed to work out what she wanted. ‘I’m quite tired, though.’ Aargh. She could have worded that alotbetter.
He smiled at her. ‘I’m tired too.’
