Dan pocketed two fifty-dollar notes from Yolanda’s purse, and then carefully put it back into her Prada handbag. Dan was skint. Any money he earnt from the agency was currently paying off the credit card he’d maxed out during the ski season. Having fun every weekend was expensive and his mother wasn’t handing over any more than his shitty minimum wage.

He ran up the stairs two at a time and went to his room. Picking up his phone, he saw a text from Charlie.

How’s the wooing of the dark maiden going? You priming her for me?

Dan threw his phone down and sat on the bed. He hadn’t told Charlie about going out with Lyssa tonight. He didn’t know why he hadn’t. Charlie probably wouldn’t care anyway – she was just another girl to him. But right now, as Dan decided on which shirt to wear, he knew there was more to Lyssa than anyone realised.

He couldn’t put his finger on exactly when his crush had ballooned. Maybe during their text conversations over the week. She was witty and clever and, at some point, they’d moved on from texting about work to asking questions about each other’s days. He always looked forward to her replies.

Dan had never experienced a real crush, he realised. A stomach-tingling, nervous, crazy crush. He knew he shouldn’t have asked Lyssa out tonight. It was hardly professional. But he just wanted to be with her.

Just thinking about her now turned him on. It made him feel somehow dishonest. I’m no better than Charlie, he thought as he got up off the bed. He pulled off his shirt, sprayed deodorant under each arm and splashed some Hermes aftershave on his face. He put on a fresh shirt, then slipped his phone and wallet into his pocket.

‘See ya, Mum,’ he called and shut the front door before she could ask where he was going. He didn’t want to answer any of her questions tonight. But most of all he didn’t want to answer his own conscience.

He walked into the city and jumped on a tram that would take him across town – to a club he had never heard of before. It wasn’t anywhere he and his friends ever went, and Dan hoped he didn’t look too much like a rich kid in his jeans and Paul Smith shirt.

Each time the tram stopped, Dan watched the people getting on and off. So many different races and religions. A woman in a long dress with a veil over her head sat opposite him. Only her eyes were visible. He looked down and saw her shoes poking out: yellow Nikes. He found it funny, and smiled at her. He couldn’t tell if she was smiling back at him or not.

A group of young guys on the tram were dressed like rappers, with low-riding jeans, basketball tops and hoodies.

Dan sat quietly at the back of the tram, sitting low in his seat. He felt uneasy and he didn’t know why. He hadn’t received anything more than a cursory glance, but he knew he looked different from the other people on the tram. The shortest, loudest guy in the group of rapper-wannabes kept smirking at Dan, then talking to his friends. Dan sank even lower in his seat, feeling like he’d be on the floor soon.

At last, the tram approached his stop. He jumped up and waited by the step for the doors to open. As he stepped out, the whole group of rapper guys got off the tram behind him. He walked quickly, with his hands in his pockets, till he saw the lights of the club in the distance. The group of guys were edging closer to him. This is it, he thought anxiously, sure he was about to be robbed of his phone and his last hundred bucks.

The group caught up with him. Dan held his breath, deliberately slowing down a little. There were guys on either side of him. They spoke in another language, and Dan looked ahead as they walked.

‘You lost, mate?’ asked the one in a Miami Heat basketball top.

‘Nope,’ Dan said, glancing at him.

‘Did ya just leave the set of Gossip Girl?’ asked another, to which they all laughed.

Dan would have laughed too if he wasn’t so scared. If they thought he was like something from Gossip Girl, imagine what they’d make of Charlie.

‘Dan!’ came a voice.

He turned to see Lyssa leaning against the wall of the club. The fear disappeared and was replaced with first-date nerves. She looked beautiful in a light-coloured top that brushed against her skin, and jeans that hugged her body perfectly. Long silver earrings hung from her ears and touched her neck. He smiled at her and the group stopped.

‘You know him, Lyssa?’ asked one of the guys in a tracksuit and snapback cap with F*ck You$e written on the front.

