Page 95 of Match Point

He doesn’t say anything, his chest rising as he inhales deeply.

‘I’m okay, I promise. We have to take the high road,’ I continue. ‘One day, Jonah will regret it. Please, let it go. You have to focus on the semi-finals tomorrow. I’m annoyed you left practice early. Neil must be fuming.’

‘It’s fine, we were almost done anyway. I’d planned… I’d planned on taking you out on a date, actually.’

I step back, raising my eyebrows in surprise. ‘Really? This afternoon?’

‘Yeah. It occurred to me that we haven’t really been on one, and it’s important to have some downtime and relax, take my mind off tennis for a bit. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take you out properly.’

‘But you’ve worked so hard today. Don’t you want to crash on the sofa or play your little PlayStation? You should be resting and relaxing.’

His mouth twitches into a wry smile and he reaches out to put his hands on my hips and pull me towards him.

‘I’m relaxed when I’m with you,’ he says, as I wrap my arms around his neck. ‘And when you say “little PlayStation”, it hurts my feelings because you’re demeaning it.’

‘I apologise. I meant, your important, serious PlayStation.’

‘Thank you. Apology accepted.’ He grins, his dimples deepening. ‘I have a plan for what we can do together. I think you’ll be happy about it.’

‘You have a big day tomorrow, Kieran. We can’t go out and stay up late. You should stay here and relax.’

‘We won’t stay up late. You don’t know what my plan is yet.’

‘Are you sure we should do this? I don’t want to get you in trouble or risk jeopardising tomorrow.’

‘You’re not jeopardising anything and this is my choice.’ He sighs heavily. ‘If I stay home for the next few hours, I’ll sit around worrying and stressing – especially with this added stress from Danny Zuko. It’s important to have a break. If you’re worried, I can ring Neil and he will tell you that he’s always saying shit like that to me.’

‘I’m not sure he’d say that this time,’ I mutter. ‘But I’m going to trust you, and an outing would be fun. Although we’ll have to get through the barrage of paps outside.’

‘Matthew will drive us, I’ll ask him to call when he’s outside.’

‘Come on then, what’s this great plan of yours?’

‘You’ll see,’ he says, his eyes twinkling at me. ‘The question is, were you telling the truth?’

I tilt my head curiously. ‘The truth about what?’

*

When the car pulls up to Battersea Power Station, I’m still not sure what Kieran has in mind. There are lots of cool places around here to eat, but none of them would cause that annoyingly smug smile on his face. It’s not until we head up to level one and, my hand grasped in his, he starts marching towards Bounce with unabashed excitement that I understand why he’s so pleased with himself.

‘A ping-pong bar,’ I say, my shoulders shaking with laughter.

‘You told me you were good at it. Now, we’re going to see if you were making that up to try to impress me.’

‘I was not just saying stuff to impress you!’

He stops in front of Bounce and arches a brow. ‘Guess we’ll find out. Do you like it? Or were you expecting something a bit more glamorous for a first date?’

‘Technically, it’s our second date, if you include the pub darts.’

‘Second date, then,’ he concurs, grabbing me round the waist and pulling me close. He smells so good, it makes my heart flutter. Running my hands over his broad shoulders, I know that I will never get tired of him holding me. ‘So, what do you think?’

‘For a second date, I think it’s… pretty perfect.’ I give him a mischievous smile. ‘You can take me somewhere glamorous for the third date, if there is a third date.’

‘There will be a third date.’

‘Cocky.’ I grin, as he bows his head and his lips brush against mine softly.

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