The Love of Her Life

She only wore the dress on special occasions. She’d worn it to her mother’s wedding, to her ball at college, and she was going to wear it tonight, for no other reason than that she suddenly felt alive with happiness. First Sue had given her the editor’s letter to write, and now she was off to Zoe and Steve’s housewarming party, and everyone was going to be there, and … who knows what might happen?

Kate was at her most beautiful that night, though of course she didn’t realize it. She was twenty-three, still young but much more confident, more relaxed than she’d been even a year ago, her skin clear and unlined, her dark brown eyes shining with excitement, her cheeks flushed. She was smiling as she entered the sitting room, forty-five minutes later, and as she cleared her throat lightly, and Sean sat up and tried to pretend he hadn’t been asleep, she grinned at him, her evening bag cupped in one hand, the other hand holding the skirt of the blue and gold dress, and Sean whistled.

‘Wow, Kate,’ he said, rubbing his eyes and standing up. ‘You look absolutely fucking amazing, do you realize that?’

‘Oh …’ Kate rolled her eyes. ‘Be quiet!’

‘I mean it,’ said Sean, still staring at her. He bowed, and gave her his arm. ‘Let battle commence. You’re going to hook up with someone tonight, I know it. I’m going to have to make sure no one takes advantage of you.’

They moved graciously towards the front door and he held it open for her.

‘Thank you very much,’ said Kate, stealing a glance at him. ‘You’re too kind.’

‘My pleasure, miss.’

‘People are staring at us,’ Kate said as they moved slowly down the high street towards the bus stop, Kate’s high heels making steady progress tricky. Rotherhithe High Street on a Friday evening was not especially accustomed to seeing men in black tie ambling down the street, accompanied by ladies in vintage silk and gold thread.

‘I know,’ said Sean, loudly. ‘Well let them stare. I have a broken heart and you look ravishing. Hello!’ he said brightly to an old lady in a thick purple coat who was gaping in open-mouthed astonishment at them. ‘Good evening.’

‘Evening!’ she replied. ‘Ooh. Do you know you take me back in time. Back to when I was twenty, you two.’

‘Madam,’ Sean replied, formally, in his rich American accent, ‘surely that time can only have been a matter of weeks ago.’ He smiled wolfishly at her, and she laughed, delighted.

Kate laughed too, and took hold of his arm again, and they continued their unsteady progress up the hill to the bus carrying them north of the river again.

‘So, Kate,’ Sean said, as they turned into Zoe and Steve’s road in the wilds of Kilburn, over an hour later. ‘Are you looking for love tonight?’

Kate stared at the ground. ‘Maybe. I’m going to take it easy this evening, anyway.’

‘Still hungover?’

She stifled a yawn. ‘A bit.’

‘That Charly’s a bad influence on you, girl,’ Sean said. ‘Are you feeling OK?’

‘I’m not feeling great I must say,’ Kate admitted. The excitement of what had happened at work, the drinks with Charly, comforting Sean, rushing to be ready – all had buoyed her up and now, nearly there at the end of the long journey across the city, she was starting to flag. She had had, after all, roughly four hours’ sleep the previous night.

Sean watched her as she rubbed her face.

‘You funny girl,’ he said. ‘Where’s the Kate I know from college who used to wear her hair in a ponytail all the time and sit in her room all night, studying?’

She met his gaze, boldly.

‘She grew up.’

Sean smiled lazily, looking her up and down. ‘You bet she did.’

He was flirting with her; he always did this; it didn’t really mean anything.

‘How about you?’ Kate said, bringing the conversation back on track. ‘You on the pull tonight then? Drown your sorrows?’

‘Oh, you bet,’ Sean said. ‘I’m hoping to break my ’98 Exam Party Record.’

On one heroic night after their finals, Sean had pulled the prettiest girl in the bar, and snogged ten other people – including the barmaid at the pub where they’d started off.

‘You’re such a tart,’ Kate said, as he fell into step with her, her gold high heels clattering on the ground. ‘But – hey. Good luck. Here we are.’

They stood at the garden gate to the house. Sean held out his hand, solemnly. ‘Hey, darlin’. Good luck to you too. May the best party-goer win. Who is Jenna, anyway?’

