Page 36 of Our Stop

Oh god – they weren’t going to shag, were they? He hoped not.

Well. He wanted to, eventually, of course, not only because it had been a while since he’d dipped his brush in somebody else’s paint pot, so to speak, but also because Nadia was beauty and grace personified so who wouldn’t want to shag her – or, make love to, maybe. Was that too Mr Darcy, too inhibited? Oh god, why were dating and sex and love and romance so full of booby traps? Women got all the airtime when it came to hang-ups about sex, but Daniel knew it wasn’t just him who got a bit out of sorts at the thought of doing it with somebody you liked. Insecurity wasn’t the reserve of females. It was the reserve of humans, full stop.

The drink, Daniel, just pick a drink.

He knew a lot of his mates’ wives went in for rosé or something bubbly when it was warm out, and he’d read in the Sunday supplements that cava was the new prosecco, since it was drier and naturally carbonated and actually a lot closer to champagne, but if she didn’t know that and he was drinking cava he’d seem cheap, because historically everyone thought cava was cheap. The barman finished serving the guy at the other end and made his way over and Daniel could see him coming and oh god – what should he get? Fuck. He would have …

‘A small glass of white, please. Anything. You choose.’ He reached for his wallet and located his bank card. Handing it over, the tiniest visible shake to his hand, he added, ‘And a shot of tequila too. I’ll start a tab.’

22

Nadia

She floated through the corridor and down in the lift. This was it. The Date. Nadia hadn’t been so convinced that her life was about to change since, well … since the morning she had declared The New Routine to Change Her Life, which was the morning she’d first seen hisMissed Connection.If she really reached for it, Nadia could almost believe she had pulled this man into her life by sheer force of will.

She felt like anything was possible. After all of those stories she’d fed Emma for the column, and all the coffee breaks she’d had with Gaby the morning after the night before, wondering if it was she who was the problem, not the men she was dating, Nadia relished the double-time beat of her heart and the somersaults going on in her tummy.Thiswas what life was about: getting excited and being deliberate with her fate and seizing chances when they presented themselves.Put yourself in the way of beauty, she’d read in a Cheryl Strayed book. That’s exactly what she was doing. Daring to hope for her romantic future made her Superwoman, she thought. Turning up for a date with genuine excitement after everything – after Awful Ben – made her a bona fide hero. The hero of her own life.

‘Look at you!’ Gaby yelled, from across the lobby.

Nadia grinned, doing a little spin as she approached.

‘What do you think?’ she said. She was wearing a loose navy-blue Cos dress with flat navy sandals, and carried a navy-blue leather bag. With her blonde hair and a touch of red lipstick, not to mention the slight bronze the summer had given her, she looked like her most radiant self.

‘You’re beautiful, Nadia. Truly beautiful.’

Nadia took a big breath. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘That was the exact right thing to say.’ She pulled out her phone and looked at the time. ‘Okay. I can’t stay and chat. Destiny awaits! But – call me fifteen minutes in?’

‘Yes ma’am. I’ve got you.’

‘Okay. And, could you, like, wish me luck?’

Gaby smiled warmly. ‘Nadia: go get ’em.’ She winked.

Nadia headed for the bar with the confidence of Blue Ivy.

She had a feeling she wouldn’t be needing Gaby’s call.

23

Daniel

Daniel had only just unlocked the screen to his phone when his mother’s face flashed up, alerting him to the fact that she was ringing. It was the photo he’d taken of her at her sixtieth birthday that he’d set as her avatar in his phone, a gin in one hand and a half-smoked Marlboro Light in the other. Daniel had never known his mother had smoked until that night. She had told him sixty was the year she ‘stopped giving so many shits, like Helen Mirren said’, and that included hiding her four-a-day habit from her grown son. ‘Life’s too short!’ she’d hooted, before they both knew just how short. Daniel had thought it was hilarious. ‘All power to you, Mum!’ he’d said, laughing, his dad simply shrugging as if to say, ‘What can you do?’

Daniel stared. He wouldn’t normally cancel her call but this was about to be the first moment of the rest of his life. He couldn’t talk to her now. He didn’t want to be on the phone as his future began. He deliberated for half a second before hitting the red cross, watching her face disappear. He waited for his drinks and, staring anxiously at the open door, waited for his date too. She’d be here any minute now. Any minute.

24

Nadia

Nadia took the back way to the courtyard, so she wouldn’t have to battle with an army of commuters heading home, or walk past the massive pub on the corner that would no doubt be heaving at this time, the weather being what it was – London came alive in the summer that way, at the first hint of sunshine it was after-work drinks and walks along the South Bank – and if she crossed the road before the corner and took the first right, she’d be able to loop through the cobbled passage that would bring her out right opposite The Old Barn Cat without having to use her elbows to fight through throngs of half-drunk people. Not that she’d mind that. Everything looked beautiful to her. The sun was low and warm and she hummed lightly to herself as she ducked out of the crowds and through to the alleyway. She stopped just before the corner to pull out her compact and check her lipstick.Perfect enough, she thought to herself happily,but I’ll just add a little more.

25

Daniel

‘Hiya Mum, what’s up? I’m a bit tied up at the moment.’ She’d called Daniel again, not seconds after he’d rejected her first call. Daniel couldn’t evade her twice. It wasn’t like her not to take the hint. His instinct told him to pick up.

‘Danny boy, darling – it’s me, it’s Mum.’

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