Once in a Lifetime

by Chrissie Manby

  ‘That looks really good,’ she said, holding a purple-blue wrap dress beneath Dani’s chin.

  Dani looked at the price tag before she looked at the fabric. It was way more than she wanted to spend.

  ‘Mate’s rates,’ Lola said conspiratorially. ‘I can give you three per cent off. Try it on.’

  Dani should have told Lola that she wouldn’t be taking it. The dress would blow Dani’s budget for the month. And that was before she even thought about the shoes. Did she have anything at home that would save her taking the ‘Kates’? Alas, she didn’t think so. Dani hadn’t bought a pair of going out shoes in years, accessorising everything remotely dressy with a pair of black leather stilettoes that were supposed to be ‘classic’ but which were really best described as ‘dull’.

  ‘These shoes are an investment,’ said Lola as she handed Dani the nude patent courts. ‘You will wear them with everything.’

  Lola didn’t know that ‘everything’ in the context of Dani’s wardrobe consisted of three black dresses gone grey and an awful lot of jeans.

  But being in Lola’s shop and trying on that blue dress made Dani realise perhaps just how much she’d been missing out.

  All at once, it was as if her mind had been replaced by an Instagram meme generator. The dress was lovely. She would never be any younger, thinner or prettier than she was right then. This might be her last chance at a date, let alone a date with a former model. This was a once-in-a-lifetime moment …

  ‘I’ll take the dress and the shoes,’ she said, surprising herself.

  ‘And the bangles?’ Lola suggested. ‘To make your arms look a bit less … noodly?’

  ‘Well, the last thing I want is for my date to think I’ve got noodly arms,’ said Dani. ‘I’ll take them too.’

  Lola rang up the total amount and Dani did her best not to look shocked. Still she felt hot and cold as she handed over her card and inputted her PIN. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d picked up an item of clothing that couldn’t be bought contactless. But this was an investment in a future she hadn’t dared think she deserved until Will showed up in town. She imagined his face as she walked in dressed to the nines. She felt excited in a way she hadn’t for years.

  ‘There you are. You’re all set,’ said Lola. ‘Just that dress, those shoes and the bangles and a blow-dry.’

  Dani put her hand to her hair, conscious that she hadn’t been to a salon in six months.

  ‘And a mani. And a pedi.’

  ‘The shoes will cover my toes,’ Dani pointed out.

  ‘But what about when you want to slip one of them off, so you can stroke his leg underneath the table?’ Lola asked. ‘You should always be ready for seduction, Dani.’

  This was why Nat was in love with her.

  Chapter Forty-One

  With her seductive new outfit ready to go, Dani started to feel quite excited. The night stretched ahead, full of promise. She might not have had time to get her hair done properly but it didn’t look bad after she’d washed it and dried it upside down to give it some oomph. She’d sort of done a manicure too. After she wiped the excess polish off her cuticles with a cotton bud, it would pass muster.

  Even Flossie gave Dani a thumbs-up when she saw her all dressed up.

  ‘Lovely,’ said Jane.

  ‘Go get him,’ said Sarah.

  Will had bagged a table at The Lonely Elephant, Newbay’s smartest new restaurant. Actually, it wasn’t that new. And Dani had been there before, with Dave the chef. Dave made a point of visiting every new opening in the town, to see how it might impact on The Majestic’s share of local business.

  Dani hoped the proprietor wouldn’t remember her from that night, when Dave had dissed The Lonely Elephant so comprehensively and loudly that they were eventually asked to leave. Three years had passed since then. Hopefully, that was long enough for everyone on the restaurant’s staff to have forgotten the two idiots from The Majestic who sent back four half-finished bottles of wine, claiming they were all corked.

  Dani didn’t recognise the girl on the restaurant’s reception desk. That was a good start.

  ‘I’m here to meet Will …’ she began.

  The girl’s eyes lit up and she examined Dani with open curiosity.

  ‘He’s already here,’ she said.

  ‘And are you really the woman he’s been waiting for?’ her expression seemed to ask.

