“Itwasa great first date. Aaaand...he's taking me to dinner on Friday,” I singsong. “I mean, I need to check Brad can have Lizzie overnight first but, I'm excited for a second date!”
“Babe, if Brad can't have her, I will! The kids would love to have her for a sleepover.”
“You're too good to me.” I stand and kiss her cheek loudly, “Muah! Love you big style, but I better go get my girl and get home to Pickles. He's probably dying for a wee, bless him.”
As I leave Elle, my spirits are truly high for the first time in ages. Hopefully, this is the start of good things to come.
29
NO TICKET, NO ENTRY. NO EXCUSES
SHARI
11th January2025
The wind chimetinkle of the doorbell sounds just as I’m putting my phone and keys in my bag. Pickles is still barking at the door, even as I swing it open whilst holding onto his collar so he doesn’t completely cover Jake in fur before we head out. Except when Pickles sees Jake, he recoils slightly and starts up a low growl.
“Pickles, what’s wrong? Why are you growling? This is Jake, he’s a friend!” I look to Jake, who has a frown on his face as he stares at my dog. “I’m so sorry, Jake. He’s not usually like this, I don’t know what’s gotten into him!”
Jake leans down with one of his hands out for Pickles to sniff, “Hi bud, come on, have a sniff. It’s ok, I’m not here to hurt you.” His gaze flicks back up to me, “He can probably smell my cats.”
“Oh, yes! That’s probably it.”
I coax Pickles back into the house so I can close the main door whilst I put my coat and shoes on in the porch.
“Sorry about that, I would have invited you in, but we may as well just get going. I’m sure when you drop me home later, he’ll be so excited that you can come and meet him properly then.”
I lock up and Jake guides me to his car with a hand on my lower back.
“Are you ready to tell me where we’re going yet?” I ask with a coy smile.
He opens the door for me and as I get situated, he leans down to give me a quick kiss. His eyes are bright when he excitedly exclaims, “The Bristol Model Railway Exhibition!”
I’m completely frozen in place when he shuts the door and rounds the car to get into the driver’s seat.The Bristol Model Railway Exhibition? Why the hell would he think I’d be into that?
Jake starts the car and as we pull off the drive he looks over to me, “Isn’t that great? I try to go every year, so I’m really excited that you can come with me this year. You’re going to love it!”
Unlikely. But I can be a supportive date, maybe he’ll let me drag him to a romance readers event in return. “I had no idea you were into model trains,” I say, carefully. “I love that there’s a local event you can get to most years, though.”
We pull up to the leisure centre where the event is being held, and unbelievably, there is a queue wrapping around the side of the building. Most of the patrons seem to be men over a certain age. I really don’t want to be judgemental or pessimistic, but I can already tell that these are going to be the longest few hours of my life.
After queueing in the bitter cold for close to half an hour – thank god it wasn’t raining too – we finally make our way inside. The space is fairly small, but there are a lot of people and display tables packed in here. Jake is positively giddy with excitement. I’m just glad to be in the warmth.
Stopping at the first table, Jake starts pointing out all the little things that excite him. “Just look at the crosshead link! It always amazes me just how much detail they can get into such small scale replicas. Even down to the people and brickwork on the tunnels, it’s just…” his voice trails off in awe.
I’ll admit, the level of craftsmanship and detail is absolutely incredible, but as Jake and the guy controlling the demonstration start chatting animatedly about the mechanics of the set, my mind wanders. I look around the room, trying to count all the displays. This is only the first table and I feel like we’ve been here for hours already.
My smartwatch buzzes on my wrist, snapping me out of my rumination, and I look at it to see I have a call coming through from Jaime.
Digging my phone out, I touch Jake’s elbow to get his attention, “I’m just going to stand over there and take this call, ok?”
He barely even acknowledges me, waving me off mid-sentence.
“Hey, hun. Fuck, I’m glad you’ve called,” I sigh. I lower my voice to a whisper, “Jake’s dragged me to a model train exhibition, and it’s exactly as bad as you would imagine!”
Jaime’s voice comes through so muffled that I can’t hear what she’s saying over the din of conversation and the whirr of the trains chugging around their tracks.
“Hang on, I’m just going to step outside, I can’t hear you.” I hustle to the main door and brace myself for the cold, “Ok, what’s up lover?”