‘Hey, Saïd,’ she said easily. ‘He’s a friend of mine. He’s cool.’

Dan turned to Saïd and tried to look friendly. ‘Hi.’

‘Where you from?’ asked Saïd, looking at him suspiciously.

‘Kansas,’ Dan said, keeping a straight face.

Saïd laughed. ‘Fucking A, look at you! Like a baller. You’re the fucking man, huh?’

‘Working on it,’ Dan said, relaxing just a little bit.

‘Like us all – get money, stacking mad paper. That’s the deal.’ Saïd put his fist out for Dan to bump.

‘Fo’ sho,’ said Dan, bumping Saïd’s fist and feeling like a poser.

He turned to see Lyssa smothering a smile.

As Saïd and his friends walked off to join the line for the club, Dan moved closer to Lyssa.

‘Friends of yours?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘I went to primary school with them. They like to run around here like it’s their turf.’

‘Listen to you, all up with the ’hood speak,’ said Dan, laughing.

Lyssa snorted. ‘Just like the white boy saying, “Fo’ sho”.’

‘Touché.’ There was a surge of something between them and Dan felt his heart pound. He cleared his throat, awkward now. ‘How you doing anyway?’

‘I’m good,’ she said simply, looking at the line outside the club. ‘We have our names on the door if you want to go in.’

‘Names on the door? I’m impressed,’ Dan said with a smile.

‘Ha,’ laughed Lyssa. ‘Don’t be. Someone I know from primary school is on the door.’

‘So this whole area is run by people you went to primary school with? You’re like the Queen of the Ghetto,’ he joked, but Lyssa looked at him strangely.

‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ he said awkwardly. Fucking hell, he told himself. Shut up.

Lyssa shrugged. ‘It’s cool. But yeah, I know a lot of people from school around here. We don’t tend to leave the ’hood once we get off the boats.’ She looked at him as if trying to gauge his reaction, but Dan wasn’t falling into that trap.

‘Nice. A sense of community is important.’

Lyssa rolled her eyes as they walked to the front of the queue. The dirty red ropes were unclipped by the bouncer, who had chains tattooed around his neck. Dan nodded at him as Lyssa gave him a hug.

Inside the club they were met with a huge blast of punk music. It was loud and raw and Dan felt stupid in his clothes. Lyssa waved at a few people and led Dan through the crowd until they were in front of the stage, where a band was playing.

’They’re on next,’ Lyssa yelled in his ear.

Dan felt her breath on his neck. For a moment, it was as if there was no-one else in the club. When had he turned into a complete sap? Man up, Dan, he told himself.

‘You want a drink?’ he asked, his lips close to her ear.

Lyssa shook her head, and a curl escaped her plait in the heat of the club. Dan had to stop himself from tucking it back behind her ear.

‘Nah, I don’t drink,’ she yelled.

He frowned. ‘Never?’

‘Never.’ She shrugged.

‘Why?’ he asked. ‘Are you Muslim or something?’

‘Would it be a problem if I was?’ she asked him, her face expressionless.

Dan thought about it. ‘Nope. Not that I know shit about it.’

Lyssa laughed. ‘Correct answer.’

Was she testing him? he wondered. And, if so, was he passing? Besides that bad joke about the ghetto before, he was doing okay. Not great, but okay.

‘I’ve never met a girl who doesn’t drink,’ Dan said in her ear.

‘What?’ she yelled back at him as a screaming guitar solo tore through the venue.

‘Nothing,’ mouthed Dan, shaking his head. I’ve never met any girl like you before, he wanted to say. Instead he watched as the punk band finished their set and finally left the stage.

‘I fucking hate punk music,’ he said to Lyssa.

‘Okay then, tell us how you really feel.’ She laughed and he thought he might kiss her, but then as the next band came on stage she started to cheer.

Dan yelled too. ‘Yeah, hell yeah! Fuck yeah!’

Lyssa dug an elbow at him, ‘You don’t even know them!’

‘If you like them then they must be cool,’ he said.

