The Mistletoe Pact by Jo Lovett
Now – Christmas Day 2021
Evie
At least Dan was going home tomorrow. Evie really didn’t fancy spending any more time with him in the near future, especially not surrounded by other people who knew about the wedding. She wanted some time to – what was the word – recover, probably.
What was wrong with the two of them? Most people could manage to drink a few too many cocktails without getting married and posting dozens of TMI photos of themselves on social media. Anyway, at least he seemed to be as keen to avoid her as she was to avoid him. And that should not feel unbearably sad, because it wasn’t like they were regular features of each other’s daily lives.
‘Great,’ she said, and trooped with the others into the bar. She couldn’t possibly not join drinks on the night Sasha had got engaged to lovely Angus.
‘Jugs again, I’m thinking,’ Sasha said. Angus whispered something in her ear and she giggled and said, ‘Yep, not too much to drink. Let’s get some water too.’
Evie did not enjoy the evening despite how happy she was for Sasha and Angus. She nursed one Screwdriver – not as nice as the cocktails they’d had the other night, especially the bright-green one – the entire time and tried not to watch Dan looking ruggedly handsome while he chatted to Millie and Tola at the opposite side of the table. She was pretty sure that Millie had a bit of a thing for him. She was making far too much – in Evie’s opinion – OTT eye contact with him while she chatted. Obviously, Evie and Dan weren’t together, but equally they were currently married and they’d had a very big night together and right now, if she was honest, she really wouldn’t appreciate it if anything happened between him and anyone else.
It was actually a struggle not to glare at Millie when she practically batted her eyelashes at Dan when he excused himself to go to the loo, and not to beam when he sat himself down next to Rav and Anita on the opposite side of the group from Millie when he got back.
‘Evie?’ Sasha said. Evie jumped slightly and looked at her. She had a big, expectant-looking smile on her face, of the type where you felt like you just had to say a big ‘Yes!’ even when you had no idea what the person was talking about. Best not, though, or she could be saying that she’d milk a cow or go on a six-week belly-dancing course, both of which she’d done with Sasha in the past and regretted.
‘I’m so sorry, I missed what you said.’ Because she’d been obsessing over Sasha’s brother.
‘Will you be my bridesmaid?’ Sasha said surprisingly quietly.
‘Oh, wow.’
‘Shhh.’ Sasha eye-swivelled at the others and shook her head slightly.
‘I’d be honoured,’ Evie whispered.
‘Thank you so much,’ Sasha whispered back. ‘I should have waited until we were alone but I really wanted to ask you immediately. We’re going to have a lot of work to do. I want to get married soon. We’re thinking a marquee in Mum’s garden because then we won’t have venue problems. Hopefully this summer at the latest. We need to start making plans as soon as we get home.’
‘Wow again,’ said Evie. ‘So exciting. I can’t wait to start the planning.’ She pushed away a miserable thought about how Sasha’s fairy tale ‘meet your Prince Charming, fall in love, go out for a few years and then get ecstatically engaged’ was light years from her own pathetic ‘make a fallback pact with your secret crush, have a lot of other rubbish relationships and then get stupidly drunk and marry and divorce the secret crush on your thirtieth’ history. This evening should be all about Sasha and Angus, not thoughts about Evie’s pathetic, non-existent love life.
Eating and drinking huge amounts pretty much non-stop all day had taken its toll, and by ten o’clock they were all leaning back in their chairs, yawning and not talking that much. Evie wasn’t sure who the first person to suggest bed was, but everyone leapt (slowly) at the idea.
They all heaved themselves to their feet, and wandered out of the bar, through the foyer and over to the lift lobby, where Dan did a lot of handshaking and air-kissing, saying that he might not see anyone before he left in the morning, because his flight was just after midday so he was going to be on his way early.
Dan got to Evie last. She was very aware of at least a couple of the others watching them with what felt like avid curiosity. And then she was only aware of Dan, standing quite close to her.
He gave her a small smile and said, ‘So goodbye then. We’ll speak soon about the…’
‘Documents. Yep.’ Evie was sure her voice didn’t normally sound like that, but she felt very self-conscious having this weird goodbye in front of a little audience. She cleared her throat. ‘Great. Yes.’
‘Goodnight.’ Dan leaned in very slightly in for an air-kiss with at least six inches between their cheeks.
‘Night then,’ Evie said.
The doors of one of the lifts pinged open at that point. Dan stood back and gestured for some of the others to go. Evie stepped in with Tola and Sasha and Angus. It felt like a much bigger effort than it should have done to maintain cheery small talk until she could leave them.
