Our Stop(26)

‘There’s a staff party – for clients too – at the Sky Garden, this week. I don’t feel unprofessional asking you because you seem cool, and it could be good for you to meet some of the guys here, if you want, but – there’s somebody I’d love for you to meet. A woman. Do you think you’d like to come?’

‘There’s a woman you want me to meet?’

Gaby laughed. ‘I know we just met, but – my friend, she works a few floors up and saw you when she walked me off the elevator earlier. She said you were cute. And I can vouch for you being clever, and you seem like not a dick?’ Gaby closed her eyes and shook her head a little. ‘I sound unhinged, don’t I? I’m just trying to do her a favour, is all. You guys would get on. I can intro you to the wider team too – engineers have to network, right?’

Daniel shrugged.

‘It’s an open bar,’ Gaby added, playfully.

‘Right,’ he said. He felt backed into a corner, somehow. That he couldn’t say no. Did he want to? He couldn’t say he wasn’t intrigued. It didn’t feel right, but also, he could hardly pledge emotional allegiance to Nadia. They hadn’t even spoken! And still, saying yes felt disloyal. He didn’t know what to say.

‘Okay. Sure,’ he settled on. ‘Do you want to text me the details?’ He reached into his top inside pocket for a business card. If she texted, he could always text back backing out, once he’d figured out an excuse. ‘I don’t know if I can quite say I trust you, but …’

‘Oh, you can trust me,’ Gaby said. ‘You are just the kind of guy my friend would love, and I get the sense you’re just the kind of man who’ll know what to do with her.’

Daniel smiled. Were it not for Nadia, he’d actually quite enjoy the adventure of attending a business meeting with a beautiful woman, only to be set up with another, presumably equally as clever and pretty, woman. But then, he couldn’t hold back on account of her, could he? That was … ridiculous.

‘Is she okay with you matchmaking on her behalf?’ Daniel said.

‘Oh god no – she’d kill me,’ giggled Gaby, and suddenly Daniel did trust her. Just like that. Because of how gently and honestly she admitted it. ‘But I know she’ll forgive me once you’ve met. I just have a feeling you’re perfect for each other.’





12


Nadia


‘And he’s super cute,’ Gaby said, over a quick burrito lunch in Borough Market. ‘He has this sort of dopey English gent vibe about him, all very Ben Whishaw – you know, the one who builds the cars in James Bond – but he’s … nice. He’s really nice.’

Nadia rolled her eyes as she stuffed her extra order of avocado into the second half of her meal. ‘Just because I dated an arsehole last doesn’t mean I now want “nice”,’ Nadia complained. ‘I know what nice means.’

Gaby shook her head as if to say, what?

‘Nice means … wet.’

‘Nooooo!’ said Gaby. ‘That’s the 2012 definition of nice. Today’s definition of nice is like, woke. And kind.’

‘As opposed to woke and …?’

‘Woke and using it to get into your knickers. I appreciate that there is no man to be trusted less than the one who has feminist in his Twitter bio.’

‘This is true,’ said Nadia, giggling. ‘The man with feminist in his bio is the one who tells you how much he likes women, at the same time as telling you he doesn’t have the gag-reflex to go down on you.’

Gaby hooted with laughter. ‘Ha! Yes. The man with feminist in his bio doesn’t mansplain, he passionately defends.’

Nadia nodded in agreement. ‘The man who has feminist in his bio reads a bell hooks book and then lets YOU know the ways in which YOU’RE oppressed!’

‘He pushes the men in his life away in disgust, leaving the women in his life to do his emotional labour!’

‘He asks permission before sending a dick pic!’

‘This is a fun game,’ Gaby said.

‘Yeah,’ said Nadia. ‘Hashtag not-all-men.’ That was enough to make them both burst out laughing again. They expected any man to be a feminist in the same way they expected any man to like oxygen and breathing. Of course they did. They just didn’t need to wang on about it, was all. Feminism was an ongoing act, not a chat-up line.

‘But seriously, I’m giving you a head’s up that cutie patootie from reception this morning is coming to the summer party, and I’d like to introduce you to him. I just … I have a feeling.’

‘A feeling.’

‘Does a realm of possibility exist in which you can trust me?’

Nadia narrowed her eyes. ‘Fine. Yes. I will come, and I will meet him.’ She popped the last chunk of her lunch in her mouth and thought about it.

‘Although I did actually feel like I’d seen him somewhere before. Maybe on Bumble? Or Tinder or Hinge?’

Nadia tried to conjure up an image of him in her mind, but she’d only seen him in profile before the lift doors closed. It had been a millisecond of recognition. On the other hand, Nadia absolutely had a type, and several times a day she could find herself having her head turned by yet another dark-haired, tall, suit-wearing bloke with stubble. She was unimaginative that way. She liked to stick to the classics.