Page 57 of Date with Destiny

‘There is no God here,’ I say seriously. ‘This is a place without soul.’

He laughs again, his smile back properly now. ‘OK then,’ he fixes me with a determined expression. ‘Well, let’s give it a bit.’ He glances up at the screens, where the horrible advert repeats hellishly, over and over. ‘We’ll start by turning this shit off and get some music playing!’

I brighten. ‘OK!’ I find the remote Celeste has left on the counter and pull up YouTube.

‘Girls Aloud!’ he shouts, to my surprise, adding, ‘Put onTen, that’s their best greatest hits album.’

‘Big fan, are you?’ I ask, amused and delighted. Because Iama big fan.

‘Totally!’ he says happily, taking my hand and leading me to the centre of the empty store. The screens around us show the five singers in orange stomping towards the camera and we copy the moves, strutting around the space. ‘I love nineties and noughties girlbands,’ he yells over the soundsof ‘Something New’. ‘The Spice Girls, B*Witched, TLC, Destiny’s Child, obviously, Girls Aloud—’

‘Obviously,’ I snigger as we jump around the room in time with the music, singing tunelessly, getting the words all wrong.

‘Very obviously,’ he grins. ‘And you know who were also a totally underrated girl band? The Saturdays. They rocked!’

‘Oh yeah! My Aunt Diane had their albumChasing Lightsstuck in the CD slot of her Volvo. We listened to it every day when she got me from school.’

He grins at this. ‘Me and my mum and sister used to dance around the room like this to Girls Aloud after school. We would have huge raging arguments over which was the best member. Cheryl was my favourite, of course! We couldn’t believe it when Ashley Cole cheated on her!’ Zach suddenly looks furious. ‘How could anyone do that? It’s so—’ He stops abruptly like he has just said too much. His eyes are flashing dark and haunted as he abruptly stops dancing and turns away. ‘I’m just going to the loo,’ he says shortly, his back to me, ‘then I better get going. I’ve got a lot to get through.’ He walks quickly away, leaving me to fumble with the controls, turning the music off and feeling weird.

What happened there? Did I embarrass myself?

No, there was something going on with him. He mentioned cheating? Did he…? Has he…?

It suddenly occurs to me that I really don’t actually know that much about my new friend.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

‘Whaff hyme iz Shahi geckin har?’

Myfanwy scrunches up her face, trying to understand what I’m asking. ‘Nope,’ she shakes her head. ‘No idea on that one.’

I finish applying my lipstick, popping the lid back on. ‘Sorry,’ I laugh. ‘I saidwhat time is Sonali getting here?’

Her face clears. ‘Oh, she’s meeting us there,’ she replies. ‘She’s going straight from work.’ She checks the small clock beside her bed. ‘And we need to leave soon, so, quickly, I wanted to talk strategy for Project Proposal.’

‘Yes!’ I exclaim with excitement, picking up my eyeliner and squinting at my reflection in Myfanwy’s mirror. Shall I risk it? I will inevitably end up with wholly uneven unsymmetrical flicks, but maybe that is my fate. The fortune teller didn’t mention it, but it could be.

‘Want me to do it?’ Myfanwy offers, reading my mind, and I nod gratefully. She takes the eyeliner from me, pulling her best concentrating face as she begins carefully with my right eye.

‘So I’ve made a list of important moments from our relationship,’ she begins. ‘There’s that first moment I realized I loved her on holiday – that one I already told you about – then I’ve made a list of some others.’ With one eye still shut, I squint down at the piece of paper covered in Myfanwy’s handwriting scrawl. ‘There’s when we decided to live together, then moving day when we hired a van, there’s that minibreak in Winchester, when we accidentally drove to Windsor because I got confused with the Satnav. There’s that stupid day we laughed until we cried for literally hours because a guy walked into a glass door in front of us…’ She stops for a second, looking annoyed. ‘Can you stop blinking? You’re ruining the eyeliner!’

‘Sorry!’ I tell her. ‘I can’t help it, you’re making me emotional with all this.’ I scan the rest of her list, glancing over at the photos around the mirror of these two together. So many beautiful, silly, moving moments they’ve had together.

I wonder if I could make a list like this for me and Daniel? And what would be on it?

‘This is amazing, Myfe,’ I say with emotion.

She switches eyes, suddenly looking shy. ‘Thanks,’ she replies softly.

‘Being a romantic really suits you,’ I say, feeling so proud of her. ‘And – ooh! – I had a look on Etsy for you,’ I continue excitedly. ‘There are so many fun kinds of rings you can get made, they do basically everything! You could have a tiny moving van as one ring!’ I laugh and she joins in.

‘That’s amazing!’ She pauses. ‘Of course, I definitely alsowant a proper ring from Celeste’s Stones. I’ve already had a chat with Zach about it and he’s drawing up some suggestions for me.’

‘That’s great,’ I tell her, feeling all warm inside.

‘Is Zach coming tonight?’ she asks and I nod. She tuts at the movement but stands back after only a few more seconds.

‘There!’ she declares. I blink a few times, then turn to the mirror to review her efforts. The eyeliner is perfection. I take in the whole effect, head-to-toe, feeling pleased.

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