It's A(nother) Date – Daniel 14

[For back story go here: Story so far at 12 June 2020 and more recent Daniel episodes]

On Tuesday, Bentley received a police fine for camping in the New Forest with 14 other people, several of whom were clearly not family members. Bentley has never owned a tent and doesn’t know where the New Forest is.

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Nadia liked kids, or at least that’s what she told herself and anyone who asked. But perhaps, she wondered this evening, perhaps this was just a flag of convenience. Something she told herself (and anyone who asked) because it made her more acceptable. 

Certainly it meant she could smile during conversations which involved people telling her about their kids, and this in turn meant it was easier to talk to people, like people and be liked. But there again, she thought, maybe there was a reason why she didn’t actually have any of her own, and why, to be honest, being in lockdown had been sort of relaxing somehow. She hadn’t been able to put her finger on precisely why, but now, she was beginning to get a slight inkling.

She’d got dressed up for the first time since who knew when – well OK, 22nd March if you insist but the point is made – and it had been fun to think of going out again, of meeting someone at a bar and having an alcoholic drink that had been made and poured by someone else. Paying for it through an app would even make it feel like you weren’t paying for it at all. The novelty value of everything was high.

But higher than that was the value of finally being able to spend some time with Daniel in an uninterrupted, precious way. To finally relax, wind down and enjoy each other’s company. Maybe to be able to forget the past few weeks and months and the ordeal and hardship that had come with it all. 

Unfortunately it was not to be. No matter how fine she felt in her going out clothes, the excitement was a little tarnished by the need to bring and wear at certain times, a face mask, no matter how stylish it was. Add to that the sense of spontaneity had been diminished by the strict house rules – stay seated at all times or as much as possible – and only having a two hour slot in which to use the table and chairs at which you sat. And maybe, on reflection she should have given it a few more days after Daisy had left Daniel’s house. She thought it had been enough, but the poor guy was still mourning her loss and couldn’t really talk about anything else, no matter how hard she tried. 

“Have you found any new recipes or things to eat since lockdown?” she asked, off the back of her own experience.

“When I came to breakfast this morning I found I’d just made her krispies, I mean imagine that – just her krispies not even anything for me…”

“Have you spoken to anyone else in the last – ”

“Oh, sure sure, over the weekend. Daisy said she was having fun, but really how do I know that? I mean, her mum might just be telling her to say that and…”

Nadia let this go for an hour, watching the time tick by and the drinks come and go. Then she tried again to shift the focus.

“So how’s work? We’ve been told we have to come back to the office by the end of next week, no questions asked, no exceptions and…”

“We were doing really well, you know? End of last week, some really good initial testers and takers I thought. And a couple of our competitors were beginning to sniff around…”

“That sounds positive – so do you think you’ll come straight out of this and..?”

“And then Daisy left and I don’t really know what’s going to happen now. I mean, I’ve changed my pitch and everything, but to be honest anything could happen and it wouldn’t be as good.”

Nadia knew when she was fighting a losing battle. TV, films, music, social life, the fact that airplanes were piling into the airport again across her back garden, everything ended in Daisy. Or rather in no Daisy. How there wasn’t any meaning in anything, how every choice had become a haphazard random occurrence, how she’d left and turned off the lights and heating as she went.

Regardless, Nadia remained determined to get something out of the night.

“So, does this mean I can come back to your place tonight?” she asked outright, because frankly, how else? “I mean, I’m not, I haven’t stayed with anyone else at all and I’m perfectly free to do so.”

Daniel looked worried.

“Look,” said Nadia. “I know you miss her but I’m here, right? You remember me? You remember us? You see us here now? Together? It’ll be fun. It is fun.”

“I don’t know…” said Daniel.

“It’s OK to be nervous,” said Nadia, reassuringly, “I know it’s been ages.”

“No, it’s just that I was going to catch up on the latest Sparkledom episode when I got home – just in case Daisy wants to discuss it tomorrow.”

Nadia decided she did like kids. She just didn’t like what they did to other people.