The Mistletoe Pact: A totally perfect Christmas romantic comedy

by Lovett, Jo

  ‘Hello.’ Dan’s face crinkled into an even bigger smile. ‘Been running?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘You’re wearing yet another scarf. In yet another very nice colour.’ It was emerald-green. He gave the end of it a gentle tug and, honestly, Evie felt tingles everywhere. Unbelievable. He hadn’t even touched her, he’d just touched her scarf.

  She smiled back at him, definitely foolishly, and wondered if she was losing her mind.

  ‘Scarves are very important,’ she said. ‘They frame a person’s face. Hide wrinkles. Elevate an outfit.’ Seriously. She might as well be talking about the weather. Ridiculous first-date nerves with someone she’d known forever.

  ‘And also they’re important for keeping you warm,’ Dan said.

  ‘I mean, that’s a very secondary consideration.’

  ‘So are you de-scarfing now or wearing it all evening? Bearing in mind that it’s quite warm in here even though that’s a secondary consideration?’

  ‘Well, fortunately, I’ve come prepared and I’m wearing a jumper that I quite like, so I’m okay to take the scarf off.’

  ‘Well, phew,’ Dan said. ‘I really like that jumper too.’

  ‘Why, thank you.’ She’d bought this cream jumper and another one – red – this morning and had spent far too long before she came out deciding which one to wear. Hang on. Had she taken the price tag out? She hoped so. ‘I might just pop to the loo before the film starts,’ she said.

  The price tag was still there. She could feel it attached to the label. And it wasn’t held on by a normal, thin plastic tag; it was on a cord loop, which she couldn’t cut without scissors, which she didn’t have. Why didn’t she carry scissors? Actually, this was ridiculous. There was no need to panic. It wasn’t like Dan was going to be looking inside her top, was it? And if he did happen to come back to her flat, she could pop into the bathroom and cut the price tag out then. Just in case for some reason she ended up taking the jumper off.

  And standing in the middle of some very brightly lit loos that smelled of pine bleach and something grim, she had goosebumps all over thinking about what might happen later.

  She moved closer to the mirrors. Did her lipstick look okay? Maybe she should have worn a slightly different colour. And was her hair looking alright? She gave it a couple of tweaks.

  Okay. She was being ridiculous. Dan probably wouldn’t notice her lipstick or her hair. He wasn’t standing out there feeling like a gibbering wreck. He was just being normal. She was going to pull the tag off the loop and leave the loop itself and Dan would never notice and if he did – which, again, he wouldn’t, because they probably weren’t going to be removing clothes; oh, God, maybe they would – he’d actually never notice or he’d think it was just part of the label of the jumper and he’d never know she’d bought the jumper today just for this evening and everything was going to be fine and she just needed to stop panicking. It was strange, though, finally being on an official date.

  She took some deep breaths and left the loos.

  When she got back to the cinema foyer, Dan was next to the pick ’n’ mix, holding a big stripy paper bag and an expression of extreme concentration.

  ‘Oh, wow, sherbet lemons,’ Evie said, pleased that her voice sounded normal and non-jittery.

  ‘I know,’ Dan said. ‘I couldn’t resist. I literally never eat sweets but these were calling out to me. I was just trying to work out whether to take a punt on what you’d like and go big on just a few of what are in my opinion are the best ones, or whether to get a little bit of everything.’

  ‘We have to go big on just a few,’ Evie said. ‘Unless you have very bad taste in sweets and we can’t agree.’

  ‘No,’ said Dan. ‘If we can’t agree, it’ll be because you have bad taste.’

  Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting in the middle of the second from back row of the auditorium, munching happily on the sherbet lemons, plus fizzy cola bottles and pineapple chunks, people-watching while they waited for the film to start. Evie honestly couldn’t remember enjoying a cinema trip this much, even as a little girl. She had a what’s-going-to-happen-this-evening fizz of anticipation inside her even bigger than the fizz from the sherbet lemons.

  When the credits rolled at the end of the film and the auditorium lights came on, Evie saw that every seat was taken, which was weird, because it had felt like it was just the two of them for the duration of the film. Then she looked down and realised that she had both her hands clamped on Dan’s forearm.

