At seven twenty-five on the dot, once my hair was in a high bun and I’d managed to squeeze myself into my floor-length emerald dress, the taxis arrived. As the rest of the family cascaded into the waiting cars, Mum turned to me with her hand on her forehead.
‘I completely miscalculated how many of us there were.’
‘Huh?’ I frowned, slipping my feet into my heels. ‘I’ll just squeeze in the back.’
‘No, the driver won’t allow that. You wait here and I’ll send someone back for you.’
‘But, Mum …’ I whined, hating the idea of being left behind and having to turn up on my own.
‘That way I can check everything’s okay with the hall before everyone else arrives. Thanks, love,’ she flustered, before giving me a kiss on the cheek and running out the door.
Rather bemused, I sat on the stairs and waited.
After about five minutes, the doorbell rang. I opened it to find Robert, looking dashing in a grey suit, his blond hair slicked back into a stylish quiff. Somehow, despite all the recent events and how much he’d hurt me, he still managed to take my breath away.
‘Did Mum send you?’ I asked, reaching for my clutch bag.
‘Not quite.’
‘What do you mean … did you ask her to leave me behind?’
‘Maybe,’ he smiled, looking nervous, still wary of how I might act around him. ‘I just thought it would be nice to go together. We’ve not had a night out like this since, well, I think it was our sixth-form ball.’
‘I guess not.’
‘This is for you,’ he offered, pulling a corsage from behind his back. A thick row of gorgeous pearled beads made up the band, on to which was attached a deep red rose. ‘May I?’ he asked, gesturing for my wrist.
I couldn’t help but smile then. It was exactly the same as the corsage he’d given me on the night of our ball three years before, when he had, again, picked me up from my doorstep and escorted me.
‘This is very nice,’ I smiled, appreciating the effort.
‘Thank you,’ he said softly, looking bashful.
Once the house was locked up, I took hold of his arm and let him lead me to the taxi, where he opened and closed the door for me like a gentleman.
As the car started moving and we sat in silence with our hands entwined, I felt closer to Robert than I had in weeks. I shut my eyes and rested my head on his shoulder, allowing myself to enjoy the warmth I’ll admit I’d begun to miss.
The car stopped sooner than I expected. To my dismay I opened my eyes to find we were outside Ben’s house. Not only was he walking towards the car, but so was Alice – something I was completely unprepared for.
The joy I’d been experiencing suddenly vanished, I was back to the same unsettled feeling I’d had before I’d come home. Despite the effort he was making, I instantly became angry at Robert for not realizing he should have just kept it as the two of us.
After a courteous hello to Ben and Alice, I stayed quiet for the rest of the ten-minute journey, I sulked in the corner, allowing my frustrations to rise dramatically.
Needless to say, Ben’s arrival at the party with Alice managed to get dozens of tongues wagging as our families speculated over the significance of it. They cooed over whether she could she be ‘the one’, like Ben’s love life was some sort of prophecy to be fulfilled. It was all anyone wanted to talk about.
And they played quite the perfect couple. Ben had stuck by her side all night, taking care that she always had a drink in her hand, was introduced to everyone, and that they had fun on the dance floor – watching them slow dance together was excruciating. It felt as though Ben was flaunting his new relationship, letting me know that he was fine. He’d found someone else. Someone better. It hurt to be so easily and quickly replaced. And yes, I liked Alice. I thought she was a lovely girl, but I didn’t want her perfectness to be rammed down my throat and to have all our parents talk about how great she was and how happy Ben looked.
Robert tried to continue being the gentleman he’d shown me at the start of the night, and was, to his credit, just as attentive as Ben was with Alice, but I rebuked and rebuffed every advance as I found fault with his every move. I became a grump for the rest of the night. I snapped at Robert more than was necessary, and generally walked around like I had a huge thunderous cloud above my head, threatening to strike him with a bolt of lightning whenever he irritated me. I’m surprised he remained by my side and didn’t run for the door.
Unfortunately for me, when I snapped at him because he hadn’t noticed his shoelace was undone (it seemed like a massive deal at the time), my mum overheard. She leaned over to me as though she was giving me a motherly embrace, but her hand clamped on my arm with a little too much pressure to be comforting.