So here I was, going out with Jessy for something that wasn’t a contracted date, and it felt … good.
‘I can’t remember the last time I was down here,’ Jessy was saying. ‘Here it is! Oh God …’
I peered through the window. The dim sum place looked good – or rather, the sign was broken and there was a pane of glass cardboarded up, which meant that the food had to be incredible. It was a general rule I subscribed to – the worse a restaurant looked on the outside, the better the food would be on the inside.
Sitting there in the window was a table of people laughing. Laura, looking nicely done up and without her glasses again, two guys, neither of whom I recognized, so they must have been the housemates, and Anna, who was wearing a flashing light-up headband that screamedBIRTHDAY GIRLin neon pink over her voluminous ’fro. She was quite the sight.
Jessy snorted as she pushed open the door. ‘Classic Anna …’
The restaurant, if you could call it a restaurant – it almost felt like someone’s living room – was small and dark, but it smelled amazing, all dumplings and buns and noodles.
The instant I stepped into the place, a cheer went up, and the hackles on the back of my neck rose. I did not wantto be spotted, I did not want to be papped and interviewed, and –
‘Jessy!’
‘Jessy, you’re here!’
‘Thank fuck – Jessy, can you get her to take that awful headband off?’
Oh. That was humbling.
Jessy was laughing. ‘It really is ridiculous, Anna –’
‘I want everyone to know it’s my birthday.’ The birthday girl in question sniffed. Now she’d twisted around to greet us, I could see Anna was wearing a bright pink top with rhinestones that spelled outBIRTHDAY GIRLtoo.
‘That’s what I told her,’ one of the guys was saying loudly. ‘I told her – without the headband, who would know?’ Sarcasm laced his voice.
I snorted and he looked up at me with a grin. His smile quickly morphed into one of recognition and I knew what was coming next.
‘Hey, you’re –’
‘Yeah,’ I said automatically.
I usually saved a lot of time that way.
The other guy sitting next to him looked between us as his friend continued. ‘I’m –’
‘No one cares who you are,’ Anna quipped, her face flushed and her bright blue mascara making her dark brown eyes sparkle. ‘Come on, you two, sit down, we were waiting for you to order.’
It wasn’t exactly panic roaring through me, but it sure as hell felt close.
This … this wasn’t my world. Ridiculous as it sounded, this wasn’t my sort of Saturday night. I spent Saturday nightsplaying to sold out locations when on tour, and eating terrible oven pizza in my flat when not. I didn’t – I never – I couldn’t –
Jessy squeezed my hand. ‘Come on.’
There was a seat, maybe a seat and a half, of space on a bench on one side of the table. Jessy pulled the two of us into it, leaving us pressed tightly together in a way that woke up parts of my body that should definitely not have been – not in public at least.
Anna was on my other side. She leaned forward, asking in a stage whisper that probably carried all the way through Chinatown, ‘So have you two fucked yet?’
Jessy’s face could have fried an egg. ‘Anna, what the hell!’
Seeing her discomfort made my own bearable.
Wait – why had Anna asked that? Just how much of this fake relationship was Jessy sharing with her mates?
My gaze flickered over to Jessy. She was still pressed up against me in the most delicious way, and I opened my mouth before I could censor myself. ‘Have you –’
‘Ah, food!’ Laura yelled and pointed to the waiter approaching our table.
