‘Oh my God,’ Dan said. ‘You’re a complete hustler. Where did you learn and how have I never known this about you?’
‘Army cadets and, clearly, the first secret of hustling is to keep your skill as secret as possible.’
‘Well, wow. That was seriously impressive. You’re my woman if I ever need a sniper. Ready to haul our booty off to the pub now?’
* * *
Two and a half hours later, Evie looked at her plate and the last mouthful of her sticky toffee pudding and said, ‘Ireallywant to eat that, but I’msofull.’
‘You going to go for it?’
‘I actually can’t. I’m going to have to admit defeat.’ Evie gestured at the panelled walls surrounding them. ‘I love this pub. So much character. And such good food.’
‘Yeah, me too. I’m going to tell Zubin it was a great suggestion. Shall we get the bill and I’ll walk you home very slowly to try to work some of the pudding off?’
‘Oh my goodness,’ Evie gasped as they opened the door of the pub and a blast of freezing air hit them. ‘You never think of London as being this cold. Especially in the autumn.’
‘Good job we have the teddies to warm us and that you have one of your trusty scarves,’ Dan said. This evening’s one was a sort of coral colour and woollen. ‘How many times are you wrapping this one?’
‘As many as I can.’ Evie shivered.
‘Come here.’ Dan put his non-teddy-holding arm round her shoulders and hugged her into him. ‘Warmer?’
‘Mmm,’ said Evie. He couldn’t see her face very well because her head was kind of nestled into his neck as they walked, but he’d definitely caught a glimpse of a big smile.
They wandered along like that, across Wimbledon Common, talking a little bit, about light stuff, until they stopped to cross a road, and then looked into some of the shop windows on Wimbledon High Street, and then afterwards ended up holding hands instead, all the rest of the way down the hill and back to Evie’s flat, still chatting, still about nothing serious.
They stopped outside Evie’s front door. Dan looked down at where their fingers were laced together. Her hand really did fit perfectly inside his.
‘I really enjoyed our evening,’ he said. He’d be pretty keen for it not to end right here.
‘Me too,’ Evie said. She looked up at his face for a long time, and then said, ‘Would you like to come in for a coffee?’
Stupid question. Dan wouldloveto go in for a coffee. Except. Evie had hesitated for way too long there. It was like she thought she should ask him in but she wasn’t totally sure about it.
‘Are you absolutely sure?’ he asked. Shit. That sounded like he thought they were talking about sex, which obviously he hoped they were, but maybe they weren’t, maybe she was just genuinelyonlytalking about coffee. ‘I mean, you aren’t too tired? Dodgems, hustling and eating a lot are hard work.’
She smiled at him and his breath caught.
Thirty-Five
Now – October 2022
Evie
It was Wednesday evening and Evie had to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to help supervise Year Nine netball practice at seven thirty – just hideous – but she was still sure about inviting Dan in. They’d had an amazing evening so far and it felt like the natural next step.
‘I’m very sure. I need a coffee to carry on digesting.’
‘Then I’d love to.’ His smile was slow and held alotof promises.
Woah. Evie had just had a serious stomach lurch. He was coming inside. Thank God she was wearing matching underwear. Not that drinking coffee with someone meant that you werenecessarilygoing to undress in front of them.
It would be seriously disappointing if no undressing happened, though.
They held hands all the way up the stairs to the flat, which was a bit cheesy, but felt really, really nice.
‘So here we are,’ she said, once they were inside. They weren’t holding hands any more, because the front door was stiff and impossible to open without both hands plus a bit of a kick. Josh talked a lot about oiling it but never got round to it.
