‘What? Why didn’t you tell me straight away, this is ace! Fab!’ She looks at me a bit more closely. ‘You look like you’re about to keel over! Are you okay, Rosie?’

‘We’re going to have a proper first date!’ It’s easier to say second time round. Shit, I wasn’t going to tell anybody though, not a soul, not even Bea, until we’d actually done it and I knew that it wasn’t all in my head. And I knew this could go beyond a few fake, and a few not so fake, kisses.

‘Wow!’ Bea giggles. ‘You are being well weird!’ She takes my hand. ‘Oh my God, you’re actually shaking! Who is it? Where did you meet? Was this on a dating thing, or did you just meet him? You met him! You met him when you were on your lunchbreak! Was it that sexy guy in the café? Or, I know, the one that walks his dog down—’

‘Will you stop, just for a moment?’

‘Tell me! This guy must really have something!’

‘He has,’ I say weakly. Putting off the moment when I have to tell her.

‘Hang on a sec, just let me make sure the door is locked. Right, tell!’

‘Noah.’

‘What?’ The keys hang limply in her hand. She stares at me, then laughs. ‘For a moment there I thought you said …’

‘Noah.’

‘The Noah? Oh wow, I’ve got to tell Jed! You do mean a proper date, don’t you?’ She checks, finger poised over her phone. ‘As in not a lesson, or fake stuff, or—’

‘A date. I feel sick.’

‘No you don’t! You feel excited, nervous, stuff like that.’

‘I do. Oh Bea, what the hell am I going to wear?’

‘When is it?’ I look at her blankly. ‘Your date?’

‘In approximately two and a half hours.’

‘Bloody hell, come on, we’re flagging a taxi back to your place. You are going to have the makeover to beat all makeovers, girl.’

‘No. Bea, stop, please stop.’ I put a hand on her arm, just as she flags a taxi down.

‘Stop as in no taxi?’

‘No, no get in the taxi,’ we clamber in and I shout out my address, ‘stop as in total makeover. I don’t want to seduce him, Bea.’ The taxi driver winks at her in the mirror. ‘I want to be me.’ There’s a fluttering in my stomach, but this isn’t fear, or dread. This is excitement, anticipation. I’d go straight to meet him dressed as I am, if I could.

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll do you, but the best you. Otherwise, you will regret this like hell when you’re explaining how it started to your grandkids.’

‘Hey, stop there …’

‘Well Grandad was smart and sexy, but me?’ She says in a funny voice. ‘Well Granny had on her old big work knickers, and her sensible on her feet all day flat shoes, oh yeah, and her jeans. Cos when she’s climbing up ladders all day she don’t want them bookish geeks getting their thrills from her pantyhose, does she?’