Page 66 of Sunsets and Happy Ever Afters

“Yes.” Sam chuckled, rubbing his stomach. “Anyway, we’re off now. I thought I’d say goodbye and see you tomorrow?”

The bartender serving Maya placed an ice bucket on the counter with the bottle of Prosecco and two glasses tucked inside.

“Thank you,” Maya said, then turned to Sam. “Yes, see you tomorrow. Bye.”

“Have a good evening.”

“And you.”

When she returned to the table, Selina said, “He likes you.”

“No, he doesn’t.” Maya frowned, unconvinced. “It’s funny how things turn out, though, because he was vile to me when we first met — but we’re over that now. We’ve become friends due to our daughters being best friends.” Maya wanted to change the subject to the reason they’d met up. “So, come on, tell me, what happened with Kelvin?” she asked, unpeeling the foil from the cork.

“I don’t know. He decided he wasn’t good enough for me.” Selina’s demeanour changed from cheerful to gloomy instantly.

“What? Shouldn’t you be the one to decide that?”

They spent the evening — over a couple of bottles of Prosecco and good pub grub — swapping relationship notes and online dating horror stories, boosting each other’s self-esteem.

With desserts devoured and thinking it wise not to invest in a third bottle of Prosecco, they settled the bill and visited the loos before leaving the pub. Still giggling, they trudged up the hill to walk home. They came to a fork in the road, where Selina needed to take the left and Maya the right.

“This was so much fun.” Selina hugged Maya and kissed her cheek. “We must do this again.”

“Absolutely. Single friends together.” Maya hugged her back, reaching up on tiptoes as Selina towered over her.

“Take no bullshit!”

“Ditto.” They high-fived.

“You never know, Mr Right might be right under our noses,” Selina said, wistfully. “Text me when you get home safe.”

“You too.” Maya waved and headed off, her heart lighter and happier. It felt great to let off steam with Selina. Maya had thoroughly enjoyed herself. And she hoped Selina had too. Hopefully, both women had walked out of the pub with their confidence restored — ish.

When Maya entered her house, she remembered she had it to herself, so she could clatter around without fear of waking the children. Once in bed, her make-up removed, she texted a ‘home safe’ message to Selina, who replied with a thumbs-up emoji and a ‘me too’.

Maya scrolled through her phone, looking at Facebook and Twitter notifications, and noticed she had a message in Find My HEA. The only person it could be was PeterPan26. She had informed him earlier she was heading out.

Hope you had a good evening out with your friend and you’ve made it home safely. P x

Home safe, Maya replied. Fab evening slagging off sad men. Feel so much better. Although that might be the Prosecco. W x

Lol! Poor guys, he wrote. I bet their ears were burning. P x

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