Read Online Loving Danny by Hilary Freeman - Free Book Online Page A

be more than an anecdote; I had hoped to give her a minute-by-minute account, so she’d be as excited about Danny as me.
    ‘Are you upset with me, Naomi?’ she asked, meekly. She knew it wasn’t like me to be so concise.
    ‘No,’ I half-lied. I was upset, but I knew it wasn’t entirely her fault. If only she wasn’t so far away, then we could talk for hours, like we used to.
    ‘Oh. You just don’t sound like you, that’s all.’
    ‘Must be a bad line,’ I said. ‘Listen, I’d better go – I’ve got to go and meet Emily. I’ll call you tomorrow, after my date.’
    ‘Please do!’ she said, her voice rising an octave or two. She was trying to make up for her previous lack of enthusiasm. ‘Actually, no, I’ll call you – when we get
back from our trip.’
    ‘All right, then,’ I said. ‘Speak to you then.’
    I put the phone down before she could finish saying goodbye. Was this what our friendship was going to be like from now on – snatched exchanges of headlines with no details? Then I had a
little cry and decided to do the only thing that would cheer me up: I went shopping.
    I was in the Topshop changing room, working my way through a pile of chocolate brown and khaki trousers, when my phone rang. Call me psychic, but I knew it was Danny before I
saw his name come up on the screen. I had the butterflies to prove it.
    ‘Naomi,’ he said. I could only just hear him over the din of the music. ‘How are you?’ The intimacy we had shared the night before was gone and I was conscious once again
of the odd inflections in his hybrid accent. We were strangers again, polite and nervous strangers.
    ‘I’m good, thanks. How are you? Did you get home OK?’
    ‘I’m good, yes, no hassle. Where are you? It’s the middle of the afternoon, but if I didn’t know better, I’d swear you’d gone clubbing.’
    ‘You’re almost right,’ I said, laughing. ‘I’m in Topshop.’
    ‘Do you want to go outside? I can hardly hear you.’
    ‘Um, yes, wait a minute.’ I couldn’t move. My trousers were round my ankles, my shoes buried under the reject-trouser pile. ‘Actually, Danny, can I call you back in a few
minutes? I’m in the changing room and I, er, need to get dressed first.’
    ‘Oh, OK.’ He sounded embarrassed. He wasn’t the only one. ‘Sorry.’
    ‘I’ll be literally two minutes, I promise.’
    I pulled on my jeans and shoes as quickly as I could and rushed out of the changing room, handing a messy pile of trousers to the shop assistant. I hadn’t put them back on their hangers
and she tutted as I walked away.
Serves you right
, I thought,
for being so unhelpful when I asked for a different size.
    Once I was outside the store I paused to catch my breath. The high street was heaving with Saturday shoppers, and the roar of the traffic, with buses lined up end to end, was almost as loud as
the music I’d escaped. I headed down a side street and found a small café with tables outside. Sitting myself down, I called Danny, using the ‘Last Call Received’ option. I
wondered how long it would be before I knew his number off by heart. Would it be presumptuous of me – tempting fate – to put it on speed dial?
    He picked up immediately. ‘Hi there, I was beginning to think you’d changed your mind,’ he said. ‘Or are you wearing your entire wardrobe today?’
    ‘I had to change into my Wonder Woman costume,’ I joked. ‘I’m out of practice. No, I thought I’d find somewhere I could actually hear you.’
    ‘Good. Well, you know why I’m calling. It’s about tomorrow.’
    I felt a little sick. He wasn’t going to cancel me, was he? Had he had second thoughts about me? ‘Yes? Is it still all right? Weren’t you going to text me?’
    ‘I was,’ he said. ‘Well remembered. But I couldn’t think of a clever enough code, so I gave up and thought I’d give you a call instead. I apologise.’
    ‘Some spy you’d make, double-O Evans.’ I cringed at my terrible joke. He