  ‘Follow me.’ The receptionist clipped ahead of Dani into the dining room. She was much more confident in her heels than Dani was. Those ‘Kates’ might have made her legs look long but they also made her walk like a newborn tapir.

  Will stood up and kissed Dani on both cheeks. He then rushed around the table to pull out her chair in a gentlemanly fashion.

  ‘I’m assuming you’d like to face into the room,’ said Will. ‘See all the comings and goings. And I took the liberty of ordering you a glass of champagne to get things started. You look beautiful, by the way. What a lovely dress. Let me guess, the designer is … Cherry Blossom Days.’

  ‘You got it in one.’

  ‘Lola was mad about that company’s designs,’ Will said.

  Hmmm, thought Dani. That was an awfully quick mention of his ex. But it didn’t matter. Will was just making conversation. Dani was happy that he had paid her a compliment. The dress was working.

  A waitress arrived with two glasses of fizz on a tray. She placed one in front of each of them. And a small dish of cheesy cracker things too. They smelled delicious.

  ‘Well, here’s to you,’ said Will, raising a toast.

  ‘And to you,’ said Dani, chinking her glass against his.

  ‘To both of us.’

  Dani took a sip of the champagne but it was Will’s words that made her feel giddy. To both of us. To us. It was going to be a wonderful night.

  As he made her laugh again and again, Dani was thrilled to find out how much they had in common. From both loving champagne to both thinking lobster was overrated. From both secretly liking Strictly Come Dancing to both being nuts about Game Of Thrones.

  Will was full of fascinating stories about his time on the modelling scene. Dani was impressed to hear he’d done lots of adverts.

  ‘That guy on the sofa in DFS? That was me.’

  And he had great gossip about lots of names Dani recognised from the Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame.

  ‘Not that I ever read the Mail Online,’ she insisted.

  ‘Of course,’ said Will. ‘Me neither. But did you see that piece about Kylie today …’

  They were so engrossed in their conversation that the waitress had to cough to get their attention so she could take their order.

  For a starter, Dani ordered the goat’s cheese salad. Will ordered smoked salmon. He insisted they each had a glass of white wine to go with this first course and made Dani choose it.

  ‘You’re the expert,’ he said.

  As she chugged her way through the Chablis she’d chosen, Dani found herself feeling happier and happier and more and more relaxed in Will’s company. By the time he offered her a piece of salmon – which he insisted on feeding her straight from his fork – Dani had forgotten she’d ever been nervous at all.

  An hour in, it was all still going remarkably well. The waitress had just set their main courses on the table – chicken for Dani and a steak for Will – when the tinkling of the bell on the door announced that some new customers had arrived.

  Dani looked up from admiring her plate to see who was walking through the restaurant door.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  ‘Lola!’

  Will actually stood up when he saw who had walked in. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’

  ‘Well, fancy seeing you here too,’ Lola replied. ‘And you, Dani.’

  Her expression as she looked at Dani was somewhere between surprise and horror.

  ‘You wore the dress, I see,’ she commented.

  And now Dani noticed that Lola was wearing a dress of the exact same design
but in a different colour. A dark pink. A colour that might have been more flattering to Dani than the blue. Yes, definitely more flattering. And somehow the pink made the dress look even more expensive than it was.

  Lola was also wearing a pair of ‘Kate’ shoes except hers were not ‘the sort of pale beige that makes me think of false legs’ as Flossie had put it. They were a subtle burnished pinky-bronze that had a similar leg-lengthening effect but did not look as though they could double as office shoes. Instead, they oh-so-subtly suggested that Lola was the kind of woman who had a pair of shoes for each and every outfit and an outfit for every occasion.

  Dani had felt pretty good in the clothes that Lola had chosen for her, but now she could see that her ensemble was just a beginner’s version of the chic Lola had claimed for her own. Dani felt like a backing singer on tour with a proper diva, dressed in a watered-down version of the main star’s style.

  The wrap-over front of her dress felt all wrong now. Whenever she moved from a bolt upright position, it gaped open to show her bra. And while it was a pretty bra, Dani knew she didn’t fill it out in anything like the same way as Lola filled out hers. Lola’s cleavage was like two scoops of ice cream. How could she possibly compete? Her perfect evening was already dissolving like a dream.

