The twins had been looking and looking at Charlie. Sucking on their dodies. Dibdobs said, “Split splot, boys, for our story!”

They said, “No story.”

But in the end she carried them, still clinging on to Micky and Dicky, up the stairs.

Harold said, “Well, lovely to meet you, Charlie. You may be interested in our Secret Weeping group. Just men together, we go off and talk about our feelings in a secure environment, of course.”

Charlie said, “Yes, it sounds very much like Woolfe Academy, Mr. Dobbins.”

Harold left and Charlie and I laughed.

It was all cozy in front of the fire. I felt warm inside and out. Charlie actually seemed to like me. And I liked him being here. And who’d have thought that I’d have a lovely handsome boy being my friend?

Then we talked about the Cain thing. Even though I was really embarrassed.

Charlie looked into the fire (which luckily wasn’t spitting snails, so he wasn’t blinded). “Girls really like him, don’t they? They like a bad boy.”

I started to say, “Well, I can tell you that—”

But he interrupted me and said, “Look, I’ve got something to say to you—well, something I want to say to you.”

I felt a bit nervous.

“I talked to my girlfriend in the holidays—maybe you don’t remember her?”

Did I remember his tiny girlfriend??? He wasn’t going to get her out of his coat pocket, was he?

“Well, I told her that I thought we were too young to get serious. And that she shouldn’t hang around waiting to see me in the holidays. That I needed to be free. Because I thought we should both be free.”

Wow.

He went on.

“I’d better get back to Woolfe now . . . but we could go for our picnic next Saturday if you like, about half two if it’s not ten feet deep in snow.”

Charlie was asking me out on a picnic: My dreams had come true!

Or had they?

Was it a date?

Or, you know, just a picnic?

I said I’d walk as far as the back lane with him and got togged up in my coat. He shouted good-bye to the Dobbinses and we went out into the cold.

It was so nice to be with him as we walked along to Beverley’s bridge. Although I was nervous. Especially when we accidentally knocked shoulders.

I was thinking. I mean, he’d said that he’d finished with his girlfriend because they should be free. So did that mean he wanted his freedom? And was he just taking me on a picnic in the middle of winter like you would anyone?

Then I remembered what Honey said you had to do with boys: “Tell the twuth about what you want.”

So I took a deep breath and said, “Charlie, you know this picnic? Is it a date?”

Charlie said, “Lullah, are you asking me out on a date?”

I said, “Are you asking me on a date?”