Page 68 of The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts

Or it would be if she could just stand up properly.

It must be her high heels, she told herself. Was she so over New York that she could no longer walk in heels?

It didn’t matter. She kicked them off and found that she could dance much more easily without them in her bare stockinged feet.

Everything was lovely. Cranbridge was lovely. The shop was lovely. Even the pub was lovely that evening.

Molly giggled as they bumped into each other whilst they danced.

‘That punch is so tasty,’ said Molly, laughing above the disco music that they had insisted Mike put on the loudspeaker.

‘Isn’t it?’ said Amber, finding her tongue was slightly numb and her words coming out a little thick.

‘I told you,’ carried on Molly, spinning around on the spot. ‘After the first couple of glasses, you don’t even taste how disgusting it is.’

Amber giggled, her hair flopping around her face as she carried on moving. It struck her that she was really quite drunk, but it was a party, wasn’t it? Everyone was drunk.

Tom certainly was as he had joined them in the middle of the floor a few minutes ago, although when Molly tried to teach him the moves to Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’ he lost his balance and nearly took all three of them out. As it was, Amber managed to land softly somewhere.

It wasn’t until she looked around that she realised that it was Josh’s lap which had softened the blow.

‘Hello,’ she said, smiling. She hadn’t even realised that he had been sitting near to them until just then. He really was very handsome when you sat this close to him.

‘Hello yourself,’ he said, smiling.

‘You have very nice eyes,’ she told him, folding her hands around the back of his neck to stop herself from swaying.

And it was true. His eyes were blue with a tiny fleck of yellow around the outside of the iris, if you peered very closely, which she realised she must be because she could feel his breath on her cheek.

She leaned back and smiled at him again.

‘How much of Mike’s punch did you drink?’ he asked, laughing.

‘I’m not sure,’ she said, sticking out her tongue and pinching it with her fingers. ‘But I can’t feel my tongue.’

‘Then I would say it’s probably time to call it a night,’ he said.

‘Call what a night?’ she asked, frowning.

He gave her a gentle push as he moved and she suddenly found herself standing up. Although she was aware that Josh was holding on to her.

‘Why is the room swaying?’ she asked. ‘Is it an earthquake? Another tractor?’

‘Too much punch,’ he told her, bending down to pick up something.

Her shoes materialised in front of her face. She looked down at them and then back up at him.

‘Don’t you think you should put these on?’ he asked.

It took Amber a while to put her shoes on as the room spun every time she bent down. In the end, Josh crouched down to slip them onto her feet.

‘Cinderella,’ she said, giggling.

‘As long as I’m not the Ugly Sister,’ he told her, straightening up to put an arm around her shoulders. ‘Goodnight all,’ he called out as they headed out of the door.

She just about heard them all shout goodnight before the door to the pub closed behind them.

‘Oh, you’re definitely not ugly,’ she said, thinking that it was important that he knew this.