The Mistletoe Pact by Jo Lovett
Then – 23rd December 2021
Evie
Celine Dion impersonator (they hadn’t been able to get tickets to actual Celine Dion) smashing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ – tick. Feather boas, glitter, glamour, the works – tick. Everyone around their table all dolled up to the nines – tick. Piles of chips waiting for them later in the casino after they’d been instructioned-up on how to play – tick. Plus a great menu and a tableful of cocktails. Basically, your perfect Vegas last-night-of-your-twenties evening just starting.
So Evie should really not be constantly trying hard not to look over her shoulder to check whether Dan had arrived. And she should accept that there was no way it would look anything other than odd to ask Sasha to check her phone to see if he was definitely still coming.
And, honestly, why did she even care that much? She hadn’t seen him for several months and she was with her old schoolfriends and this was going to be a fab evening. Best thirtieth birthday dinner she could ever have hoped for.
Their waiter – a man called Joe sporting a floral cowboy outfit – salsa-danced himself over to them with another two jugs of bright pink and bright orange cocktails.
‘Come on, birthday girl,’ he said. ‘Hit me with your order.’
‘Okay.’ Evie looked again at the starters section. ‘I can’t decide between garlic prawns and the quail’s eggs on crostini to start with.’
‘You gonna be spending any quality time with a partner tonight?’ Joe asked. ‘Because if you are, I’m thinking quail’s eggs. Those prawns are good, I’m not saying they aren’t, but they’re very garlicky, you know what I’m saying?’
‘I’d go eggs,’ Anita said from across the table. ‘I think tonight’s the night to end your dry phase. There are a lot of nice men here.’ There were a lot of men here, but they weren’t necessarily all nice. Evie definitely wouldn’t mind ending her dry phase, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that with a one-night-Vegas-stand.
‘I think eggs too,’ Sasha said. ‘You need to get some tonight. Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs.’ She started swinging her arms in a conducting motion. ‘Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs.’
‘Sasha, we haven’t even had our starters and you’re chanting,’ Evie said. ‘Drink some water.’ She was going to go with the prawns. She wasn’t going to ‘get some’ tonight and she loved garlic prawns.
‘Honestly, you sound like Dan,’ Sasha tutted. Her gaze switched to beyond Evie’s shoulder. ‘OMG, Daaaaaaaan,’ she screamed, standing up and pointing.
Evie turned round, her heart suddenly beating faster. It was totally okay to turn round when someone had pointed; it totally wasn’t desperate-looking. And no-one would know that she was really hoping that it was Dan. Unless they saw the huge smile that she could feel spreading across her face, because it was him. Looking extremely Dan-like. No concession at all to the glitz of Vegas. He was dressed in straight-legged blue jeans and a bottle green needlecord shirt, teamed with Timberland deck shoes. Pretty much the same style of clothes that he’d been wearing every time Evie had seen him since forever. She felt her heart swell with the niceness of how solidly reliable he was.
People were looking at him as he walked across the room, because that did happen with Dan – there was something about the way he carried himself. He always seemed completely unaware of it.
When he reached them, Sasha made her way round the table and chucked herself on him with an enormous hug.
‘Hey, sis,’ he said, laughing. ‘Good to see you too.’
‘Sit here.’ Sasha did some sleight of hand with chairs and cutlery and suddenly there was a free space right next to Evie.
‘Great, thank you. Hi, everyone.’ Dan nodded round the table and sat down. ‘Happy birthday for tomorrow,’ he said to Evie. ‘And I’m honoured to be sitting next to the birthday girl. Pride of place. How’s your evening going?’
‘It’s going very well,’ Evie said, beaming. It had felt like a good evening before; now it felt wonderful.
‘Welcome to our special new arrival,’ Joe said, winking at Dan, who laughed and winked back, which made Evie want to throw herself into his arms, or something; how embarrassing to realise that you had such an immense crush on someone when you were turning thirty tomorrow and you’d known that someone for so many years. But equally how cool that he was here and was going to be sitting right next to her for the rest of the evening. Hopefully dinner was going to last a long time. ‘I’m guessing you’re definitely going quail’s eggs now?’ Joe said to Evie, indicating Dan with a lot of eye and eyebrow action. God, embarrassing. What if Dan thought she’d said something before he arrived?
