Page 38 of The Fallback

‘She’s really great Rosie, I think you’d like her,’ he said cautiously.

‘Yeah, well, it might help if you introduced her,’ Rosie said somewhat grumpily.

‘I will do,’ he said earnestly. ‘Soon.’

Rosie harrumphed to herself. ‘If it lasts that long,’ she said out loud. Mitch looked hurt.

‘What?’ she said defensively, ‘It’s not like you have a great track record of long-lasting relationships.’

Mitch straightened up. ‘At least I’m trying,’ he said, ‘unlike you.’

‘Actually I’ve met someone, too,’ Rosie blurted out before thinking through the implication of her words. ‘He’s called Graham and he seems really great as well.’ Instantly she regretted telling him.

Mitch hesitated for a moment before he said, ‘Rosie! That’s great! Tell me about him?’

Rosie shrugged, now desperate to change the subject before she had to admit that she had yet to even arrange a date with Graham. Or that she wasn’t so crazy about Mitch’s enthusiastic response to her news, she had been hoping for some display of jealousy, rather like the one she had so obviously just put on for him, but she would unpack those feelings later, back in the privacy of her own home.

’No, you tell me – it’s probably best you fill me in on everything to do with… I’m sorry, what did you say her name was?’ Rosie pretended to forget, despite the fact that the name Jenny was now going to be etched into her mind forever.

‘Jenny,’ Mitch added.

‘Yes, I’d best know everything about Jenny before I have to help you get over her when you break up.’ Rosie couldn’t resist a dig at Mitch but she tried to do it with a smile and thankfully Mitch laughed at her.

’I don’t think you’ll have to,’ he sounded so confident, ‘and for the record she’s not that short, and she’s nothing like any of the others.’

THEN

‘She didn’t say anything? No messages at all?’

Mitch shook his head and held out his phone for Rosie to read. ‘Look, just says “see you there”. And here I am and she’s not.’ He indicated the empty space at the bar next to him.

‘What time did you say?’ Rosie said grabbing his phone.

‘Seven,’ Mitch said sadly.

Rosie looked at her watch: it was eight-fifteen. The girl wasn’t coming.

Mitch and Rosie were sat in a bar under the arches of Brixton station. Mitch was supposed to be here with a date, Rosie wasn’t supposed to be here at all. But forty-five minutes of anxious texts from Mitch had prompted her to divert and meet him here, offer him moral supportandmake him buy her a cocktail at the same time. She sipped her gimlet appreciatively.

‘Thanks for coming, Rosie,’ Mitch said, patting her knee as they perched awkwardly on the trendy but incredibly uncomfortable bar stools. He almost lost his balance and lurched towards her. Righting himself, he said, ‘I really appreciate it. You didn’t cancel anything, did you?’

Rosie shook her head, pushing away all thoughts of her colleagues who she had left drinking in the pub near work.

‘It’s on my way home, anyway. So, now what?’ Rosie asked. ‘What’s the etiquette? Do you send her angry text messages asking where she is? Threaten to out her for bad dating behaviour?’

‘No!’ exclaimed Mitch looking horrified. ‘Rosie you really need to understand more about how to go about behaving on dating sites.’

Rosie shrugged. ‘It’s what I’d do.’

‘And that might be exactly why I go on dates and you don’t.’ Mitch said, fixing her with a stern look which was completely undermined as he took a sip of his luridly coloured cocktail. Rosie found it impossible to take any man seriously if they were drinking something that had a plastic flamingo stuck in it.

‘Now we’re here, maybe this is the time to explain to me once again why you’re so against dating?’ Mitch said, shifting the flamingo slightly so he could drink more easily.

‘We’re here to talk about your disastrous love life, not mine,’ Rosie said, picking up her far more elegant drink and hiding behind it.

‘Hmm, OK. Well anyway, to answer your question: no, I’m not going to shout at her, or publicly shame her. Everyone is fighting their own battle and I’m sure there is a very good reason she’s not here.’

Rosie rolled her eyes at him. This was Mitch all over. So good-natured and kind, which was what made him a perfect best friend and terrible at judging who was playing him in the world of dating.

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