‘Well, my first impression of you, Charlotte, was that you had a great arse!’ Kate laughed. ‘But actually, that’s down to Megan, so can we really class it as your best quality?’
‘Well, Kate, I thought you were . . .’ I paused before I said the word ‘gold-digger’, which I knew she wasn’t, I was just a little irked. ‘Friendly and easy to talk to. Your arse is okay too,’ I added as a joke.
‘Well, what did you both think of me?’ Megan asked.
‘Meek and mild,’ I said.
‘Needs to stand up for herself,’ Kate added. ‘I mean, this one—’ she pointed to me ‘—wants an impromptu Sunday workout and you jump. Tell her where to go next time!’ she said, taking the last sip of her champagne.
Sam had been patiently listening to the conversation with a bemused expression.
‘Well, you can’t get off lightly, Mister . . . One word, first impressions. Go.’
‘You.’ He pointed at me. ‘Bossy.’
‘Her. Feisty.’ He winked at Kate.
‘And this one . . .’ He slid an arm around Megan. ‘Sweet.’ I couldn’t help but notice her cheeks blush again.
***
The next morning, I woke up late with a cloudy, fuzzy fog pressing down on my forehead. When I went down to make coffee, I was greeted by the horrendous mess we’d left the night before. My phone beeped as I flicked the kettle on.
Had to get some fresh air, so left for work early – couldn’t stand the mess! Who on earth did you have round – the Gallagher brothers? See you for dinner. J x
He wasn’t far off. It was terrible that I didn’t even recall him coming home. I must have fallen asleep before he got in, but I knew he couldn’t think straight when the house was messy so it was hardly a surprise. I never let things get out of control like that, and he must have been horrified by the state of the place.
As I sat down to drink my coffee, I spotted a pile of papers on the worktop. It was our various plans to catch out Sam’s wife. I smirked at how ridiculous we’d become after alcohol. The plans had elaborate sketches of us scaling walls, hiding behind trees, and so on. I think they’d all seen too many Mission Impossible-style films. If Sam’s wife was cheating on him, though, he did deserve to find out, and we would catch her.
Picking my phone back up, I set up a WhatsApp group for myself, Kate, Megan, and Sam.
Sam, if you still want to go ahead with what we discussed last night, we should meet up to arrange a plan.
As I sipped my coffee, my mind wandered back to the night before – to Megan’s face when Sam called her sweet. She is sweet of course but it was her reaction to Sam saying it that was interesting. The blushing suggested to me that she wasn’t just flattered, but perhaps open to the idea of meeting men. She hadn’t recoiled, anyway, which was a good sign. That thought reminded me to check the online dating profile I’d set up. While I didn’t hold out much hope, it was all I had at that point.
There was one message in the inbox when I’d booted up my laptop. I sighed before opening it, wondering what kind of sleaze-ball I’d find this time. To my surprise, it was a fairly normal message.
Hi there,
I’m Andrew.
I’m new to online dating and don’t really know what I’m doing but thought I’d say hello and introduce myself since it looks as though we have similar interests. I hope you don’t mind me saying but you look very pretty on your picture and if you’d be interested in chatting some more, do get in touch.
Admittedly, he didn’t seem like the most exciting bloke on the planet, but he didn’t seem sleazy either. I’d only glanced at his picture before I’d read the message, but I found my eyes resting upon it just after.
He had dark brown hair, left a little longer than what would be acceptable to James’s mother, but it framed his face beautifully. His smile revealed a perfect row of pearly whites and light stubble dusted his jawline and upper lip. His electric blue eyes jumped out of the screen. I didn’t think he was too bad for the first reasonable option, and I decided to reply there and then. It had been about twelve hours since he’d sent his message, so it wouldn’t seem too keen on Megan’s part.
My fingers tapped absent-mindedly at the keys. I was new to online dating. In fact, I wasn’t even that experienced at dating full stop since I’d met James when we were at university and we just sort of fell in sync with each other rather than dating. Still, it was just polite chatter and that I could do.
Dear Andrew,
It’s lovely that you got in touch – and thank you for your kind comment. Your picture is very nice too.
I paused, trying to imagine Megan saying those words. I couldn’t, but since he’d never met her, I didn’t think it was important in the grand scheme of things so continued.
I’m also new to this online dating business and can see from your profile that we do indeed share the same interests. You like to keep fit and enjoy eating out and so on. I’d definitely like to chat some more.
I sat back to read through whatever the opposite of a masterpiece was. Perhaps I was a bit ‘stiff and starchy’ after all. I thanked my lucky stars I had James as I’d have no hope out there – I almost felt sorry for Megan having to rely on me (albeit unconsciously). Still, I only sounded as dull as he did, which would at least mean there was even more common ground. I hit
