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I wonder whether all married couples end up like this – keen to find out about each other’s favourite food, then thirty years later not considering it worthwhile to make it. Will Alex and I ever be like that? I stop this thought in its tracks. This is our first date. For all I know, it will go terribly, leaving us both hoping never to see the other one again.
The snow that started to fall on Christmas Eve continued throughout most of Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It stopped last night, but it shows no sign of thawing. The air is bitterly cold and would normally keep me indoors. But today I barely notice it. I walk as quickly as possible to our meeting place, feeling the snow crunch and squeak under my boots, almost skipping as I go.
Alex is waiting for me, stamping his feet. ‘You made it!’
‘Did you think I wouldn’t?’
‘For all I knew, it could have been an elaborate prank on your behalf,’ he says. ‘Setting me up to wait in the snow for hours, then sending one of your friends instead.’
‘Suzy?’ I say without thinking.
He looks surprised. ‘I didn’t have anyone specific in mind.’
I relax. Why did I mention Suzy?
‘In fact, I rarely manage to persuade beautiful women to meet me,’ he adds.
An image of Suzy flashes through my mind again, but I squash it. ‘Now that we’ve ascertained it wasn’t a prank, are you ready to go?’
‘Absolutely!’ he says. ‘I took you at your word and left my wet suit and ice hockey stick at home.’
‘Do you play ice hockey?’ I ask as we walk towards the bus stop.
‘Not only do I not play ice hockey,’ he says, ‘but I’ve never even been to an ice rink.’
‘I wish I’d known that. I could have taken you ice skating today.’
‘I’m glad you didn’t,’ he says. ‘Personally, I’ve never seen the appeal. Sliding around the ice at dangerous speeds balanced on ridiculously thin pieces of metal and periodically crashing into other people has always seemed a strange way to spend an afternoon. And they have the cheek to charge you on top of it.’
‘It’s actually great fun,’ I say. ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’
‘I’ll try it one day if you really want me to,’ he promises. ‘But now that we’ve established where we aren’t going, where are we going?’
The bus slides to a halt beside us. ‘You’ll see,’ I say, jumping onto the step and paying for both our tickets before he can object.
The journey into town feels a little awkward. We sit together on the back seat, and I’m reminded of taking the same bus into town for my first date when I was fifteen. Mason Carter asked me rather awkwardly whether I liked Star Wars because there was a back-to-back showing at the Odeon that weekend.
There were few films I disliked more, but I was flattered to be asked. I was even more flattered that he’d asked me and not Suzy. I spent an excruciatingly boring five hours sitting in the cinema, wondering why I’d come.
Alex seems to read my mind. ‘It makes you feel like a teenager again, doesn’t it?’
‘How did you know what I was thinking?’
‘I always know what you’re thinking,’ he says in a syrupy voice.
I grin. ‘I bet you don’t know what I’m thinking right now!’
‘Thankfully not,’ he says. ‘I was remembering taking the bus into town with friends.’
‘Didn’t you say you grew up in London? It must have been an awful lot easier for you to take the bus than it was for us. There are only two a day. If you miss this one, you have to wait for three hours or give up and go home.’
‘I’m very glad we didn’t miss it,’ he says, squeezing my hand.
He doesn’t let go, and we spend the last five minutes of the journey with his hand firmly gripping mine. It makes me feel even more like a teenager, but it’s nice. I’ve almost come to think of our Christmas Eve kiss as something magical, completely separate from real life. But the feeling of his hand in mine makes me feel comfortably connected again.
‘Did you tell your parents where you were going today?’ he asks.
‘As a matter of fact, I didn’t,’ I say guiltily. ‘Did you tell yours?’
