Invisible by Barbara Copperthwaite Read Free Book Online Page B

years, but back when I was 22
everyone had them.   Me and Hannah had been checking out the place, walking from room to room. Hannah
had walked into the lounge and I’d been right behind her but spotted someone I
hadn’t seen for ages so took a step back, hanging onto the doorjamb as I leaned
in and shouted ‘hi’ over the music.
    I was only a second but by
the time I turned, Hannah had already reached the
other side of the room and was stepping through the patio doors. Right behind
her were two blokes, leaning against the frame and totally checking her out,
smirks on their faces as they nodded appreciatively. I’d grinned and rolled my
eyes at them as I’d hurried by – never guessing that I’d end up married to one
of them.
    Of course, as soon as I’d
caught up with Hannah I’d asked her who the men were. In the darkness of the
room, under the flashing disco lights standing on the mantelpiece, she hadn’t
even noticed the way they were looking at her, their tongues virtually hanging
out of their mouths!   Turned out she
vaguely knew one of them though, Andy, and he was best mates with Daryl.
    I’d spent the rest of the
night alternating between taking the mickey out of them for standing with their
tongues hanging out over Hannah, and staring at this gorgeous, tall,
mesmerising bloke in front of me who had the coolest, steely-bright blue eyes
I’d ever seen. Back then he’d had a head full of dark brown wavy hair that made
my fingers just itch to touch it, although now I think of it, even then he had a
high forehead.
    ‘I’ve got wavy hair; it’s
waving goodbye,’ that was the joke he’d always said back then.
    Neither of us could believe
how we knew all the same people and went to the same places yet had never
bumped into one another before. I’m the kind of person who tends to take a long
time to get to know someone but with him for some reason the attraction was instant. A lightening bolt from the blue.
    Did I ask for his number or
did he ask for mine? To be honest I can’t remember – I was a bit worse for wear
by the end of the night. But by the time Hannah and I had left together in a
taxi, I’d had a big grin plastered on my face and the oddest feeling that this
man was going to change my life forever. It wasn’t necessarily love at first sight, but it was definitely something big.
    It’d taken a month to
arrange a date though. Daryl had hurt his foot at five-a-side or something, so
was resting it for ages, basically stuck at home alone – I’d been so impressed
that he was only 25 and already owned his own flat. An older
man with a mortgage, a bod to die for, and who was a laugh? He’d seemed
too good to be true. I hadn’t been able to believe my luck, so holding out for
a month had been a pain but worth it.
    Still, that first date
couldn’t have come fast enough as far as I’d been concerned. We’d talked on the
phone though, bonding over telly programmes we watched – as far as I can
remember we were both addicted to an amazing new American forensics show, CSI. Ha,
that programme’s ancient now, but at the time it seemed so ground-breaking. But
then, everything that’s exhilarating at first feels ordinary eventually. Maybe
that’s what has happened to me and Daryl too…
    I’d had such a time deciding
what to wear for that first date though because, typical Daryl, he’d been really
vague about what we would be doing; maybe eating, maybe go to a pub, maybe even
the cinema, he hadn’t decided at that point. My entire wardrobe had been tried
on, discarded onto the bed, then dug out from the
bottom of the ever-growing pile, tried on again with different shoes, different
jewellery, different attitude…discarded again. After all that, I think I ended
up playing it safe and wearing jeans and a spangly top, plus a leather jacket, reckoning that would cover every sartorial
eventuality a date could throw at me.
    When I’d heard the beep of
his car horn I’d almost jumped out of my