  ‘I didn’t know you were a screamer,’ he said, grinning at her.

  ‘Me! What about you? You gasped so much when that man leapt out with the knife I thought you were going to choke.’

  ‘I mean, the whole cinema gasped at that point. Whereas the whole cinema did not scream when you did.’

  ‘Quiet screaming, though,’ Evie said. ‘You gasped really loudly.’

  They grinned at each other.

  ‘Quick drink so we can recover from the screaming and gasping?’ Dan said.

  ‘Sounds like a plan.’ Should she invite him back to her flat? Cue extreme stomach butterflies. ‘There’s a lovely wine bar up the road if you fancy it?’

  As they pushed through the crowded bar, Evie almost wriggled with pleasure, feeling Dan’s hand in the small of her back. It felt intimate, it felt like the promise of things to come later, and it just felt right.

  Once they were sitting at a table in the corner, Dan with a bottle of beer and Evie with a glass of white, Evie said, ‘So it’s wonderful that you and Max sorted things out.’

  ‘Yeah. Thank you, so much, again. We’re in touch a lot more now. It’s nice. He and Greggy are making progress with their wedding plans. By the sounds of it, they’re going to make Sasha’s wedding look almost low-key. You know he asked me to be his best man? I have the job of organising his stag, and he said he has no guidance other than he wants it to be unpredictable and spectacular.’

  ‘Easy, then.’

  ‘I know. So far I have no ideas beyond your bog-standard Ibiza or Prague trip, both on a budget. I need something original but not too expensive.’

  ‘Hmm. Bingo?’

  ‘That is original and also cheap, but maybe a miss on the spectacular front.’

  ‘Hey. Have you been to Johnson’s Bingo in Cirencester? Because that is spectacular.’

  At midnight, when the bar closed, Evie was so not ready to end the conversation, and it seemed like Dan wasn’t either.

  ‘Can I walk you home?’ Dan asked. ‘For my peace of mind.’

  ‘Yes, you can, and thank you,’ Evie said. She really wished the bar had stayed open for longer because now it felt like she had a decision to make and she wasn’t sure which way she wanted to go. She didn’t want the evening to end now but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to invite Dan in tonight, because it felt like they could be at the start of something big and like she needed to work out what she wanted. ‘I’m quite tired, though.’ Aargh. She could have worded that a lot better.

  He smiled at her. ‘I’m tired too.’

  ‘This is a great location,’ Dan said as they rounded the corner of Evie’s road ten minutes later. When he’d dropped her off after the quiz, they hadn’t been chatting about things like locations. They’d been arguing and apologising and then they’d nearly kissed.

  ‘I know. There is a slight issue with Tube noise, and I have to keep my bedroom curtains closed at all times, because otherwise I’m literally eye-to-eye with passengers at a distance of only a few metres, but it’s so cool to be so close to the centre of Wimbledon, which I never thought I’d manage on my salary. So lucky that Josh had a spare room. Well, spare boxroom.’ She stopped outside the house. ‘So we’re here.’ Should she, shouldn’t she invite him in? ‘I’ve had a lovely evening.’

  ‘Me too.’ Dan was planted in front of her, his hands in his pockets again, smiling down at her.

  Evie drew a deep breath and licked her lips.

  And then he
bent his head towards hers, very slowly, and gave her the most fleeting of kisses on the lips.

  Evie’s heart was hammering against her ribs and she couldn’t have moved if you’d paid her.

  Dan’s smile grew and then he leaned forwards again and Evie reached up to meet him and this time it was a proper kiss. They relaxed into each other, kissing, exploring, Evie’s arms around Dan’s neck, his around her and his hands wound gorgeously, sensuously in her hair.

  ‘Excuse me.’ Josh was doing an exaggerated cough right next to them. Fergus was holding his hand, trying to pull him away and shushing.

  ‘Whoops,’ Evie said.

  ‘Whoops yourself, ooh-er,’ Josh said, moving round them. He inserted his key in the door and pushed. ‘You coming in?’

  Eek. Decision time right here, right now.

  ‘Um.’ Evie still had her arms round Dan. She let go of him and stepped backwards, and he let go of her too. ‘Yes, I am,’ she said.

