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He intended to shower, change into slouchy clothes, and stuff his face with pizza, in that order. Watching some mindless programme on the telly was also on the agenda, preferably something he didn’t have to think about too much. He might even treat himself to a beer; there were three in the fridge that had been there since Wednesday and they should be lovely and cold by now.
It wasn’t his preferred way to spend a Saturday night, but even if he’d had plans to go out, Daniel wasn’t convinced he’d have been able to force himself to leave the house once he’d stepped over the threshold.
He must be getting old…
Taking deep lungfuls of cold air, Daniel hurried away from the cloying, artificially perfumed warmth of the department store, and walked tiredly towards his truck, holding the bag with the Santa suit in his hand. If he was honest, he’d be happy if he never saw the darned thing again, but he had jobs lined up for several weekends between now and Christmas Eve, and some days during the week, too.
He was thinking about the next place he was due to work at – a Christmas fayre in a nearby town – when he spotted a familiar figure standing outside The Thorn and Thistle fiddling with his phone. Daniel debated whether to turn on his heel and slink off in the opposite direction, but as he dithered Tobias glanced up and saw him.
‘Wotcha, mate,’ Tobias said. ‘Where are you going?’
‘I’m on my way home,’ Daniel said, hoping Tobias wouldn’t ask him where he’d been or what he’d been doing, because he didn’t want to lie but neither did he want to share what he’d been up to today. ‘What about you?’
‘I would ask if you fancied going for a pint, but I’ve got a date.’
‘Why am I not surprised!’ Daniel joked. The man had more dates than a wholefood shop at Christmas. Which reminded him, he should get some for his grandad, because Edwin adored the sticky, sweet fruit.
‘Remember the woman with the ice cream van? Seren? I’m meeting her for a drink,’ Tobias said.
Daniel remembered, all right. He hadn’t been able to forget her. Every time he visited his grandad, he’d hoped to catch sight of her. It had crossed his mind to call into the shop where she worked but he hadn’t, worried that it might look too obvious.
He wished he had, because Tobias had asked her out before he’d found the courage to, and now it was too late – she wouldn’t look at him twice after going on a date with Tobias. Women fell for Tobias faster than trees for a logger’s saw. And they usually stayed felled. Daniel had lost count of the number of broken hearts Tobias had left in his wake.
Tobias will love her and leave her, the same as he’d done with all his other girlfriends, Daniel lamented silently, and he was about to say he hoped Tobias would have a good time (even though he didn’t strictly mean it) and hurry off home, when Seren came hurtling around the corner and almost skidded to a halt.
‘I’m not late, am I?’ she asked, breathlessly. ‘Oh, hi, Daniel.’
‘Hello.’ Daniel’s heart lurched at the sight of her and a pulse began to throb in his temple. Goodness, she looked amazing. Her cheeks glowed, her hair shone in the streetlights, and she looked elegant in a long woollen coat and high-heeled boots. She was wearing lipstick, and his gaze was drawn to her full mouth and her ready smile.
He gave her a half-smile in return, wishing he was the one who she had been hurrying to meet and not his friend.
‘You’re not late. I’ve only just got here myself,’ Tobias said.
There was an awkward moment when Daniel wondered if the two of them were going to go for a hug, so he hastily made his excuses and left. He didn’t want to witness any embracing – or worse – and neither did he want to hang around like a spare part.
Feeling rather sorry for himself and wishing he was more like Tobias and less like himself, Daniel made his way home.
Finding out that Tobias was Seren’s type was a depressing end to what had been a most unsatisfactory day.
When Seren had tottered around the corner on her too-high heels and saw Tobias lounging against the wall of the wine bar talking to Daniel, her heart had sunk.
For some inexplicable reason she was reluctant for him to know she was going on a date with Tobias. It was rather silly, considering Daniel hadn’t shown any interest in her and she didn’t even know whether he was in a relationship. The absence of a ring meant nothing. Most of the people she knew from school were living with someone and hadn’t formalised their union with a marriage certificate.
He’d looked shocked to see her, and he’d quickly made his excuses and left. She was sorry to see him go, which concerned her – that she was even thinking about Daniel made her wonder if she should be here with Tobias. He might be hot, but he wasn’t her type and she suspected she’d only agreed to go out for drinks with him because she was flattered that such a good-looking guy would be interested in her.
She’d never been one of the popular girls in school, and boys hadn’t been queuing up to ask her out. The few dates she’d been on had been with those boys who most girls didn’t look at twice – the nerdy ones, the swotty ones, the ones who were shy and introverted.
As she’d grown older, she’d been asked out more, but she hadn’t been under any illusion she was a catch. Neither had she fallen for any of them. The relationships she’d had in the past had been brief and unsatisfactory, and she was reluctant to jump into another one.
But it stroked her ego to be asked out by someone as good-looking and as smooth as Tobias, even though she was under no illusion that it would be anything more than a quick fling for him. If she let it get that far, which she wouldn’t.
Still, there was no harm in giving him the benefit of the doubt. Underneath his confident and self-assured manner, a shy guy might be lurking, and she hadn’t been out for ages with a member of the opposite sex, so this was quite a treat.
Seren became aware of Tobias staring at her as she watched Daniel dash off, and she gave him a wide smile. ‘Shall we go inside? I’m freezing.’
Gallantly, Tobias opened the door and gestured for her to go ahead of him, and she gave him another smile as she stepped inside. So far, so good, she thought.
When he asked her what she wanted to drink, she chose a small white wine and was pleased to see he had a soft drink after he’d told her he was driving. She’d arranged to meet him in town, but if the evening went OK and he offered to drive her home, she’d probably accept rather than take a taxi. She liked to keep her options open when it came to how she was getting home; a couple of disastrous dates had made her rather wary of being dependent on anyone else for transport.