She shook her head. ‘We aren’t, you know, like that,’ she said. No, even more embarrassing. She should just have laughed and ignored what he’d said. ‘But the quail’s eggs do sound delicious and I will go for them. And for main I’ll have the cod,’ she said quickly, to try to stop any more garlic comments.
‘Good choice,’ Joe said, winking again. ‘I’ll come back to you, sir, when I’ve taken the ladies’ orders and given you some time to look through the menu.’
‘Thank you.’ Dan opened the menu. ‘So this is great,’ he said to Evie, looking up. ‘I’ve never been to Vegas before and so far it’s exactly what I always imagined.’
‘I know,’ Evie said. ‘Literally down to the Elvis impersonator who sat next to me in the bar earlier. Amazing sideburns and flares.’
‘I’m very pleased to hear that,’ Dan said. ‘So how’ve you been?’
‘You need a drink, Dan,’ Sasha interrupted. ‘And you need to drink faster, Evie.’ She filled Dan’s glass from one of the jugs and sloshed more pink cocktail into Evie’s glass. ‘Do you think we should play some drinking games?’
‘Absolutely not,’ said Angus, overhearing her. ‘God. It’s going to be carnage on Sasha’s own thirtieth.’
‘But fun,’ Evie said.
‘Are you ready to order now?’ Joe had made it all the way round the table and was waiting in front of Dan, pencil poised above pad.
‘Yeah, for my starter, I’m hesitating between the prawns and the pâté,’ Dan said.
Evie held her breath. What was the point of her being un-garlicky if Dan was going to be garlicky? What? Where had that come from? What was she even thinking? There was definitely going to be no kissing between them. All that stuff had just been one evening in time. She was still holding her breath, though.
‘I think I’m going to go pâté,’ Dan told Joe. ‘And ribs for main.’
Evie smiled and took another large sip of her cocktail.
‘Grrrreat choice,’ Joe said.
By the time they all had their starters, Sasha had them all going on a drinking game.
Evie downed half a glass while everyone shouted, ‘Three fingers,’ and said to Dan, ‘Honestly. Your sister.’
‘Your best friend. You can choose your friends but not your family.’
‘I actually love Sasha so much.’ The alcohol was leaving Evie with a warm, fuzzy feeling as it spread through her body. ‘I’m very lucky to have her.’
Dan laughed. ‘Me too.’
‘Your turn.’ Evie clapped as Dan started to recite the Fuzzy Duck rhyme.
It was a bad idea to drink a lot, and Evie definitely wasn’t going to drink too much this evening, but these cocktails were delicious and she was feeling sooo relaxed and happy now.
Halfway through their main courses, Joe brought jugs of two different cocktails. They’d finished all the pink ones.
‘They’re blue and green,’ Evie said. ‘Unusual colours for drinks. Very… bright.’
Dan nodded, very seriously. ‘Those are unusual beverage colours.’
‘We need to try them.’
Dan nodded again. ‘You’re right.’
‘I’m going to be thirty tomorrow,’ Evie told Dan. ‘That’s a big one.’
‘Yes, although, I hear that forty’s the new thirty. So maybe thirty’s the new twenty.’
‘No.’ Evie took a long drink of blue cocktail and then shook her head. ‘I’m a lot older than I was when I was twenty. I’m ten years older.’
‘Great arithmetic.’
‘Thank you.’ Evie leaned in towards Dan. ‘I’m not just ten years older, I’m ten years more experienced.’ She frowned. Had that sounded weird?
Dan smiled at her, like he was trying hard not to laugh. ‘Congratulations?’ he said.
‘Are you laughing at me?’ Evie drank some more. ‘Because it’s no laughing matter. Experience is important. I’ve learned a lot of things about life. I have a lot of wisdom I could impart.’
‘Okay, hit me with some of your wisdom.’