‘Exactly!’ Kate shook his hand firmly. ‘Definitely.’

‘And we’re sharing a taxi home, whatever happens,’ said Sean. ‘I’m not doing that bus thing at three in the morning, we’ll be taken to, like, Manchester without realizing.’

Despite the fact he’d lived in the United Kingdom for over four years now, Sean’s grasp of the geography of his adopted country was somewhat shaky. He sort of thought that because everything was much smaller than the US, ergo everywhere was literally five minutes away from everywhere else. That is, Edinburgh was a thirty-minute drive away, not an eight-hour drive away.

He released her hand. ‘Let’s go in, Katy-Kay,’ he said.

She was a bit flustered, and fumbled with her bag, but he took her elbow and, as they approached the front door, it flung open and there was Zoe, dressed in a Twenties flapper dress dripping with sequins, her glossy dark hair curled into ringlets.

‘Hooray! You’re here!’ she cried. ‘Now the party can really start! Woo hoo!’ She called out to Steve. ‘Steve, love. Kate and Sean are here. Turn the music up! I’m going to get you two a cocktail each. We’ve got Moscow Mules in the bath. Hurrah, you’re here! Come in!’

Steve appeared behind his fiancee, his dark eyes full of pleasure. ‘Well well well!’ he said, clapping his hands together. ‘Man!’ He slapped Sean’s hand. ‘Kate, you look like – like a dream.’ He kissed her. ‘I could eat you.’ His smile was enormous. ‘Seriously, you two. I kept saying to Zo, the party won’t really get going till you get here. And now you’re here! Yes.’

Sean and Kate smiled at each other on the doorstep, proud of their party-starting status, which was acknowledged and, in Sean’s case, well deserved. Sean rubbed his hands together and Kate smiled. They were good, and they knew it.

‘We’ll see you inside,’ said Kate, and she pushed Sean towards the door again, wanting to get inside, and as she stepped forward, following him in, someone came in from the other side and she stumbled across the threshold, into the house, almost falling into their arms.

‘So this is the famous Kate,’ the someone said, holding her by the arm to support her. She gazed up at him, helplessly, in the dull glow of the swinging lightbulb in the hall.

His open, handsome face, his dark eyes, his ready, wide smile … he looked strangely familiar and yet – she knew him, but she didn’t know him.

‘This is my brother, Mac,’ Steve said, a catlike grin on his face. ‘Finally! You’ve never met, that’s really weird.’

Mac. Of course. He looked like Steve, and yet he was totally unlike him. Steve was easy, open, laughed a lot, restless. Mac was taller, broader, his hair was the same light brown as his brother’s, but closely cropped. He had lines on his forehead, laughter lines by his mouth. Kate suddenly had the irresistible urge to reach out, touch them with her index finger. She stared at him. She was glad Zoe had gone into the kitchen.

‘No, we’ve never met,’ said Mac, still looking at her. He took her hand now, and shook it. ‘I know a lot about you though. A lot,’ he said.

‘Yeah, sorry about that,’ said Kate, recovering herself, her eyes still on him. His eyes were green, a strange, scrubby, sea-like green colour. ‘I know a lot about you too.’ When she was nervous she talked too much. ‘You’re a medical genius, and you live in Cricklewood, which is weird, because I never thought the two would go together, except we just did an article in the magazine about people who come from unlikely places. Did you know Cary Grant was born in Redland in Bristol and he was an acrobat at the Bristol Hippodrome.’

There was silence. Kate looked down at her feet, hating her high heels, which prevented her from fleeing into the night. She bit her lip, yelling at herself inside her head. What? How? Was she mental? This, this was why she hadn’t had a date in six months, she told herself.

‘I did not know that,’ said Mac, conversationally. ‘Did you, however, know that it took ten million bricks to build the Chrysler Building in New York?’

‘No!’ said Kate, with pleasure. ‘That’s – that’s wonderful.’

Their eyes met again; he smiled, she smiled, and that was it.

‘Kate! Are you coming in?’ Sean called from the kitchen. He sounded almost cross.