When she was finally inside her bedroom, she plonked herself face down on her bed and let the tears that she’d been holding in spill out. It shouldn’t feel this miserable saying goodbye to Dan. Nothing that meaningful had actually happened between them. People had one-night stands all the time, and some of those people had them in Vegas and – if they were stupid – ended up briefly married.
Dan was Dan, though. He wasn’t just anyone.
* * *
Evie decided to skip Boxing Day breakfast. She was still full from all the Christmas Day food plus she didn’t fancy possibly bumping into Dan in the dining room. Each time she’d seen him yesterday she’d felt too emotional for comfort. It would be better not to be looking over her shoulder the whole time. Probably best to stay in her room until lunchtime and relax.
She got a text from him mid-morning saying he hoped she enjoyed the rest of the stay and he’d be in touch ASAP about the annulment, which made her feel tearful again, so she switched the TV on and found an episode of Schitt’s Creek to watch.
By lunchtime, she was really bored and very pleased to be meeting the rest of the group. And, really, it was lovely for it to be calm and relaxed with no awkwardness around Dan, or being constantly aware of him. Yes, it felt a tiny bit flat, but overall it was lovely, especially with the ongoing excitement about Sasha and Angus. It was a little bit annoying that she kept wondering what Dan would say about things, but, really, it was way better without him.
‘There’s nothing actually going on between you and Dan, is there?’ Millie asked over their pre-sightseeing salads.
Evie chewed her lettuce very thoroughly to give herself time to think of a good reply, and then ended up saying, ‘No, nothing.’
‘Great,’ said Millie, with a suggestive pout.
Evie shoved some more lettuce in her mouth and chewed hard again. It felt like Millie had changed since they were at school, and not for the better.
* * *
‘Evie, over here,’ Sasha hollered across the main room of the Duck and Grapes, the pub in Melting Bishop, as Evie made her way across to her on New Year’s Eve.
Evie said hello to everyone she recognised and tried hard to keep her attention on the people she was speaking to rather than combing the room with her eyes for any sight of Dan. She’d spent the whole week fantasising slightly – okay a lot – that maybe something might happen between them sober.Given that he’d been away for Christmas, there had to be a good chance that he’d come home for New Year to see his mum. He’d said he didn’t know whether or not he’d be working. She’d been so tempted to ask Sasha whether or not he’d be there. It was actually really hard to decide whether or not she wanted to see him.
‘Evening,’ she said to Sasha when she’d finally made it over to where she was sitting with Angus and several local friends and Max. And not Dan. So maybe he wasn’t coming. Or maybe he was late.
‘I love your top,’ Sasha said. ‘Is it new?’ It was new. Just in case she saw Dan. ‘Should we look at my ring just one more time?’ She waggled her engagement finger and Evie laughed. ‘Oh, look, there’s Millie.’
Millie, looking remarkably glammed up, was standing in the doorway.
‘Hello,’ she said when she got to their table. ‘Thought I’d come after all.’
‘Let me buy you a drink,’ Angus said.
Millie sat herself down in his place next to Sasha, and said, ‘So when’s Dan coming?’
Really, Evie should be pleased that she’d asked that question, so that she could hear the answer too, rather than having an urge to slap her.
‘He isn’t,’ Sasha said. ‘He’s working tonight. I think it’s often a busy one in A&E and he had to swap shifts with someone apparently.’
‘Right,’ said Millie. She laced her fingers together and tapped her forefingers against each other a few times and then said, ‘I’m not going to be able to stay long. I have a party in Cheltenham as well this evening.’
Angus put her glass of white wine down in front of her, and she said, ‘Thank you so much.’
About three sips of her wine later, and while Evie was right in the middle of telling them about the Year Eight ski trip she was going on at February half-term, Millie stood up abruptly and said, ‘So it’s been great to see you. Happy New Year.’ And off she went.
‘She asked for a large glass,’ said Evie, indignant on behalf of Angus and generally furious with Millie. ‘She could have had a small one and saved you a good fiver.’
‘It actually really annoys me that she’s so blatantly got her eye on Dan,’ Sasha said. ‘I mean, I know you don’t want to talk about it and I know that what happened in Vegas was just a one-off and everything, but it still feels rude to you.’
‘It really does.’ Evie nodded, delighted that Sasha wanted to bitch about Millie, because she really wanted to.
‘I don’t think Dan’s at all interested in her,’ Sasha said.
‘Yeah, no, I mean, it’s just the principle. It doesn’t actually matter to me at all,’ Evie lied. It did matter, though. It was one thing him not having been in touch with her after their doorstep snog many years ago, but it would be another him dating one of her school friends right now. If she was honest, she wouldn’t like to think of him dating anyone at the moment, even though there was no reason whatsoever that he shouldn’t. They were both clearly free to do whatever they liked with whomever they liked.