Page 14 of The Twelve Dates of Christmas
“It’s not you,” he said. “It’s just.” He sniffed again. “It’s just, that’s exactly why I am single. When I got together with Morgan I was trying to piss my dad off. She was everything he didn’t approve of. But then I fell in love with her. Real love. And then one night at a dinner party someone let slip the reason I’d first asked her out. And. And.”
Michael took a moment to compose himself.
“And she left me!” he hiccupped.
His composure went out the window, along with Kate’s hopes for a second date. Michael broke down in floods of tears: shoulder-shuddering, snot-bubbling, body-jerking tears that had probably bottled up over years of private schooling and stiff-upper-lip enforcement.
People began to stare. Michael’s sobs became louder, accompanied every minute or so by a howling that would’ve driven wolves back to their dens. He’d blown his nose on his and Kate’s napkins. The woman across from her—clearly a mother—handed Kate a packet of pocket tissues and gave her a sympathetic look. Kate smiled at her gratefullyand mouthed,Thank you!Then she opened the pack and handed one to Michael.
Michael banged his fists up and down on the table, shrieking,“Why! Why! Why!”in time with every thud.“Why, in God’s name, WWWWWHHHYYY!”
People began sliding surreptitiously along the bench, away from Kate and Michael, until there was a distinct gap around them. Kate wondered if it would be insensitive to eat her curry while consoling her date; she decided it probably would be. Soon the dinner plates were replaced with dessert dishes and Kate’s mouth watered at the smell of brandy sauce rising up from her sticky Christmas pudding.
“Maybe it’s not too late?” Kate asked. “Perhaps there is a way you two could be reconciled.”
“HOW?” Michael groaned. “TELL ME HOOOOOWWWWW!”
He threw his arms up into the air and wailed at the vaulted ceiling. People began to take their puddings through to the bar area. Michael seemed unaware of the scene he was causing.
Eventually he wore himself out. The Lightning Strikes team were clearing up around them. Michael’s eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. He’d used an entire packet of tissues.
When he was calm enough and Kate was satisfied that he wasn’t likely to start howling again, she began to reason with him.
“Have you actually tried calling her to apologize?” Kate asked.
“What’s the use?” asked Michael. His lip wobbled.
“But have you?” Kate pressed.
“She said she never wanted to see me again.” Michael hiccupped.
“So you haven’t,” said Kate.
“I’m not going to beg!” said Michael petulantly.
“Nobody said anything about begging,” Kate told him. “But an apology is definitely in order.”
A long pep talk ensued and finally, in the car park—because the cookery school had closed and everyone had gone home—Kate persuaded Michael to swallow his pride and call Morgan.
“You literally have nothing to lose,” said Kate as Michael scrolled down to Morgan’s number.
Kate sat with him on the steps to the school. Morgan answered on the second ring and Michael gripped Kate’s hand as he apologized to Morgan over and over in a hundred different ways.
Morgan’s responses were difficult to make out above all the sobbing, but the wordsI love you!tumbled out over and again from both of them and drifted off into the black December sky.
Kate wouldn’t be going home with Michael tonight, or any other night for that matter, but she couldn’t help feeling a certain rosy glow as she waved him good-bye.This must be what guardian angels feel like, she mused.
Her phone blipped as she got into her car. It was a text from her mum.
You’re welcome, darling! I thought they might come in handy for your 12 dates. I’ve seen your underwear, you could use your knickers to catch apples with. What you want to be catching in them is a man, my dear. Love you xxx
“I’m trying, Mum. Believe me,” Kate said out loud. “I’m trying.”
•••••
By the time Kate reached Blexford the roads glistened with ice. It was late. As she reached the green she saw Matt and Sarah leave the Duke’s Head, arms wrapped around each other’s backs. The lights in the pubwent out and the couple were illuminated only by the moon and the thick white frost.
Kate pulled into a small spot next to some hedges and shut off the engine. Matt would recognize her car as she drove past, and she would be obliged to stop and make small talk, and he would ask how her date had gone, and although she knew it would be funny tomorrow, somehow she just wasn’t in the mood to tell the tale right then.
