Page 51 of Falling for You
‘I’m sure she will be.’
Stevie rolls his eyes at me. ‘God, you’re impossible. Oh! There’s Jason.’
I peer round and spot a burly, long-haired man in a T-shirt, looking around the bar. Stevie walks over, leaving me with my beer.
I pick up my phone and check my messages. Jane and Ihad been messaging to arrange meeting here, so I’m hoping she’ll text me when she arrives. With any luck, she may be pleasantly surprised by how I look in real life versus that terrible photo of me that Brian took in the office. If she arrives at all, that is.
Or she arrives, sees me, and then leaves.
God, what am I even doing here? Why did I let Stevie talk me into this? Why—
‘Nate?’
I look up from my phone and spot Jane. I recognise her immediately from her photo. She has bright eyes, curly hair and a big, toothy smile. She looks lovely, but she’s not Bat Girl.
‘Hey,’ I say, getting to my feet. ‘Jane?’
Do I hug her? Or is that weird? Shake her hand? Wave? No, hug. I should hug. It would be rude not to hug. Just hug her, for God’s sake.
She nods, the opportunity for me to hug her naturally sailing past us.
I’m glad Stevie wasn’t here to witness that.
‘Would you like a drink?’ I ask, moving towards the bar. Jane nods and follows.
‘I appreciate you coming,’ I say. ‘It’s a bit of a weird one, isn’t it? Meeting like this.’
I feel a light spasm of alarm as the thought dawns on me. Why is she here when the advert clearly said I was looking for someone, and she knows it’s not her?
I flag down the bartender and order a beer, and then let Jane order herself a glass of white wine.
Maybe she met someone at the party like I did but was too drunk to remember.
‘So,’ I turn to her, ‘did you enjoy the party?’
‘What party?’
I keep the smile on my face. ‘The Halloween party? The masquerade ball?’
She frowns, taking her glass of wine from the bartender. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh.’
‘My friend said you put an ad online saying you wanted to go on a date. She applied for me.’
Ah. ‘Oh,’ I say. ‘Right.’
‘I thought it would be fun.’ She smiles at me. ‘A different way to meet someone, you know?’
‘Sure,’ I nod, taking a sip of my beer.
Come on, Nate. You’re on a date with a cute girl. You knew it wouldn’t be Bat Girl, it’s impossible you’ll ever see her again. Just let it go.
The next day I wake up with a new sense of purpose. Jane and I had a nice enough time, but we left after an hour or so of polite small talk and a brief hug and I was back at the flat by eleven. Stevie disappeared with Jason, and I didn’t hear him come in until the early hours of this morning. But when I wake up in my boxroom, with a fresh, clear Sunday stretching out in front of me, I know that I can finally do what I came to London to do.
Today is the day I’m going to go and find my Aunt Tell. Speak to her about Mom and convince her to come back to New York to visit.
I get up, take a shower and start to plan my journey down to Epping. The sky is a bright, powder blue and the sun is blazing out from behind the clouds, but there’s a crisp chill in the air. I wrap a scarf round my neck and step out of the front door.
