won’t be upset if I don’t?’
‘I won’t.’ He kisses the tip of my nose. ‘But think about it, eh? Now, bugger off to bed before I forget my good intentions, Miss Temptress!’
I stand and watch him go, the tips of my fingers resting on the spot he kissed. He doesn’t turn back, but I can’t help but grin. Taster session! Gawd, some men will call it anything!
Chapter 3
My head is all jumbled up with thoughts about the totally unsuitable, serial first dater, Noah, and my no-show not so perfect guy, Gabe. This means I can’t sleep.
I have puffed up and thumped my pillows about. I have thrown my duvet off, then pulled it back on when I realise my shoulders are freezing. I have been to the loo several times. I have drunk about ten gallons of water, to try and avoid a hangover, and then been back to the bathroom several more times.
I stare up at the ceiling and wonder if Noah’s tutorials would be all talk and no substance or involve total practical hands-on stuff. And what about practice? Would I get homework? Oh, hell no, what is my drunken brain doing to me? I do not need to go down this route.
This has to stop.
I kick the duvet off for the umpteenth time and text Bea. She’ll be asleep, but it will concentrate my mind on the fuckwit who didn’t turn up. Which is good.
‘He didn’t show! x’
‘Who? What? xx’
Bea is not asleep.
‘My date x’
I add an unhappy face.
My phone starts ringing almost instantly. Bea is like that – I can rely on her, totally. She is like the big sister I never had. We are totally different in so many ways, but it works. ‘You had a date tonight!’ squeals Bea in my ear. In the still of the night she sounds even more high-pitched and deafening than she does normally – which is pretty loud anyway when she’s excited.
‘You knew I—’
‘You didn’t say it was tonight! Why didn’t you tell me, how could you not tell me? That’s mega! What did you wear?’
‘I didn’t tell you cos he wasn’t a proper date.’ I sigh, sit up and twiddle my hair round my finger, feeling a failure.
‘What do you mean, not proper? A man, a date, that’s proper!’
‘I found him on a dating app.’
‘Oh.’ There’s a pause. I hadn’t told her that bit. ‘That still counts as a proper date though, you noddle.’
‘Not when he doesn’t show.’ The disappointment of him, specifically Gabe, not turning up ebbed away a while ago, around the time Noah started to act the clown. But it still hurts, the being stood up bit. Especially saying it out loud to somebody.
‘Oh, Rosie. You should have called me,’ if she was here, she’d be hugging me, she’s good like that, ‘you could have come round rather than being on your own. Or I’d have come for a drink with you.’
‘Aww I know, Bea, but I didn’t want to bug you, and you were seeing Si.’ Si is her latest boyfriend, but I think his days are numbered.
‘I wouldn’t mind, you know I wouldn’t! I’m getting fed up of Si anyway. Did I tell you he’s trying to get me to go with him to watch Man U? I mean, Man U!’ His days are definitely numbered. ‘I put my City scarf on and staged a protest.’
‘Poor Si! I was fine though, honestly.’
‘I don’t like to think of you on your own. It’s the pits when some doofer doesn’t show. What a dickhead!’
‘I wasn’t exactly on my own. I got talking to this guy and …’
She squeals again. ‘A guy!!’ I can hear her jumping about on the bed making herself more comfortable. ‘Tell!’
If Bea had been there instead of me, it would have been a date. I can’t help but smile at her. ‘It wasn’t like that. He wasn’t my type.’
‘He doesn’t have to be your type, Rosie! He was a date!’ I decide not to correct her. ‘Was he fit? Cool? Funny? Or old, was he too old?’
I grin. Bea is unstoppable. Sometimes I wish I was more like her, it must make some things so much easier, but mainly I’m happy just being me. I think my life is less extreme, less highs and lows. I’m not sure my emotional state could cope with a Bea-type lifestyle. ‘He was fine; I suppose he was quite fit, and funny; you know, just a guy. We chatted, had a couple of drinks.