‘Hello, Annabelle, it’s very nice to meet you,’ I said, giving her what I hoped was my friendliest smile.
‘Hello,’ she said shyly.
It was only then that I’d looked up at the man attached to Annabelle, and my heart had performed a little somersault. He had blond hair with a light sprinkling of silver, and sparkling blue eyes.
‘Hello, I’m Emma,’ I said, holding my hand out. ‘I’m afraid I think my son Flynn is a little bit smitten with your daughter.’
‘I think the feeling might be mutual,’ he said, putting his hand in mine. It felt warm. ‘Lovely to meet you, I’m Oliver.’ His face lit up as he smiled and I felt my face glow. Good grief, what was wrong with me?
We walked back towards the gates together and said goodbye to the children. I felt a lump in my throat as Flynn disappeared into the classroom, but it was tinged with relief that he’d already made a friend.
‘Well, that went smoother than I expected,’ Oliver said.
‘Thank goodness for drama club, hey?’
‘Absolutely.’ He checked his watch. ‘Christ, I’m going to be late. It was lovely to meet you, Emma. Same time tomorrow?’
‘Yes, absolutely,’ I said, swallowing down the feeling of disappointment that he was leaving already, as he turned and raced off down the road.
To my shame, I’d felt myself looking forward to the next morning more than I should have done, and when I saw Oliver was there again my heart did a little flip.
It’s just nice to have someone to talk to, nothing more, I told myself.
But Rachel could see right through me.
‘You have a crush,’ she said, the moment I mentioned Oliver’s name.
‘I do not have a crush,’ I said, more sulkily than necessary. ‘Anyway, what are we, twelve?’
She hadn’t been deterred though. ‘Okay, you like him. Fancy him? Whatever. I’m happy for you, Ems! He’s hot and single and it’s been long enough.’
I let out a sigh. ‘Fine. He is handsome. I might have been looking forward to seeing him in the morning. Happy?’
‘Very,’ she said, doing a little dance, and I rolled my eyes. ‘So, when are you asking him out?’
‘Never!’
She’d looked stern then, crossing her arms across her chest and glowering at me. ‘Why ever not?’
‘Well for starters I don’t even know that he is actually single. And even if by some miracle he is, I’m not looking to get involved with anyone,’ I said. ‘I’m fine on my own, just me and Flynn.’
‘You may be fine, but I’m not suggesting you marry the guy. Just ask him out, go on a date, have a little snog…’
‘Fine, I’ll find out whether he’s single at least,’ I agreed, more to shut her up than anything else. But in the end I hadn’t had towork up the courage to ask him anything, because he did it for me.
It had been a drizzly day at the end of September and everyone was hurrying to drop the kids off before rushing off again. Oliver had been hovering under a tree near the school gates and after saying goodbye to Flynn I went to speak to him.
‘What are you doing loitering around here?’ I said, smiling. But he didn’t smile back and I worried I’d said something wrong. ‘Sorry,’ I mumbled, getting ready to walk away and leave him to his thoughts. But then he’d cleared his throat and said, ‘Actually…’ and I stopped and turned back to face him and his face had gone pink and he was looking down at his shoes. When he looked up at me, he looked for all the world as though he would have liked the ground to open up and swallow him whole right then and there. I took a step towards him, and he pressed his hand on my arm.
‘Oliver? Is there something wrong?’
He shook his head and forced a smile. ‘I hope not. I was…’ He shook his head and laughed. ‘God, why am I so bad at this?’
And then before he even said the words, I knew what he was going to say and my heart pulsed and my hands turned clammy.
‘Would you like to go for dinner with me one day?’ He was staring at a point just over my shoulder and my heart went out to him.
‘That would be lovely,’ I said. And not just because I wanted to put him out of his misery but because I’d realised I actually did want to go out for dinner with this man. For the first time since Nick, I could imagine spending time with someone else. It was a small miracle.