‘Well—’ Evie thought; she was definitely a lot wiser than she’d been at twenty. ‘I don’t even know where to start. There are so many different areas of life. For example, there’s work. There’s exercise. There’s relationships. Take exercise: when I was twenty I really believed that I’d like to play women’s rugby and that I’d like to do an army assault course. I tried women’s rugby when I was in my final year at university. Terrible. I’m not brave enough. And I volunteered for a cadet assault course at my last school. So bad. I thought I was going to die, covered in mud under a net thing. I cried in front of the Year Nines and I had to pretend it was because I had mud in my eye.’
‘So your wisdom is if you cry at work pretend you have mud in your eye? Or never play women’s rugby?’
‘Both.’
Dan nodded. ‘Okay. I’ll bear all of that in mind.’
‘Yeah, I think I have better wisdom than that.’ Evie drank some more green cocktail. ‘I’m gaining wisdom all the time. Right now, I’m learning not to drink blue things. That blue stuff was horrible. This is nice.’ She pushed her glass of blue away and it wobbled a lot on the edge of the table and then spilled onto the floor. ‘Well, look at that.’ She pointed. ‘That’s amazing. It’s disappeared.’
‘It’s a magic floor.’ Dan was scrutinising the swirly carpet. He tipped a bit of his own blue drink onto the floor and nodded. ‘Gone. Genuine magic.’
Evie drank some more of the green one. She tapped the side of her glass. ‘That’s really nice. You have some. You can share my straw.’ She nodded approvingly while Dan drank. ‘Well done. We should get some more drinks.’ She looked up and then squinted down the table and round the room. ‘Where’s everyone else?’
Dan looked around. ‘I think they’re dancing. Over there, look.’
‘Oh, yes. Maybe we should join them,’ Evie said. ‘This is our big birthday trip and tomorrow I’m going to be the birthday girl and I should probably be dancing with my friends.’ She hiccupped. ‘I need to make the most of the last night of my twenties. Maybe we should have some more green cocktail before we dance. It’s very, very good. And then when we’ve had some more of it we should dance with everyone because dancing’s fun and also it’ll work off the drink.’ She poked Dan triumphantly in his chest. His solid, muscly, lovely chest. ‘And that is a wise plan. It’s wisdom I have gained in my twenties. Ten years ago I didn’t know all this wise stuff.’
Dan nodded very solemnly. ‘So wise,’ he said.
They were halfway through their next green cocktails when ‘Dancing Queen’ started playing.
‘Oh. My. Goodness,’ Evie said, trying to put her glass down. Weird. It was like the table had moved. She tried again. ‘There. Glass down. Anyway. As I was saying. OMG. It’s like this is our song.’
‘Totally. The ABBA wedding.’
‘Exactly. We have to dance to this.’
‘We do.’ Dan pushed his chair back and it fell over. He turned round and frowned at it for a moment and then bent down to pick it up. He tried a lot of times but it didn’t work. ‘Something wrong with that chair,’ he said. He held his hand out to Evie. She took it and they began to dance-wind their way through all the tables to the dance floor.
‘Wait,’ said Evie suddenly. ‘We need to make you more Vegas.’ Dan had the top button on his shirt undone, but it wasn’t enough. She started to undo the next three. She was concentrating hard but it was really tricky doing buttons this evening. Dan tried to help her but he was rubbish at it too. Eventually she had them undone.
‘Liking your hairy chest,’ she said admiringly.
‘Well, thank you. I like your chest too.’
They both kind of scrunched their faces and looked at each other for a moment, and then started to move towards the dance floor again.
When they got to it, Evie stood on tiptoes to say over the music, ‘We should look for the others,’ in Dan’s ear. She didn’t want to look for the others.
‘Definitely,’ Dan said, spinning her round and making no attempt to move further into the centre of the dance floor.
Two songs later, Evie was very hot and her stomach was churning a bit.
‘I think I need to get some air,’ she told Dan.
‘Let’s go,’ Dan said, grabbing her hand.
‘Woah,’ said Evie as they left the building. ‘That’s so chilly. Why isn’t Las Vegas hot?’
‘It’s December.’
‘Oh yes. You’re very good at months. It’s December because it’s my birthday tomorrow.’
Dan started to sing ‘Happy birthday to you’ as they walked down the Strip.
