about the next week from all the salt. But I bet he doesn’t eat pizza. Remember what he was saying at the gym that time? I think he’s one of those guys who lives on a diet of one hundred per cent grass-fed beef.’
It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case, I thought.
‘Can we get some of those potato popper things as well?’ I suggested.
‘And a tub of Ben and Jerry’s. They do dairy-free ones now.’
‘And shall we watch The Haunting of Hill House?’
‘Hell, yeah.’
So Dani and I spent the rest of the evening huddled on the sofa under her duvet even though it was a hot night, scaring the living daylights out of ourselves, stuffing our faces with junk food and drinking far too much cheap white wine, and it was totally brilliant and reminded me how fabulous it was to have a friend after telling myself for so long that I was this independent free spirit who didn’t need other people. She didn’t mention Fabian again and quite honestly, for those few hours, I wouldn’t have cared if I never went on a date again.
Around midnight, her flatmates came home and went to bed, and I heaved myself up off the sofa, yawning so hugely I thought I might dislocate my jaw, and said I’d better do the same.
‘I’ve got the day off tomorrow,’ I said. ‘My first Saturday off in ages. I can’t wait. I’m going to lie in bed with Frazz until lunchtime and then maybe get the Tube to Kensington or somewhere and browse posh charity shops for clothes.’
Dani stood up, too. ‘I’m going to… dunno really. Bake cupcakes with my flatmate, maybe. Watch more telly. Do some ironing. Weekends suck when you’re single.’
I said I’d been single for so long I could barely remember what they were like when you weren’t, or even, after years working in a job with the world’s most antisocial hours, what a proper weekend was like. But Dani wasn’t listening; the mention of being single had made her reach for her phone, which she’d managed to ignore ever since ordering the pizza.
‘Zoë!’ Her whole face was lit up as brightly as her phone’s screen. ‘He texted! He actually did! Two hours ago, and I missed it!’
‘Don’t text him back now!’ I practically dived across the sofa to stop her. ‘It’s too late. Plus, he took his time replying, didn’t he? Wait until the morning. He’ll think you’ve been off doing something fabulous. What does he say?’
‘He’s asked me out! To the launch of a bar his mate’s opening in Soho!’
Which was all very well, I thought, but not exactly a date. And I couldn’t help wondering whether the guest list for the launch was looking a bit thin, and Dani, who was total eye candy by anyone’s standards, was just the kind of person Fabian’s mate needed to make up the numbers.
‘He says I should bring a friend,’ she went on, confirming my suspicions. ‘You’ll come, won’t you, Zoë? It’s at half five tomorrow, there’s going to be a private drinks thing and canapés and stuff and then the doors open to the general public at seven. Here’s the website – it looks amazing.’
She passed me her phone and I scrolled through a minimalist page that suggested the web designer had been briefed to make it look hyper exclusive, as opposed to including any actual information beyond some artfully photographed cocktail glasses and a neon sign on a bare brick wall that said, ‘Alcorithm’.
But there was no way I was going to let Dani see that I wasn’t convinced this was the best thing ever.
‘Of course I’ll come. It’ll be brilliant. But what the hell am I going to wear?’
I ran through my wardrobe in my head, thinking of my jeans, T-shirts and Converse, and regretting my resolution to buy no new clothes for a year in a one-woman bid to save the planet.
‘Whatever you find at your posh charity shops,’ Dani said. ‘Or, failing that, go to TK Maxx. You’ll look amazing whatever you wear, anyway. This is it, isn’t it? He must really like me!’
In my flat the next afternoon, I found myself wondering if Dani had developed a sudden case of adult-onset blindness. I looked as far from fabulous as it was possible to get. My hair had staged a protest and was standing out from my head in a shock of frizz. My legs were milk-bottle white and I had no fake tan to