glass of wine has been refreshed, there’s a platter of delicious food on the little coffee table, and Alex is there by the fire. I take it all in for a moment, this could have been so different, so wonderful, the start of a life I’ve always dreamed of. I still want that so badly that, against my instincts, I dare to wonder if there’s still a chance for me to grasp at this future. Perhaps there’s a perfectly innocent explanation for why Alex is in the background of a photograph of me and my friend – before I met him? I can’t think of one, but in a last-chance bid for a happy ending, I brace myself, aware that what I’m about to say might change everything.
I sit down next to him, and cross my legs. I want to be in control, I don’t want him fobbing me off.
‘Alex—’ I start.
‘Yeah?’ He drags his eyes away from the fire and reaches out for my hand, but I pull it away quickly. He looks alarmed. ‘What is it?’ He sits up, and looks into my face. ‘Hannah?’
I take out my phone, open the message and show him the photo.
He takes the phone from my hand. Looks from me to the photo, puzzled.
‘It’s from Jas,’ I explain.
‘Oh, I see, another text from Jas. What’s she trying to do now, split us up?’ he snarls.
‘You tell me. That picture was taken before we met. What the hell, Alex?’
He’s studying the picture, really closely, like he’s trying to think of a reason.
‘Please don’t try and tell me it’s a coincidence, because I’m not an idiot,’ I say.
’Yes, okay it is me, of course it’s me – I saw you that night, thought you were the cutest girl I’d ever seen,’ he says, staring intensely at the photo.
I’m taken aback by his honesty – but then how can he even try and deny he was there?
‘So, you’re admitting it? You stalked me?’
‘You really do spend too much time with Jas – she’s so dramatic.’ He’s shaking his head.
‘Just tell me what you were doing there, Alex,’ I say, ignoring his bitching about Jas.
He sighs, and looks at the platter of food. ‘She’s spoiled everything. Again.’
I don’t respond to this, just continue to glare at him, waiting for the explanation.
He sighs. ‘Hannah, you want me to trust you, but when are you going to trust me? I’d gone for a drink. I was actually looking for Helen. I’d heard she’d come back from Scotland, and thought she might be in The Orange Tree. But she wasn’t there, and I was about to leave – and you walked in.’
‘And…?’
‘You sat with Jas – your annoying friend at the bar. She was loud and kept ordering too many drinks, and you seemed lovely, really pretty, but you looked a bit sad. I overheard you both talking about a dating app so… I bought a drink, and sat near enough to hear everything you said. Telling you this now does, I’ll admit, sound a bit creepy…’
‘You bet it does!’
‘But it really wasn’t. It was just an overheard conversation in a bar – and by the time you’d set up your profile, I was in love.’
‘On the rebound more like,’ I say, imagining him going to the bar that night hoping to see Helen, and when she wasn’t there, attaching himself to the first blonde woman who looked vaguely like her. Me!
‘No, I promise I wasn’t on the rebound, we’d parted months before. I just saw you and felt relieved, invigorated. It was like I knew because of you that I could love someone other than Helen – it was liberating.’ His eyes seem to sparkle at the memory of this.
‘You can’t know you’re going to love someone you see in a bar,’ I murmur, unsure how I feel about this.
‘I did. I’m a romantic. I believe in love at first sight, and that’s what it was with you. And when I overheard you talking about Meet Your Match, I downloaded my photo and bio and left the rest to fate.’
‘But that isn’t fate, Alex. You heard me tell Jas what I wanted in life, I remember it clearly. I listed it – a kind boyfriend who’d give me attention, a yellow Labrador… three kids… weekends in Devon.’ I look around the room. ‘And here we are.’
‘Yeah, but, Hannah, you’re making it sound sneaky, but we fell in love. The ends justified the means – I simply used the