  While Will and Lola were swapping pleasantries and compliments, Nat was still standing at the restaurant’s reception desk. He looked increasingly uncomfortable as the receptionist tapped at her keyboard and occasionally shook her head.

  ‘I wonder what’s holding him up?’ Lola asked. ‘Nat?’

  Nat and the receptionist eventually walked over.

  ‘This is terribly embarrassing,’ said the receptionist. ‘But I’m afraid we have no record of your reservation …’

  ‘But I called and spoke to someone not an hour ago,’ Lola insisted. ‘Tell her, Nat.’

  ‘I did,’ he said.

  ‘Well, as you can see,’ the receptionist continued. ‘All our tables are currently filled. We can offer you a spot at half past nine if you and your fiancé don’t mind waiting in the bar area until then. With a glass of champagne on the house, of course.’

  A frown darkened Lola’s brow.

  ‘Half past nine?’ she said. ‘That’s ages away.’

  ‘I know. I’m terribly sorry. Thursdays are one of our busiest evenings.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Nat. ‘We can go somewhere else.’

  ‘I don’t want to go somewhere else,’ said Lola. ‘I called and booked a table here. And I’m hungry.’

  ‘I don’t know what happened,’ said the receptionist. ‘We’ve no record of your call at all. I can only apologise.’

  Lola looked as though she was about to let rip.

  ‘It’s my fiancé’s birthday,’ she said.

  Nat shrugged. Dani couldn’t believe she’d forgotten.

  ‘Actually, it’s tomorrow,’ Nat said.

  ‘Still …’ Lola insisted.

  ‘Well, this is silly,’ said Will then. ‘Dani and I are sitting here at a huge table and you’re being sent off to the bar.’ He turned to the receptionist. ‘Could you not make this table up for four instead of two? Make it a proper birthday party.’

  ‘It’s certainly possible but …’

  The receptionist looked to Dani. She understood, if Will hadn’t, that it was only polite to find out whether Dani was happy to share the table as well. But though the receptionist was offering Dani a courteous veto, Dani knew there was no way she could activate it. Lola and Will had already made their minds up.

  ‘What a great idea!’ Lola exclaimed. ‘Would you swap with me, Dani, so that I can sit with my back to the wall? I hate not being able to see who’s coming in.’

  Without a word, Dani folded her napkin and placed it on the table next to her untouched chicken.

  Now Dani and Nat were standing in the middle of the room like a pair of lemons while two waiters reset the table and whisked away the food which had already been served to be kept warm and brought back once Lola and Nat’s choices were ready.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Nat whispered to Dani while Lola and Will conferred over the wine menu.

  ‘It’s fine,’ said Dani.

  ‘But you were on a date. With Will,’ he added with what seemed like a hint of disbelief.

  ‘Oh, it wasn’t a date date,’ Dani said, thinking she had best play it down.

  ‘I’m sorry all the same. This seems rude but … When Lola sets her mind on something …’

  ‘It’s fine,’ Dani insisted again. ‘And we get to celebrate you turning forty.’

  ‘Not until midnight,’ said Nat.

  When at last the table was ready, Dani and Nat sat down with their backs to the room. Nat at least pulled Dani’s chair out for her, as Will had done, before he forgot that she existed. Nat also hurried Lola along with her menu choices.

  ‘We don’t want Dani and Will’s food to get dried out,’ he reminded her.

  ‘All right, bossy boots. I’ll have the chicken too.’

  Lola snapped her menu shut and turned straight back to Will.

  ‘You snuck off from our engagement party early, you naughty boy,’ she said to him. ‘Wherever did you go? My sister was distraught. You know what a big crush she’s got on you. And Nat’s sister wasn’t too pleased either.’ Lola tapped Will on the arm. ‘You must try harder not to be such a terrible heart-breaker.’

  ‘Well, that’s rich coming from you,’ Will replied.

  ‘More wine?’ Nat asked Dani.

  ‘Please.’

