Page 80 of Happily Never After
‘That was lovely, thank you,’ I tell him when we arrive back at Liv’s house at the end of the evening. He’s been a perfect gentleman and walked me home, even though it’s out of his way because we walked straight past the station on the way here. I have enjoyed his company, but I can tell we’re both disappointed with the way the evening has turned out.
‘Do you want a coffee or anything?’ I ask, more out of politeness than a genuine desire for him to come in and prolong things.
‘No, thanks. I need to get to the station before the last train leaves.’
‘Of course.’ I reach up and kiss him chastely on the cheek. ‘It was lovely to see you. Thanks for coming down.’
‘It was the least I could do. I’ll be in touch with some dates for you to come and see the show being filmed, if you’d still like that.’
Would I? I’m so depressed about how this evening has gone that part of me just wants to crawl under the covers and forget Finn ever existed.
‘Yes, that would be great,’ my mouth says without asking my brain first. Typical Laura, I think. You’d rather put yourself through another excruciating non-date than risk offending him. I just don’t get it though. Why didn’t this work?
‘Only one set of footsteps,’ Liv’s voice calls from her room as I make my way up the stairs. ‘Disappointing.’
‘It was a fucking disaster,’ I reply morosely as I cross the landing. I’ve barely taken another step before her bedroom door bursts open and she emerges, wrapping me in a hug without seeming to break her stride.
‘In. Now,’ she commands, manhandling me towards her room. ‘Tell me what happened.’
‘It was just really, really awkward,’ I tell her as Donna moves her legs to make room for me to sit down on the side of the bed. ‘We barely had three words to say to each other.’
‘Hmm. Why do you think that is? You told me you never stopped talking when you were in France.’
‘That’s exactly it. Maybe it just doesn’t translate here.’
She thinks for a long time before speaking again. ‘I do have another theory, if you’re interested.’
‘Go on.’
‘You go to France. You meet him. You like him. Yes?’
‘Yes. Nothing new there.’
‘Then this old woman turns up and starts babbling at you about true love and all that.’
‘I’m not sure where you’re going with this.’
‘Bear with me. Basically everyone around you, including some random mad old woman and me, I’m ashamed to say, has been on your case about how you need to get together with Finn. Maybe we just put too much pressure on you.’
I take a moment to digest what she’s saying. ‘Maybe. But that doesn’t explain why he was so stilted. I’m sure I’d have relaxed if he’d been more like his usual self.’
‘Yes, but think about it. These things go two ways, don’t they? Maybe his mates have been pressurising him just as much as we have. We’ve all loaded so much expectation on the two of you that it was frankly impossible for you to live up to it.’
I smile ruefully. ‘Are you seriously trying to tell me that you believe yourself to be responsible for screwing up my love life?’
‘Not all by myself, no. But I think I may have contributed, and for that I’m sorry.’
‘Wow.’
‘The question is, how do we fix it?’
‘Talk to him?’ Donna suggests. ‘That’s usually what people say, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ Liv agrees. ‘But I’m not sure that’s the best approach in this instance.’
‘If you say “just get naked and jump his bones”, I’m going to bed,’ I tell her.
‘I wasn’t going to say that. You need to recreate the situation where you were comfortable with each other.’
