I cringe again. ‘I thanked him for having me and said it had been nice to catch up.’
Rosie positively explodes with laughter. ‘What?’ I ask, irritated now.
‘Sorry,’ she gasps when she regains some control. ‘Only you could be so unfailingly polite.’ She loses herself once more in gales of laughter and I can’t help joining in, even though the joke is on me.
‘I’ve had a thought,’ she breathes a little while later. ‘You got it the wrong way round.’
‘How?’
‘He should have thanked you for having him, and you should have thanked him for coming.’ She emphasises the last word so I’m left in no doubt as to her meaning.
‘You’re disgusting, you know that?’
‘Hey, I’m not the one leaping into bed with old flames at the drop of a hat. Anyway, back to the conversation. You thanked him for having you because you’d weirdly morphed from drunken sex goddess into some kind of Victorian maiden aunt who’s just had a lovely cup of tea with a friend. Anything else? Did you swap numbers or make arrangements to meet up in future?’
‘No and no.’
‘Then I’d chalk it up to bad experience and move on.’
‘You’re right. Thanks, Rosie,’ I tell her after giving it some thought. Nothing was said on either side to indicate that we planned to rekindle our relationship or even see each other again, so maybe it’s not as bad as I feared.
‘Hey, what are friends for?’ she replies warmly. ‘Although promise me one thing.’
‘What?’
‘Never,ever, say “Thank you for having me” to a sexual partner again.’
I laugh. ‘You’ve got a deal.’
We lapse into comfortable silence as she picks up the novel she’s currently reading and I turn on the TV. As I search through the menu for something undemanding to watch, I reflect on her words and, the more I think about it, the more reassured I am. This was a colossal mistake, but I might just have got away with it.
‘Rosie tells me you shagged Flipper last night,’ Priya remarks blandly when I call her later that day to thank her for the party. ‘What was that about?’
‘Bloody hell,’ I retort. ‘Is nothing sacred?’
‘Oh, come on. Do you seriously think she wouldn’t share such a juicy titbit with me?’
She’s got a point. The three of us have been friends for so long, I don’t think there’s anything we don’t know about each other, and I’d certainly be pretty miffed if the two of them kept something like this a secret from me.
‘So,’ she continues. ‘Tell all.’
‘It sounds like you already know everything.’
‘I know his technique has allegedly improved, which is a pity, because we’ll have to find another nickname for him now. Rosie said you met in XYX.’
‘I shouldn’t have gone. I don’t know why I do it to myself.’
‘You do it because you’re a relentless optimist, you adore New Year’s Eve and secretly wish it would never end. It’s one of the things I love about you. Everyone else peaks at Christmas, but that’s just a warm-up act where you’re concerned. To misquote the incredibly irritating Wizzard song, you wish it could be New Year’s Eve every day.’
I smile. ‘You’ve got me. It’s just a shame that the day after is literally the worst day of the year.’
Priya laughs gently. ‘This one certainly is, because you’ve got the added regret of your night with Flipper. What were you thinking?’
‘I don’t know. I think I was just a bit lonely and Stuart happened to be in the right place at the right time, saying the right things.’
‘Why were you lonely? I thought Sonya and Lily were there?’
‘I didn’t see Lily as she’d already gone home, but Sonya was there and, although I didn’t know any of them, there were a couple of other people in the group who were quite chatty. The problem is that they were pretty much welded to the dancefloor and there’s only so much deafening techno music I can takebefore I start to get a headache, so I retreated to the bar area where it was quieter, and there he was.’
