Terrible. I. Am. Terrible.

“I bet. Looks like you’ve got Sunday in the bag.” Woody smiled—his annoyingly brilliantly awful, cute, perfect smile—as he pulled his beanie off and back on. I laughed, mainly with relief that he’d joined me in terrible joke-ness. Being around him made me feel like a string of Christmas lights, all twinkling and happy.

Well, until I remembered that he might not feel the same way, and then I basically short-circuited and set fire to the imaginary Christmas tree I was on.

I gulped and tried to focus on what I was here for.

Other than to separate the recycling.

Being cool and spontaneous and Woody-getting-back. “So…good, erm…day?” Not exactly an award-winning start.

“Depends. Does helping my dad choose between five types of potato count as fun?” It did when he said it. Woody looked at me as if trying to work something out. “And is now the time we talk about how mid-November could be a liiittle early for a Christmas jumper?” He’d noticed my bow jumper. Wasn’t noticing details a good sign?!

“We could do.” Face, DO NOT smile as much as you want to. Permission NOT granted. “But I’d have to immediately point out this is actually my semi-festive jumper, so actually it’s very time-appropriate.” Hmmm, was knitwear scheduling conveying my inner wild child?! Better not mention the spreadsheet where I’d worked out a jumper rota for the rest of the forty-one days before Christmas. “And it beats football shorts.”

Woody grinned. “Everything else was in the wash.” What?! I thought he’d actually been playing in them. It was minus a million degrees! He bent down and ruffled Colin’s neck fur. Ahhhhh. There they were—all 101,105 glorious follicles. Colin eyeballed me—he was suspicious of Woody. Ruby had obviously been talking to him. Even Fred had said he wasn’t sure I should be so obsessed with someone whose initials are WTF.

“You going out?”

Aha! Hello, perfect opportunity to remind him that I’m spontaneous and exciting and have all the fun and TODAY IS THE DAY TO STOP THIS RIDICULOUS BREAK NONSENSE.

“Yeah, totally. To…erm…somewhere I don’t even know yet. Feeling pretty, y’know…” I tossed my head back, but my bobble hat just hit me in the eye on the way back up. “Unpredictable.” Please let him not have seen that.

“Is your eye okay?” He’d seen.

“Of course!” I said, slightly too confidently, but spontaneous people probably didn’t really experience pain. They certainly didn’t admit there might be some fluff scratching their eyeball.

“Sweet.” He stretched out. “Sounds like a good evening. No plans are the best plans, right?”

“Exactly!” I laughed, even though I had no idea what I was even talking about anymore. Was this actually working?!

“Although…” He started fiddling with the collar of his jacket. His nervous twiddle? “I was going to ask…” WHAT WAS HAPPENING? “…if you…”

Was this it?

The big moment!