Page 28 of Five Things I Love About You

In the end I agreed they could both track me on my mobile, just in case I was bundled into a car boot and driven to some remote house to be tortured.

‘You might be slightly overreacting,’ I told them, but I was comforted by the fact that they cared so much.

I check the route on my phone and turn the next corner, marching down a street lined with identical terraced homes in varying states of repair – clearly a mixture of family homes and student digs. After a few minutes I can make out a patch of woodland ahead, and the road starts to dip towards it. The map tells me to take one of the footpaths through the woods, so I do as I’m told and find some steep steps heading downwards. It’s quiet in here, cocooned by the trees, and I can hear the sound of gushing water and birds tweeting in the trees. It’s peaceful and I take a moment to breathe deeply.

Crossing the river, I follow the signs to the Millfield café. It’s busier here, a mix of dog walkers, students with backpacks and parents watching young children zipping around on scooters, and I scan the face of every man I pass with trepidation. Would I know if one of them was Jay?

‘Miranda!’ I turn to see Matt waving at me from beneath a nearby tree and I swerve off the path to go and join him.

‘Sorry, Gladys needed the loo and I didn’t think they’d appreciate me letting her curl one out on the steps of the café.’ He gives a wry smile. ‘Anyway, I’m glad you came.’

‘Did you think I wouldn’t?’

He shrugs. ‘I was worried you might have second thoughts about meeting a random man in a park once you’d had time to think about it, and I realised I didn’t give you my number.’

I don’t mention the warnings from my best friends, but instead smile at him. ‘Maybe I’m naïve, but I was just glad to have something to do today that didn’t involve wandering aimlessly around on my own.’

‘Well, good.’

We both peer down at Gladys who has finished her doings and is looking up at Matt expectantly. Matt pulls a green plastic bag from his pocket, bends down and scoops it up with a grimace. ‘One of the joys of dog ownership,’ he says, slinging it into a nearby bin. He hands me the lead. ‘Could you take this for a second while I wash my hands?’

Gladys and I wait, her with her tongue hanging out and staring forlornly at the doorway where her owner just disappeared, me wondering whether being out with a dog really will mean more people talk to me. I bend down to ruffle her ears just as Matt returns, a takeaway cup in each hand.

‘Sorry, I fancied a coffee so I took the liberty of guessing what you’d like. It’s a cappuccino, I hope that’s okay?’

‘Thanks, that’s really kind,’ I say, taking the coffee and handing back Gladys’s lead.

‘Right, well, this is Jesmond Dene,’ he says, arcing his arm round. ‘Gladys and I love it here, don’t we?’ he says, and Gladys wags her tail as if she understands. ‘It’s a little oasis of calm in the city.’

‘It’s lovely,’ I say.

‘Shall we walk? I warn you though, it’ll be slow. Gladys isn’t getting any younger and she does like a leisurely stroll. But maybe that will give you more of a chance to see if you can spot your mystery man as we go.’

‘Oh, right. Yes,’ I say, trying out a laugh, but it sounds fake even to my ears. I’m hoping Matt won’t ask me any more questions about Jay today, because there’s no way I can tell him the truth – that I left behind my perfectly nice life because I felt like I was stuck in a rut, and that my friend did a tarot reading that made me decide to come looking for a man I almost ran over then fell in love with in my dreams. He’d run a mile, and I wouldn’t blame him.

We head away from the café, climbing a gentle slope up past the river. ‘I used to bring my kids here all the time when they were little,’ Matt says as Gladys stops to sniff a tree.

‘How old are they now?’

‘Sixteen, eighteen and twenty,’ he says. ‘Which means they never want to spend time with their boring old dad any more.’

‘I know what you mean. My two are the other side of the globe studying to be doctors and it feels as though I’ll never see them again.’

Matt shakes his head. ‘Mine used to love going to pets corner. Jamie, my eldest, was obsessed with the goats and we had to bring him down to see them every weekend.’

‘So, do they still live with you?’

‘No, they live with their mother in Gosforth – that’s just north of Jesmond. They stayed in the house when we divorced and I bought the house I live in now.’

I know I should reciprocate, tell him a bit more about my life, my kids, about Nick, my job. But sometimes it can be nice to just get to know someone without them feeling sorry for you, without having to explain all my baggage straight away. So for now I ask him questions instead.

‘What do you do for work?’ I ask as Gladys trots along happily beside us.

‘I’m a fundraiser for a local charity,’ he says.

‘That sounds very fulfilling.’

‘It is. Shite pay though unfortunately.’ He grins. ‘But hey, we do what we can, eh?’ He takes a sip of his coffee. ‘So, you’re a teacher, did you say?’

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