saying, All right, guys, we’ve gotta get together soon, man. London, one Saturday afternoon? Or maybe even an Airbnb somewhere?
Over the course of the morning he got a stream of messages that concluded six out of the other guys in the thread were up for it. Daniel asked if it was crazy to say this weekend. It was rare to be able to do anything spontaneously now they all had responsibilities. But Terrence said his missus was on a hen weekend for her youngest sister, so everyone could crash at his place, and that made it easier. Some could make it just for the Friday, and some just for the Saturday, but all in all six of them was a bloody good show.
Daniel’s mood was lifted enough to start looking forward to the night’s party. Things could be good, he thought, if he let them be. He went out at lunch and got his hair-line tidied up and splashed on some Hwyl perfume at the Aesop store: he’d read on the GQ website that it was the scent every hipster should be wearing. He thought to himself how much better he felt for being proactive in his own happiness. He didn’t know a lot of people who went after the things that made them feel good – he knew a lot of people who sat around and waited for life to happen to them. Romeo seemed proactive: that’s why he liked him. It was apt he was in the lobby on his way back in from lunch. Daniel was pleased to see him.
‘Looking good, my friend,’ Romeo said, which was almost word-for-word what he said every day. And then, ‘And smelling good – is that the Aesop stuff?’
‘You know it,’ Daniel said, bumping his fist as he walked by.
‘You’ve got a spring in your step today, huh?’
Daniel stopped and turned around. ‘Romeo, I’ve decided today is a great day.’
‘That’s the spirit, Daniel. Man, are you right. You inspire me, man!’
Daniel winked at him. He was feeling inspired himself.
‘And she wrote you back, I saw. Might that have anything to do with this wonderful mood?’
Daniel spun on his heel to look at Romeo. ‘What? I didn’t see the paper today. I was so busy looking for her on the tube that I didn’t think to look for her in the paper!’
Romeo flung a copy of that morning’s newspaper from the welcome desk over to Daniel, who thumbed immediately to the right page, read her note, and then stood, grinning, at Romeo.
‘Daniel?’ Romeo said, eventually.
‘Yes?’ Daniel said, dreamily. She’d looked for him! On the train!
‘Don’t just stand there – go write her back!’
Daniel smiled even wider, if that were possible.
‘On it,’ he said, pointing a finger at Romeo with his thumb in the air, which he bent slightly like a trigger. ‘ON. IT.’
He went back to his office and wrote back to Nadia, first-time perfect:
You’re funny. Do you get told that a lot? Funny and cute. How lucky am I?! Listen, if you ever made the train on time I’d happily make my move. I’m pretty eager to meet you properly. Love, Train Guy.
He read and reread it several times, and with a nod of satisfaction hit ‘Send’.
Daniel’s good mood lasted until just after 7 p.m., when he stood in the middle of the Sky Garden, London’s highest public garden, in a huge tower in the shape of a walkie-talkie, with views across London.
He was surrounded by strangers, vaguely aware of Lorenzo telling his somewhat embellished story about the time he spent as a stripper to pay for his Master’s degree, and how he once got his penis stuck in the trunk of the elephant sewed to the front of his G-string. The girls – women, although they all seemed quite young, maybe twenty-two or twenty-three – were lapping it up, laughing loudly and touching his arm and teasing him so that he retold parts, making them laugh even more. As Daniel was wondering which of them he was trying to sleep with, knowing that with Lorenzo he wouldn’t have limited himself to just one, Gaby pulled on his sleeve.
‘You made it! I’m so pleased!’ she said, going in to kiss both of his cheeks.
‘I did,’ Daniel said, issuing air kisses back. ‘Though I’m afraid it looks as though my plus-one is more popular than I am.’ They both gazed in Lorenzo’s direction, where he had moved on to telling his joke about the crab at the bar, and as he reached