Daniel was in a great mood – not only had he taken matters into his own hands with Nadia (again), but right before he’d left work, he’d had an email to say that by this time next week, he’d officially be a home owner.
‘I did it,’ he told Romeo in the lobby on the way out. ‘The flat – it’s mine! We’re a go!’
Romeo leapt up from where he sat behind the welcome desk.
‘That’s great, man – really, really well done!’
‘Thanks, dude.’
Romeo looked wistful. ‘I hope me and Erika get to buy a place someday,’ he said. ‘That would be pretty sweet.’
Daniel raised his eyebrows in shock. ‘Moving in together? I didn’t know it had got that serious!’
Since the summer Romeo had been seeing Erika, a woman he’d met at a sourdough-bread-making class, and Daniel knew Romeo had fallen hard, but he didn’t know he was already planning a future with her.
‘I think it’s the real deal,’ said Romeo. ‘I could definitely put a ring on it. Not like, tomorrow, but for sure she’s a lifer.’
‘Well, damn, that’s great,’ Daniel said. ‘I tell you what – bring her to the house-warming party. You’ll love all my uni mates, and I can’t wait to meet her.’
Romeo held out a fist.
‘Done and done,’ he said. ‘You’ve got yourself a date.’ He lowered his voice a little, for comedic effect. ‘Speaking of which – any word on when your note might run?’
‘No,’ Daniel said, slipping on his gloves as he felt a freezing November wind gust through the open door. ‘I’ve never known, though. They just sort of run it when they run it. It’s out of my hands now,’ he added, holding up his gloved hands in surrender.
‘Well,’ said Romeo. ‘The flat, the girl, it’s all coming up, Weissman.’
‘It’s all coming up Romeo and Weissman,’ Daniel corrected him.
‘That sounds like a pretty sweet double act,’ Romeo said.
‘It does, doesn’t it?’ Daniel replied.
Daniel headed across the road to the tube, so he could bounce across the city to get to one of the City Professionals networking events. He’d been fifty-fifty on whether he should go, but since his great day he decided he should. If good luck came in threes, he was open to what Good Luck Number Three might be. He actually didn’t have a contract lined up for after he finished at Converge at Christmas, although he suspected they might keep him on to establish the next part of the project. It wouldn’t hurt to mingle with some new faces and hand out a few business cards.
‘Daniel!’ came a voice, not long after he’d hung up his coat and headed to the bar. There was always the awkward entrance when arriving somewhere alone, especially at a work event, that meant the safest bet was to do a lap of the room and then get a drink, figuring out where the friendliest faces were. He was relieved to have been commandeered by someone. The first conversation opener was always the hardest.
‘Gaby!’ Daniel said, turning around with his small glass of red. ‘The woman, the myth, the legend.’
Gaby leaned in and they kissed both cheeks. ‘I owe you an apology,’ she said.
Daniel wafted a hand. ‘Bygones,’ he said, presuming she meant to apologize for leaving him stranded at her work’s summer party a few months ago.
‘Your email back to me was so kind, but I just wanted to say again that I am mortified that I cajoled you into coming to that party and then abandoned you without even explaining that Nadia wasn’t coming. The whole thing was a mess. And you were very gracious about it.’
Daniel’s body jolted at the name Nadia. He knew, of course, that Gaby couldn’t be alluding to his Nadia, if he could call her that, but the name was so rare, really – he’d never met a Nadia before the Nadia on his train – that he couldn’t help but have a reaction to it.
‘Oh god, did I say something wrong?’ Gaby asked.
‘No, no. It’s just – Nadia. You don’t hear of many Nadias around.’
Gaby shrugged. ‘I’ve never thought about it, but no, I guess not.’ She smiled at him. ‘How are you enjoying Converge, anyway? I’ve actually heard really interesting things about the ways they’re incorporating the use of cloud storage in data expansion …’
And so the night went on. Fancy people talking fancy talk, with surprisingly good red wine and waiters dressed in bow ties serving tiny Yorkshire puddings with roast beef on them.
Daniel couldn’t shake the fact that Gaby had brought up a Nadia, and as she caught him before he left, delayed by searching for his gloves that he could have sworn he’d put in his pockets, he couldn’t help but ask: ‘Gaby, weird question. But your friend Nadia – what’s her surname?’
‘Fielding,’ Gaby replied. ‘Why?’
Daniel shrugged. ‘No reason,’ he said. ‘I just wondered if it was the Nadia I knew. Small world and all.’
‘And is it?’ she asked.
‘No,’ Daniel said, actually having no idea if it was or it wasn’t. He’d never known what ‘his’ Nadia’s surname was.
‘Okay, well. Goodnight. See you at the February party?’
Daniel nodded. ‘See you at the February party. Let me know if I can help with anything?’
‘Will do,’ Gaby said, turning her attention to another departing guest she wanted to say goodbye to.
Daniel googled NADIA FIELDING as soon as he stepped outside, his fingers bitterly cold, but the task at hand too important to delay. A series of photographs came up of the Nadia he knew – the Nadia from the market, and the train, and who he’d seen last night. He had a surname now, and from that he had a LinkedIn profile that confirmed she worked at RAINFOREST. He could hardly believe his luck. Gaby knew her! He was supposed to have been introduced to her months ago! All the signs pointed to the fact that he was absolutely supposed to meet her. It seemed their fates were unavoidable.
I feel it, he thought to himself. This time, I won’t mess it up. He couldn’t wait for the ad to run – he was so excited to finally, at last, meet her. They were meant to be! He couldn’t believe he’d almost missed the love of his life.