Be sweet but unavailable, she reminded herself.
‘What a shame, but never mind – next time,’ she purred. That was good, leave the way open for him to make it up to you.
‘Like I said, it’s a long time since I’ve done this. I’m out of practice.’
‘Oh, I don’t know .?.?.’ she murmured coquettishly. ‘You seem to be doing OK.’
He gave a short laugh. At least it didn’t sound like he was spending every spare waking moment scrolling on Tinder.
‘So, what was the dream?’
She heard him inhale. ‘Nothing much. I just dreamed you were there with me in the apartment, except that it was on wheels, and we were driving somewhere and when I woke up, well .?.?. you weren’t there.’
There was a pause. OK, that was pretty straightforward. Freud would’ve been out of business if the world was full of Finns; on the other hand, it was lovely – how often did you get a role in someone else’s dream?
‘And I realised I missed you.’
Oh, bugger the pretence.
‘I missed you too.’
OK, Josie would be proud of her. She’d made him a little sorry for screwing up the date but not sorry enough to be discouraged. For the first time in her life Cassie began to feel a little empowered in the dating game.
‘Where are you now?’ she couldn’t stop herself asking.
‘Across the road from your house, in the car.’
This was either very stalkerish or very endearing. She chose to go with the latter. For God’s sake what was she thinking? He’d shown remorse about being late, he’d dreamed about her, dammit, he’d even driven to her door. There was self-respect and then there was being a total eejit.
‘Just say, if your alternate plans didn’t start until later, would you have time to come for a drink?’
She contemplated that. For about one millisecond.
‘Yes. It’d have to be a bit quick, though.’ No point in sabotaging all the good work now.
‘I get it.’
She could hear the smile in his voice and was trying to purse her lips to stop herself from beaming.
‘OK, just give me a minute,’ she said airily.
Don’t fall over yourself now, she thought, adding a touch of blusher to her perfectly made-up face and finishing with a spritz of perfume. She briefly caught sight of herself in the mirror: a woman with honey-blonde hair in a long brown coat, collar turned up against the cold. She could turn heads. Mam met her at the door.
‘God, love, there’s some weirdo loitering in a car across the road. He’s been there for ages. Do you think I should call the Gardaí?’
‘It’s all right, Mam, he’s for me.’
* * *
‘I don’t know, I thought our last date went pretty well.’
Cassie could see Finn’s raised eyebrow; his face was illuminated by the streetlights as he spoke. They had parked above the city and were gazing out across the bay. Cassie gave him a playful tap.
‘So did I, but think about it, you have a complicated life at the moment and I do not.’
He smiled pointedly at her. ‘Apart from me?’
Interesting .?.?. That implied he saw himself in her life.