  ‘We’ll leave you to your goodbyes,’ Josh said, with a lot of suggestive eyebrow waggling.

  Evie waited until Josh had closed the door – with a bit of hilarious have-I-haven’t-I reopening and closing of it – and said, ‘So, goodnight, then.’

  ‘Goodnight.’ His voice was so deliciously gravelly. ‘Do you…?’ He cleared his throat. ‘Do you fancy dinner soon?’

  ‘I do, actually,’ Evie said.

  ‘Cool. Night.’

  Evie let herself into the house and smiled all the way up the stairs to the flat.

  Thirty-Four

  Now – October 2022

  Dan

  Dan looked up at the – somewhat weird – orange, geometric clock on the far side of the café.

  ‘That clock must be fast,’ he said, pulling his phone out. ‘Nope. It’s right. I’d better get going.’

  ‘Me too,’ said his father. ‘I’ll get this.’

  ‘My turn.’ Dan put his wallet on the table.

  ‘But I’m your dad and I’d like to get it.’ His father raised his eyebrows. ‘If you’ll let me?’

  Dan looked at him, and nodded, slowly. It felt symbolic. Like he was letting him be his dad again.

  ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘This has been good.’ Domino effect. Evie had nagged him into talking to Max, and Max had nagged him into talking to his father.

  ‘I wondered,’ said his father, when he’d paid, and they were huddling in their coats in biting wind on the pavement outside, preparing to go their separate ways, ‘if you’d like to go to the rugby at Twickenham with me next month. The England–Italy match. I have four tickets. I thought I could ask Max and Greggy too.’ Right. Several hours together. Father/son bonding. It felt like a commitment.

  It felt like it would be a great way of rebuilding their relationship.

  ‘I’d like that,’ Dan said. ‘I’m not sure what weekends I’m down to work, though. Could you send me the date and I’ll have a look and let you know?’ If he got cold feet he could use work as an excuse. He didn’t think he would, though.

  * * *

  Dan slapped aftershave on and then laughed at himself in his bathroom mirror. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d shaved any time other than first thing in the morning. Normally, he took the view that if he was stubbly, he was stubbly.

  Seeing Evie today felt special, though, like they were both acknowledging that they had a relationship and it could be going somewhere.

  It was Wednesday evening, ten days since their cinema trip. They’d squeezed a coffee in, just outside Earl’s Court station, on Sunday morning, but other than that hadn’t managed to see each other, and they couldn’t find a weekend time that they were both free for the next week and a half. This evening, though, they were both free, and they’d planned to catch the end of the day at a funfair currently on Wimbledon Common, and then go for dinner at a nearby pub that Zubin had recommended.

  Just over an hour later, they were wandering hand in hand around the funfair.

  ‘Okay,’ said Evie, ‘we don’t have much time, so we need to prioritise. I love dodgems and, if I’m honest, I’ll be disappointed if we don’t do them.’

  Dan nodded. ‘Good call. I love a dodgem too. Also the shooting range.’

  ‘Okay. I’m rubbish but I don’t mind having a go.’

  ‘That’s good news for me. If I say so myself, I’m not bad, so I’ll be able to strut some macho impressing-the-ladies stuff.’

  ‘I will prepare to be duly impressed. Dodgems first? In case you win lots of stuff on the shooting range and it won’t fit in the cars with us?’

  Fifteen minutes later, Evie had just rammed two teenage boys, hard, for the umpteenth time, and was cackling away like a woman possessed.

  ‘You’re a demon at the wheel,’ Dan said, impressed, as their cars bumped together and they were momentarily halted next to each other at the side.

  ‘I know,’ she said happily. ‘Honestly, I was never like this before I started driving in London, but now I’ve started I can’t stop. Next time I get in my actual car I’m going to have to remind myself that it isn’t a dodgem. Anyway. Move. You’re cramping my bumping style.’

  At the end of their go, they got out of their cars, both staggering slightly.

  ‘That’s quite high impact,’ said Dan.

  ‘It is. Good job we’re just going to be standing still shooting now. Time to recover. You’ll have to show me how to do it.’ Evie smiled at him and he felt it right to his stomach. He put his hand out and she put hers into his. They fitted perfectly together, like a jigsaw.