  Ignoring the waiter, who looked horrified that Nat would pull the bottle out of the ice bucket himself, Nat topped Dani up. When he got to within an inch of the top of the glass, Dani said, ‘Might as well fill the glass right up, to save having to do it again. Hang on.’ She took a swig to make more space first.

  While Lola and Will continued to swap news and gossip that meant nothing to the other two, who didn’t know the people they were talking about, Dani and Nat were left trying to make small talk. It wasn’t that they didn’t have news and gossip of their own, or reminiscences they might have shared, but both Nat and Dani had been brought up to understand it wasn’t polite to inflict it on your tablemates.

  So Dani finished her fresh glass of wine quickly. Nat asked for another bottle. Lola broke off her private conversation briefly to insist that Nat order champagne.

  ‘Anything else gives me a headache,’ she explained. ‘Don’t you find the same?’ she asked Dani.

  ‘Oh, yes. All the time,’ Dani lied.

  Nat and Lola’s main courses arrived. Along with the plates that had been kept warm. Dani was more than a little fed up to see that her chicken was looking considerably less succulent for half an hour under a heat lamp. She would have complained but it wasn’t the restaurant’s fault. It was Will who had insisted that the plates be taken away, after all.

  ‘Much nicer if we all eat at once.’

  At least the arrival of the food had forced Lola and Will to pause in their chat, allowing Dani to initiate a conversation that might involve all four of the people at the table. Or at least remind Lola who she’d actually come out to dinner with.

  ‘So, how did you two meet again?’ Dani asked Lola.

  ‘Oh, we were on a photo shoot—’ she began.

  ‘I meant you and Nat,’ Dani interrupted.

  ‘Oh, us! It was very sweet. Nat’s father was on the same hospital ward as my granddad. We got chatting by the coffee machine and then he asked me out. I have to admit I wasn’t sure I wanted to go – Nat’s a lot different from my usual type.’ She glanced at Will, as if for emphasis. ‘But you shouldn’t judge anyone by appearances, right? Nat may have looked really stuffy but underneath he might have a great sense of humour. And he was obviously successful.’

  Dani nodded. Nat looked as though he was waiting to hear something more.

  ‘Anyway, we had our first date and the rest is history.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Nat. A muscle flick
ered in his cheek. Dani at once recognised a sign of annoyance.

  ‘Do you remember our first date?’ Lola asked Will.

  ‘How could I forget?’

  ‘Perhaps it’s not the right time to bring it up,’ Nat suggested.

  ‘Oh no. Dani won’t mind. It’s really funny …’

  As she told the story, Lola kept touching Will on the arm. Nat kept his hands firmly to himself. Soon Dani was sitting with her arms crossed, hugging herself for comfort against the growing awkwardness. Dani zoned out until Lola came to the punchline.

  ‘I wouldn’t even have said yes to the party but I heard that my ex was going to be there with his new girlfriend so I thought sod it, I will go along with this prat Will and make the stupid idiot jealous. Next thing you know, we’re an item and we were together for the next year and a half.’

  ‘Good times,’ said Will.

  ‘And now we’re just really good friends. Isn’t that right, Will?’

  ‘Right. It’s always sad when a relationship doesn’t work out but I consider myself very lucky to still have Lola in my life. At the heart of it all, we’ve got a very strong friendship.’

  Lola cuddled up to him for a moment. Nat twisted his napkin as though he was twisting someone’s neck.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Though she felt pretty full after the goat’s cheese and the chicken, Dani decided that she would order dessert. If this date was not going to end in wild passionate sex (and it was increasingly looking as though that was well off the cards) then it should at least end in sticky toffee pudding. And Dani would not be sharing her portion either. Unlike Lola, who was negotiating with Nat that he should get the toffee pudding and two spoons.

  ‘And you should get the cheesecake,’ Lola told Will.

  ‘She always knows what I like,’ said Will. ‘And what she wants to try.’

  Dani shovelled her pudding into her face while Lola took incy-wincy bites of both the men’s desserts. It got so irritating and seemed to take so long that Dani was tempted to snatch Lola’s spoon from her hand and shovel down Nat and Will’s puddings as well, just to get it over with.