Page 73 of A Lot to Unpack
Pete lets out a scoff.
‘That sounds… I mean, no offence, but a bit naff, doesn’t it?’ Pete replies. ‘I’ll let you off, because you were married, butSex and the City? Meatballs? Ice skating? That’s not how you treat a girl like Liberty. She wants something classy, don’t you?’
‘I—’
‘She doesn’t want to go to some family restaurant, not in New York,’ Pete continues.
‘Fair enough,’ Jordan replies. He knocks back the last of his drink. ‘Well, I’ll leave you kids to it.’
‘Have a good one,’ Pete calls after him. He waits until Jordan is gone before he says anything else. ‘He’s lucky the ladies love him for his looks and his money because that sounds like a crap date.’
‘I don’t know, he seems to do okay,’ I point out in his defence.
‘Yeah, lots of women want him but, between us, he’s lost his bottle, since his divorce,’ Pete tells me. ‘But Paige is a bit of a mad woman – I don’t know if you’ve noticed. She’d put me off women for life too.’
I know that this isn’t a date – not on purpose, anyway – but my ick alarm is sounding, proving that it still works, and the only person who doesn’t trigger it is Jordan. Oh, and he thinks I’ve ditched him for Pete, which is just wonderful, isn’t it?
So Jordan isn’t the playboy Paige made him out to be, Pete was right about that, but he was wrong about him being a crap date because, honestly, hands down the best date of my life – I mean, bloody hell, the number two spot probably goes to the conman formerly known as Henri, so clearly the competition isn’t even close.
Jordan is the one for me, my dream date, as cringe as it sounds. I have to find him.
‘I think I might have to go,’ I say, grabbing my bag like it’s a parachute and I’m about to launch myself out of a crashing plane.
‘What? Why?’ Pete replies.
‘I feel sick,’ I tell him. ‘Really sick.’
‘Can I get you some water?’ he suggests. ‘It might pass.’
‘I don’t think it will,’ I reply. What is it going to take to put him off? ‘I’m having a monster period right now. Just… the worst of all of it. I really do think I’m going to throw up.’
You can tell a lot about a man based on how he reacts when you drop the P word. I swear Pete actually leans back in his chair, like I have some kind of contagious disease.
‘Right, well, that can’t be helped,’ he says, sounding like he sort of thinks I could help it, if I tried really hard.
It’s an old excuse but a good one. The kind where you don’t want to be put off by something so simple, but you’re relieved you can say it at any point and hopefully get out of whatever situation you’re in.
With his blessing, I leave, hurrying out of the bar and into the lift as fast as my legs will take me. God, I hope Jordan went straight to his room, because I need to talk to him right away. I just need to explain and then I can put everything right. This doesn’t need to be a misunderstanding, this is just one of those things where I tell him what happened, and we have a laugh about it, right? Right?
I knock on Jordan’s door. He doesn’t answer – I don’t give him enough time to, to be honest – so I knock again. Screw it, this is an emergency, so I keep knocking until he opens it.
‘Erm, hello,’ he says, surprised it’s me – or maybe surprised I was smacking the crap out of his door until he opened it.
‘Can I come in?’ I ask. ‘We need to talk.’
‘Yeah, okay,’ he says, heading back in. I follow him, letting the door close behind me.
He’s wearing his shirt but he’s rolled up his sleeves, undone a few buttons and kicked off his shoes, like this is him for the night.
‘I wasn’t expecting to see you,’ he says. ‘I thought you were on a date.’
‘Well, you thought wrong,’ I reply.
‘Pete seemed to think it was a date,’ he counters.
He’s trying not to let it show, but he definitely seems bothered. I mean, yeah, anyone would feel bothered if they made a plan with someone, then turned up to see them doing it with someone else, date or not, but Jordan seems really bothered. Upset maybe, or disappointed – maybe a bit of both.
For a few seconds we just stand in silence as I think about how to explain myself. The truth is a good start, obviously, but I need to make sure it comes out right.
