And now Priya was in full flow about three of her Year Tens having fainted during a fish eye dissection in the first lesson of the afternoon, which, to be fair, was a good story, but Evie was struggling to concentrate because shereallywanted to read Dan’s text. But not in front of anyone. Just in case it said, well, she didn’t know what, but she was going to wait to read it.
She opened it between lessons.
Had beers with Max. Had the chat about the accident. All good. Incredibly grateful to you. Sending flowers to thank you. You in this evening between 6 & 8 for delivery? I have your address.
It was lovely that everything had gone well with him and Max, and lovely of him to send her flowers. Lovely.
If she was honest, though, she wasreallydisappointed that he hadn’t suggested meeting up again. They had so much fun together, and, if she was being even more honest, he made her heart flutter more than a little.
Which meant that it was actually a very good thing that they weren’t going to see each other for a while. She wouldn’t act on any feelings for Dan, but she didn’t want to be disloyal to Matthew in any way, even just in her head.
Matthew was her partner and she was very lucky to have him.
This evening they were playing badminton and then going to the pub with the others from their little squad and she was really looking forward to it, and then on Saturday they were going for dinner near Wimbledon Common with Josh and his boyfriend Fergus – who he was still going out with after four months, his longest ever relationship – and she was really looking forward to that too.
* * *
Dinner on Saturday with Josh and Fergus was lovely.
As they were sorting out their jackets afterwards, Josh said in Evie’s ear, ‘Not so boring actually. I like him.’
‘I like him too,’ Evie said. ‘Is that an actual admission that you were wrong?’
‘Might be.’
‘Ready to go?’ Matthew asked Evie when they’d said goodnight to Josh and Fergus, who were going back to Fergus’s. ‘I thought we could take a walk on the common on the way back?’ He was staying at Evie’s tonight.
‘Perfect,’ Evie said. ‘I like a walk after dinner. Helps you digest.’
They wandered along the road to the common, admiring the amazing houses they were surrounded by and talking about the nearest golf courses.
They came to a pond, and Matthew tugged Evie’s hand a bit to bring her to a halt. He turned to face her and took both her hands.
This was nice. A kiss next to a moonlit pond. Or maybe he was going to point a constellation out to her. Nice. This felt like a romantic spot, a place for lovers. Nice. Although there were quite a lot of midges. Evie really wanted to pull her hands out of Matthew’s so that she could swipe them away. Eurgh. She was pretty sure she was getting bitten.
‘Shall we walk?’ she said. ‘Midges.’
‘Oh. Right. Yes, of course.’
They wandered a little further into the middle of the common, away from the pond. Evie really hoped she wasn’t going to end up standing in anything grim. A lot of people walked their dogs here.
Oh.
Goodness.
Matthew had stopped under a tree – which felt like it was going to prove to be another midge hotspot – and was kneeling down very carefully in front of her.
There was only one reason that she could think of that someone would kneel down like that.
She stood stock-still, quite frozen to the spot. This was just, God, what was it? It was unexpected, that’s what it was. They’d only been going out for eight months. He was lovely, he really was, but this wassoon.
He was still holding onto her hands and looking up at her in a very sweet way and clearing his throat.
‘Evie Green,’ he said. Oh, God. He was going to do it. Right now. He looked so sweet and earnest, and also very handsome. What was she going tosay? ‘Will you move in with me?’
Oh, okay, so this wasn’t a marriage proposal. It was still a big deal, though. Huge.
Evie thought about how much she liked Matthew. Then she thought about her mum and all her messed-up relationships. And about her own failed romances. Matthew wouldn’t let her down or be dishonest with her. He was solid. He was dependable. He was an accountant. He had a lovely, tidy flat. He wassomuch tidier than both Evie’s mum and Josh. They had a nice time together.