  They also fitted together perfectly when he stood behind Evie and reached round her to show her how to use the air rifle. She wriggled slightly against him as they adjusted her hold and God that felt – he hoped – like a promise of things to come tonight.

  He really needed to get a grip, otherwise he’d literally be panting right here in the middle of a fairground.

  He leaned down and planted a kiss on the back of her neck and she wriggled even more.

  ‘Porn,’ yelled one of the boys that Evie had been ramming on the dodgems. Fair enough.

  ‘Right,’ Dan said to Evie. ‘You ready?’

  ‘I think so. You go first, show me how it’s done.’

  Dan did pretty well actually. Out of three shots he had two near misses and with the third won a mid-sized teddy, which Katie would definitely love.

  ‘Wow,’ said Evie. ‘You’re amazing.’ Dan tried really hard not to preen like a peacock. ‘Okay. My go.’ She screwed her face up adorably, took aim and, squeaking as she did so, fired, and then closed her eyes.

  ‘Evie!’ Dan said. ‘No way! Amazing.’ She’d won the biggest teddy they had, which was genuinely not much smaller than her.

  She opened her eyes and started jumping up and down, saying, ‘Wow.’

  The stall owner was looking part-annoyed, part-stunned. ‘That’s incredible,’ he said.

  ‘Talk about beginner’s luck,’ said Evie, when she’d finished jumping. ‘Okay, I’m going again.’

  On her second attempt she hit the second biggest teddy and on her third attempt she didn’t bother with all the face-screwing-up and squeaking and just laughed and narrowed her eyes and shot the third biggest teddy.

  ‘Oh my God,’ Dan said. ‘You’re a complete hustler. Where did you learn and how have I never known this about you?’

  ‘Army cadets and, clearly, the first secret of hustling is to keep your skill as secret as possible.’

  ‘Well, wow. That was seriously impressive. You’re my woman if I ever need a sniper. Ready to haul our booty off to the pub now?’

  * * *

  Two and a half hours later, Evie looked at her plate and the last mouthful of her sticky toffee pudding and said, ‘I really want to eat that, but I’m so full.’

  ‘You going to go for it?’

  ‘I actually can’t. I’m going to have to admit defeat.’ Evie gestured at the panelled walls surrounding them. ‘I love this pub. So much character. And such goo
d food.’

  ‘Yeah, me too. I’m going to tell Zubin it was a great suggestion. Shall we get the bill and I’ll walk you home very slowly to try to work some of the pudding off?’

  ‘Oh my goodness,’ Evie gasped as they opened the door of the pub and a blast of freezing air hit them. ‘You never think of London as being this cold. Especially in the autumn.’

  ‘Good job we have the teddies to warm us and that you have one of your trusty scarves,’ Dan said. This evening’s one was a sort of coral colour and woollen. ‘How many times are you wrapping this one?’

  ‘As many as I can.’ Evie shivered.

  ‘Come here.’ Dan put his non-teddy-holding arm round her shoulders and hugged her into him. ‘Warmer?’

  ‘Mmm,’ said Evie. He couldn’t see her face very well because her head was kind of nestled into his neck as they walked, but he’d definitely caught a glimpse of a big smile.

  They wandered along like that, across Wimbledon Common, talking a little bit, about light stuff, until they stopped to cross a road, and then looked into some of the shop windows on Wimbledon High Street, and then afterwards ended up holding hands instead, all the rest of the way down the hill and back to Evie’s flat, still chatting, still about nothing serious.

  They stopped outside Evie’s front door. Dan looked down at where their fingers were laced together. Her hand really did fit perfectly inside his.

  ‘I really enjoyed our evening,’ he said. He’d be pretty keen for it not to end right here.

  ‘Me too,’ Evie said. She looked up at his face for a long time, and then said, ‘Would you like to come in for a coffee?’

  Stupid question. Dan would love to go in for a coffee. Except. Evie had hesitated for way too long there. It was like she thought she should ask him in but she wasn’t totally sure about it.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure?’ he asked. Shit. That sounded like he thought they were talking about sex, which obviously he hoped they were, but maybe they weren’t, maybe she was just genuinely only talking about coffee. ‘I mean, you aren’t too tired? Dodgems, hustling and eating a lot are hard work.’