Page 55 of A Midnight Kiss on Ever After Street
She’s somehow managed to dislodge the doorstop so the door clatters shut in her wake, and he breathes a sigh of relief. ‘No, I…’
Is thatit? Is that all you have to do to get a date these days? Walk in and demand one and the guy just… agrees? Without any evidence, almost without a second thought? I never expected Witt to agree to go on a date withanyoneand it’s upset me more than it has any right to. Someone who is so anti-love is willing to go out with a total stranger, and he can’t even tell that, whoever that woman is, she isnotthe Cinderella he’s looking for?
He looks down at our hands on the counter again and I pull my fingers back quickly. ‘She made you nervous. Why would you want to go out with someone who makes you nervous?’
‘Humans make me nervous, Sade. Know where I can go that I won’t have to interact with them?’
‘Pluto’s supposed to be nice at this time of year. Cheaper since losing planetary status too.’
He laughs but it turns into a groan. ‘Why would anyone come in and say it was them if it wasn’t?’ He meets my eyes. ‘It would be almost as absurd as someone saying it wasn’t them when it was.’
‘People are strange.’ I feel instantly sick and busy myself by going over to hook the door open again. I stop to look at the dress, still glittering in the window. ‘She was much shorter than that dress.’
‘Heels?’
‘Spice Girl-style Buffalo Boots and that dress would still be too long. It wasn’t her, Witt. You know that.’
‘I know. I panicked. This is what I do, Sade. I can’t get words out and then other words come out to cover up the mess before I’ve had a chance to think them through.’ He groans again, and when I get back to the counter, he starts fiddling with the pin cushion on my left wrist again, his fingertips grazing my skin as he mindlessly pulls pins out and pushes them back in, and I kind of love that he’s usingmeas a distraction technique.
‘I don’t think you should go. It could be a trap. She could be a serial killer.’
‘I can take care of myself. Besides, it’s a public place and that restaurant is always busy; I’m not going to be alone with her.’ He must clock the worried look on my face because he laughs. ‘I’ll be careful, okay? Thank you for worrying about me.’
‘She might try to poison you or slip something in your drink. Keep your credit card out of her reach, this could be some kind of elaborate fraud thing.’
‘I don’t want to go, Sade.’ He looks up from the pin cushion and meets my eyes again. ‘Say something to stop me.’
Because it’s me. The words are right there on the tip of my tongue, but every time I envision saying them, I also envision his reaction. The way he’d stand up straight and narrow his eyes. Refuse to believe me because the girl he met that night would never lie to him like I have. He’d probably let out that disbelieving half-laugh thing he does. The incredulous Alicia Silverstone fromCluelessimpression.As if. As if it’s been you all along. As if we’ve done all of this to find someone who’s been right here from the start. As if we’ve spent all this time together and you haven’t told me. As if we’ve opened up to each other about everything, apart from thisoneimportant thing. I can even envision the clatter of the door as it slams behind him.
‘I can’t.’ I say it so quietly that my lips move but no audible sound comes out.
He looks crestfallen and drops my gaze with a resigned nod. ‘Okay. Then I have to see where it leads, don’t I? She’s offering proof that she’s the mystery woman, so maybe she is. I can’t prove that she isn’t.’
I can. I just don’t know how to tell him.
15
The 1001 Nights restaurant is annoyinglyjustout of sight from both the shop and the upstairs window of my flat, which doesn’t stop me watching the rest of Ever After Street all evening for any glimpse of Witt and the deceitful redhead, but there’s no sign of either of them.
I eat dinner on the window ledge, and hand-sew a couple of alterations so I can sit in the darkened window and not take my eyes off the street in the direction of the restaurant, which leads to a few needle-in-finger incidents and me racing to the kitchen for a plaster more times than I can count.
By eight o’clock, they must’ve had their date. He must’ve seen that she’s not who she says she is, and I keep waiting for a text from him or something, anything, just to let me know he’s okay and hasn’t fallen for her lies, but nothing comes.
As it gets later, I watch the castle too, waiting for the light to go on when he gets home, but it never does. I keep going to bed, but I can’t sleep so I get up and look out the window again, but tonight is the only night in recent weeks that the castle doesn’t illuminate. Witt isn’t there. And my mind goes to all the worst places it can possibly go, and more than anything, I wish I’d told him the truth. What if this is it? What if I’ve missed my chance once and for all?
* * *
‘Sadie, will you stop it!’
By the next morning, Scarlett’s already fed up with my worrying. ‘I’m tidying the dress.’
‘No, you’re not, you’re pressing your nose against the window in the hopes you might see him an extra millimetre before he comes into view anyway. You’ve been looking out for him for the past half an hour and now we’ve got nose prints all over the glass!’
I sulkily wipe the window with the sleeve of the check shirt I’m wearing. ‘He could be dead. She could have poisoned him. She could have drugged him and stolen his wallet and phone. It could have been part of some organised crime gang and really he was meeting a group of thugs who have beaten him up and left him for dead in a ditch.’
‘He’s a giant, Sade. He’s more than capable of taking care of himself. And you said he was wary so he’d have been careful. Stop worrying. And stop watching TV because I think you’re recounting plotlines fromEastEnders.’
I sigh. ‘Even worse then – what if he’s fallen for her? What if he really thinks she’s the one?’
