Page 33 of Love at First Sight

‘Is this actually real?’ Leo asks, looking like he’s worried he’s being had. ‘Or is there a punchline coming and I’m going to look stupid?’

‘It’s real,’ I say reluctantly. ‘But seriously, let’s change the subject now please.’

I look around, hoping to god we get interrupted by our food arriving. No such luck.

‘I’m nearly done,’ says Ali. ‘This is the fun part, I think. It’s like a movie! Jessie can’t get over this guy, how great he was, but doesn’t know how to track him down, right? So she puts up posters in the Whole Foods they met in, asking him to call! And Jessie, I actually haven’t talked to you properly about it since then – hence why I thought you might be him, Leo. Sorry. But I guess thank goodness for you that he didn’t get in touch? Or Jessie, did he get in touch and it turned out to be a loss?’

I look at the edge of the table, feeling everyone’s eyeson me – even Cal’s. I don’t know why I’m protecting him, why I don’t just say,Oh! Ali! It was this guy here!But I don’t.

‘He was a loss.’ I shrug. ‘Turned out he’s already seeing someone.’

‘No!’ Ali gasps. ‘So he was cheating on her?’

‘I guess he would have done, should the opportunity have arisen,’ I say. ‘Thank goodness I found out when I did, eh, nice and early on. And now let’s talk about something – anything! – else. Leo, I’m sorry you had to hear all that. Ali, you’re terrible.’

Ali smiles like butter wouldn’t melt. ‘It was the slow dancing by the water that got me,’ she says. ‘That was so super romantic. Leo – keep it special for our girl here! She was gaga at the unexpected romance of it all. I have to say, I’m the same. Any man that goes out on a limb for a girl is an A plus in my book.’

Ali reaches out for Cal’s hand across the table, and I try not to stare. We accidentally lock eyes and he looks away quickly, as though he’s ashamed. Leo knocks his own hand against mine, and I look up to another wink. It’s his trademark.

‘We’ll stop embarrassing you now,’ Leo tells me.

‘You’re very secure in your manhood if you can sit here listening to a story about me getting seduced by somebody else,’ I tease.

Leo grins before coming back with, ‘Oh, I’m very secure. Don’t you worry about me.’

‘How long have you two been …’ Cal says, gesturing between us.

I look at Leo. ‘We’re friends, really,’ he says. ‘But I’m doing my best, man. Jessie is a catch, that’s for sure.’

‘Stop,’ I say, colouring. ‘You’re a catch too.’

‘Don’t you forget it,’ Leo retorts.

Finally the food arrives and we eat, only interrupting ourselves to comment on how good it all is.

Leo says, in between mouthfuls: ‘Thanks so much for sharing your table, guys – we drank alotlast night, so this was needed.’

‘Cheers to that,’ I say, holding up my water glass to his. ‘Memo to self, shots are a young woman’s game.’

‘I don’t think shots are anybody’s game,’ Cal says. ‘Horrid things. I threw up in a shoe once, after shots.’

‘Were you wearing them at the time?’ Leo asks.

‘I wasn’t. But my date was.’

Instinctively, all three of us – me, Leo and Ali – shriek in disgust.

‘You threw up on your date?’ clarifies Ali, eyes popping out in surprise. Cal nods. ‘Jesus Christ,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘I’m falling in love with a man who vomits on his dates.’

The wordloveshocks me as much as it seems to shock Cal, but Ali and Leo don’t notice. She’s falling in love with him? I feel Cal stiffen beside me, but before I can mentally interrogate any of this, Ali’s phone beeps, and as soon as she picks it up she says, ‘Oh, for god’s sake.’

I know whatoh, for god’s sakemeans. It means something has come up and she’s about to ask me for a favour.

‘Jessie,’ she says, right on cue. ‘That’s my agent. He’sgoing to patch me through on a conference call with New York ASAP, before the East Coast guy heads to the Hamptons for the weekend. I don’t suppose …’

‘I could pick up Henry?’ I say. ‘No worries.’ Once a month Henry has Saturday-morning lessons at school, and Ali tries to do the drop-off and pick-up for these as much as possible, as her dose of ‘normal’ in an otherwise much less normal life.

‘You’re my hero!’ she says, like always. ‘Thank you. Just bring him back to the house, and by then I should be done. And Cal …’

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