Evie got her phone out to google the sights of Las Vegas. The Fountains of Bellagio and the High Roller were supposed to be somewhere around, but it was really difficult to work out what direction they were walking in.
‘You’re shivering,’ Dan said. ‘Come here.’ He put his arm round her and Evie leaned against him. Melted against him if she was honest. ‘That better?’
‘Mmm?’ Evie loved how their hips were bumping as they walked and how Dan’s arm felt along her shoulders. She could smell his musky scent too. And if she glanced up she could see his strong jawline and cheek. So bloody sexy.
‘You should have brought a coat.’
‘I don’t need a coat. I have a gorgeous man heating me up.’ She stopped and pointed. ‘Look. It’s an actual Vegas wedding chapel. We have to check it out.’
Dan nodded. ‘Important sightseeing.’
‘That is one of the tackiest Christmas trees I’ve ever seen,’ said Evie in delight, stopping outside the chapel. She looked up above the chapel entrance. ‘And that is one of the biggest bunches of mistletoe I’ve ever seen.’
Mistletoe.
She looked at Dan and smiled. He looked at her and smiled too.
‘Mistletoe,’ he said. ‘It’s obligatory.’
Evie closed her eyes as Dan bent his head and kissed her. And, God that was good. His firm lips on hers, their mouths opening for each other, his arms round hers, hers round him, her hands on his back, his legs hard against hers.
They were pressed up against the wall of the chapel now, kissing and kissing.
‘Remember,’ said Dan, between urgent kisses, ‘the pact we made. Under the mistletoe. Our fallback pact. We were young then.’
‘Yes,’ panted Evie. ‘A lot… older… now.’
‘We said your thirtieth birthday.’ Dan ran a finger along her cheekbone and jawline.
‘Mmm.’ Evie couldn’t really speak. Where else was he going to trace his finger?
A couple came out of the chapel and nearly bumped into them.
‘Whoops.’ Evie would have fallen over if Dan hadn’t held her up. ‘Your arms are very, very strong,’ she told him, giving his biceps a little squeeze. ‘Let’s go and look inside.’
‘You wanna get a licence, you only have a half hour. Closes at midnight,’ a woman with a gigantic beehive hairdo and a pale-yellow pussy-bow blouse told them as they stood there, still with their arms round each other’s waists.
‘Do you work here?’ Evie asked.
The woman nodded. Her hair didn’t move.
‘You have great hairspray,’ Evie said. ‘I’d like hairspray like that.’ She leaned in towards the woman and pulled Dan in with her. ‘I’d like to get married. I’d like to get a licence. This is Dan. I’m Evie. We have a pact. We made it under the mistletoe and we kissed just now under mistletoe.’ She stuck her finger out to point at the mistletoe but everything was spinning a bit and she couldn’t remember where it was. Never mind. It was irrelevant. The point was the pact. ‘We’re supposed to get married on my thirtieth birthday tomorrow if we’re still single.’
‘And are you both still single?’ the woman asked.
They both nodded.
‘So you need to get married, right now.’
‘What’s your name?’ Evie asked.
‘Susan.’
Evie turned to Dan. ‘Susan’s making a lot of sense.’
Dan nodded, looking really serious. ‘She is.’
Forty-five minutes later, they emerged from the chapel, Evie holding their marriage certificate and a glass of sparkling wine, and wearing a gigantic beam.
She clinked her glass against Dan’s and they both took a long drink.
‘Look. We’re back under the mistletoe,’ she said, pointing.
Dan kissed the back of her neck and then moved the neckline of her dress down so that he could kiss along her shoulder.
‘That is so good,’ Evie told him, shivering. ‘And you’re my husband and I would very much like you to have your wicked way with me.’
‘I would very much like that too.’ Dan kissed the curve of her neck some more.
‘Hotel’s this way,’ Susan called.
Evie opened her eyes and tried to focus. It was difficult, because Dan had his hands inside her dress and she had hers under his shirt and his stubble was grazing her face and her chest so deliciously.
‘And get a room,’ Susan yelled. ‘This way.’
‘Different hotel,’ Dan said.
‘No, you bought the honeymoon suite package. This way.’