As Rachel went downstairs to open the door to Charlie, Holly took a deep breath. They hadn’t seen each other since she’d dashed away on Friday evening and suddenly her stomach was awhirl with the memory of those kisses, and what they’d nearly led to. She wished that, for the first time since then, they’d arranged to just go for a drink or something. Being on show at a constituency dinner was just too much pressure, too soon. After Sunday lunch with her parents, and now this, it wasn’t as if their dates had been any way conventional so far.

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake! You’re not nineteen any more, and you’ve kissed him. Get over yourself.’ She reflected, as she said this out loud, that her inner voice was far more critical than Rachel’s more diplomatic forms of reassurance. But it was too late to back out now. Grabbing her beaded black handbag and checking her hair and face in the mirror one last time, she headed out of her bedroom and towards the steps that led to her front door.

Just as she was about to descend the steep staircase, she paused. There, chatting amiably to Rachel as if they’d known each other for years, was Charlie. But this was a Charlie that took her breath away. Hair slicked back from his face, in an impeccably cut dinner jacket and a bow tie that looked as if he’d actually tied it himself, he looked every inch a superstar.

As he glanced upwards, she caught a flash of the dark crimson lining of his dinner jacket, and suddenly all the pithy lines she’d rehearsed in her head, all the ironic snark she’d wanted to hit him with went up in smoke. She felt her body responding to him in ways that it hadn’t responded to anyone since she and Andrew had gone their separate ways, and she was totally blindsided. The moment was complete when, as she paused at the top of the stairs, Charlie’s jaw dropped at the sight of her.

‘Wow…’ he said, visibly jolted. ‘You look absolutely amazing.’

Holly’s eyes met Rachel’s, and her sister gave an almost imperceptible wink.

‘Thanks, so do you.’ The unexpectedly breathy and high pitch of her own voice made Holly wince.

Thankfully, Rachel came to the rescue.

‘Well, I’ve done my bit by way of being the doorman, so I’ll make myself scarce,’ she said.

Shooting Holly a tell-me-all-about-it-tomorrow-and-I-mean-everything glance as she left, Holly and Charlie were suddenly alone. And the hallway of Holly’s flat seemed incredibly intimate.

‘Are you ready for tonight?’ Holly asked as she drew a little closer to Charlie, who was still standing, looking ever so slightly dazed at the sight of her. ‘Did you manage to get your speech written?’ She continued, trying to steer the conversation away from her thumping heart and onto safe ground.