I felt bad. But minutes later, as I was drying my hands, a message from Elijah pinged through.

ELIJAH: Meet is cancelled for tonight. Still looking for another slot. Bid still stands. Can’t talk. Too busy waving bye to chances of me getting that job.

ELIJAH: Merry little Christmas.

He was taking it well then. I felt bad, but had to remind myself this was the guy who’d been threatening to release that red-carpet clip of me. Thank goodness I’d made sure it was deleted. I quickly messaged Grace to tell her the meet was getting rearranged, and that the bid was still OK and pinged over the selfie of me and Ru. I knew if she saw it, she’d understand why I’d asked to postpone.

I tried to push all thoughts of it out of my mind, and slid back next to Ru on the bench.

“So, Ru, I mean Jay.” It was going to take some getting used to. “Now that you know my deepest darkest secret…”

“You play the banjo?”

I gave him my best withering look. “No, about the whole elf situation. And I know yours…”

“I never mastered long division?”

“No, that you actually quite like Christmas.”

He went to protest, but stopped. “Fair, actually.”

I grinned. “It’s time to unveil the final part of the plan.” I opened the booking confirmation email I’d got when I was feeling brave with Grace. “I thought we could finally see it. Rip off all our festive plasters at once.”

His face fell. “Is this why you wanted to end up in Leicester Square?”

I nodded. But Jay was rubbing at his forehead, like I’d shown him tickets to one of Mum’s banjo recitals. And Grace was ringing. I never didn’t answer, but for once I cut the call. I knew she’d want me to make sure our plan happened.

“We don’t have to...” But the tickets cost me twenty-eight pounds so we kind of did.

Grace rang again. I clicked “Give me a sec”.

Jay cracked his neck. Did he hate the film that much? Or was there someone he really didn’t want to run into?

“I made sure I didn’t choose the cinema where you worked. Thought we could mix it up…”

But he shook his head. “Sorry, Molly. Ignore me. I’m being weird.” He picked up his bag. “It’s fine. Although, I might have to run straight after.” Oh no. After all that, could I make the meet and greet after all?! “And if there’s any way I could persuade you to do literally anything else…” He did know we were going to see a film, not go to the dentist? And why had Grace sent a minute-long voice note? Guess she wanted a full debrief on the call with Elijah.

“Well, it’s up to you. But, no pressure, I just cancelled a date with actual Hollywood royalty for you.”

He leant forward, his eyes narrowed. “You what?”

I shrugged. “Probably should have added that to the ‘things I haven’t told you’ section.”

“You want to explain?”

“Nah. I can fill you in later.” Once I’d told Grace.

“Never not confusing.” He grinned. “But let’s go. See this ridiculous film. Although there’s one condition…” I froze. “I hold the popcorn this time.”

And he reached for my hand. And I took it.

And it felt amazing.

And we were still holding hands as we buried our heads into our scarves, trying not to freeze as we walked along the river. And we were still holding hands as we cheered and laughed at our attempts to score points in curling. And we were still holding hands as we walked past the huge Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. And we were holding hands as we threw snowballs at each other. Which actually made a snowball fight really hard. Fun though. And we were still holding hands as we walked through a tiny alleyway, lights strung above an old man roasting chestnuts.

Yup, we were holding hands as I realized I’d become one half of those couples I used to side-eye. But I didn’t care. I was done hiding things. And as we slid and skidded our way to Leicester Square, I was grinning so hard snow kept landing on my cheeks. But as we walked into the hot air of the cinema, the bright lights making us readjust, my laughing twisted into nerves.

This suddenly felt like a proper date date.

What if Ru, argh, Jay, thought my film laugh was weird?

Or I choked on a really dry unpopped kernel?

Or I needed an above average amount of toilet trips?!

“You OK, Mol?” Jay stopped as we got to the doors of the screen. I must have looked as stressed as I felt.

“Just wondering whether to warn you, I’m very bad at sharing pick ’n’ mix…”

He grinned. “Well, I might have something to admit too.”

“Now?” I didn’t feel up to any more revelations today. But as a group of people walked towards us, he laughed.

“You know what… Maybe it can wait.”

And we headed into the screen. My first proper date.

I felt sick with nerves. Then excited. Then nervous about feeling excited.

My head was spinning. Which is why I didn’t think to check my phone.

Because if I had, I’d have seen the twenty-eight messages from Grace.

And maybe I would have had some warning how bad this film was about to get.

CHAPTER

19

Ru had chosen the very back row. The very, very back row. In the very corner. Just like Grace had hoped.

The back row, like where I’d sat awkwardly next to Grace and Simon as they’d snogged all the way through Hero Horse 3, when I took Billy (weird, but at least it meant they didn’t see my blubbing).

Did this mean Ru was going to…

Was this going to be…

GULP.