Lyssa narrowed her eyes at him teasingly as the first song started. ‘That’s my friend Emily on drums,’ she yelled and started singing along.

Dan watched her, pretending to be enthralled in the music, although he couldn’t tell one song from another. Not that the music was bad, just he couldn’t remember it. Nothing made an impact on him like Lyssa did.

Then the set was done. It seemed like five minutes for Dan but he knew it was longer. He was hot, turned on and Lyssa’s shoulders were distracting him far too much.

‘Want to get some air?’ he asked huskily.

‘Sure,’ she said, and they pushed through the crowd towards the doors.

‘You want to go for a walk?’ he asked her out the front.

‘Around here? I don’t think so.’ Lyssa looked at him suspiciously. ‘Anyway, I should wait for Emily. She has another set and then I have to go home with her.’

‘Or we could go for a walk,’ he coaxed. ‘I could have you back in time for Emily.’

‘Why?’ she asked, putting her hand into the back pockets of her jeans.

‘I thought it would be nice to just be,’ he said, feeling embarrassed.

‘Just be?’ she asked him, looking confused. ‘Oh, you want to talk about work.’

Dan sighed. ‘I don’t want to talk about work, unless you do.’

Lyssa watched him closely. ‘Then why did you ask me out?’

Dan looked at her. ‘Why did you say yes?’

Lyssa’s eyes widened at his question. ‘I said yes because you asked me.’

‘So you’re here for only professional reasons?’ he asked carefully.

She waited for a moment before answering. ‘Isn’t that why you asked me?’

Dan didn’t speak, afraid his answer would ruin everything.

Lyssa looked him squarely in the eye. ‘I don’t play games, mainly because I was never told the rules. Some girls might know how to do this and be all flirty and whatever, but I don’t. I came because you asked me. I hoped it was because you liked me a little, but I understand if it’s just professional.’

It was the most honest and refreshing moment that Dan had ever had with a girl, and a grin spread across his face. He took her hand. ‘Let’s go,’ he said.

They wandered silently towards the tram stop, holding hands.

They didn’t even speak as the tram rumbled towards them or as they got on and sat at the back of the tram. Their legs touched, and then Dan turned her palm over and started tracing the lines.

‘I can see your future,’ he said softly.

Lyssa closed her hand over his and put her head on his shoulder. They sat on the tram until it reached the end of the line.

‘Where are we?’ she asked when it creaked to a stop.

‘No idea, that’s the adventure,’ Dan said, as he and Lyssa jumped off the tram and onto the road.

They were near the beach. Lyssa paused.

‘Come on,’ Dan urged.

Lyssa crossed the road with him and soon they were on the sand. Moonlight shone on the water. They were alone. Dan pulled a joint out of his cigarette packet and lit it, Lyssa watching him. He held it out to her.

She shook her head. ‘No thanks.’

Dan picked up a rock and threw it as far as he could, while Lyssa took off her sandals and rolled up her jeans.

‘You don’t do drugs and you don’t drink. So what do you do for fun?’ he asked her.

Lyssa shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I study a lot, I hang out with Emily. That’s it, besides Andre.’

She stepped into the shallow water and squealed. ‘It’s so cold.’

Dan kicked off his shoes and stood next to her. ‘It’s not cold,’ he teased her.

She pushed him a little and he pretended to fall over. He felt like he was watching himself from afar, doing every corny thing in the book of romance, but he couldn’t help it. He smoked the joint and flicked the butt into the sand.

‘You shouldn’t litter,’ Lyssa said, as she wrote her name in the sand with her toe. Her earrings caught the moonlight. Her skin glowed like gold and her body threw a long elegant shadow behind her.

‘You’re so fucking gorgeous it hurts,’ Dan whispered as he moved in close to her.

‘Shhh,’ said Lyssa, licking her lips, the gloss on them tempting him. ‘Don’t swear.’

And then he kissed her. Slow and easy, just their mouths touching, and then he felt her tongue. He let his join hers as they explored each other’s mouths.

He was walking her backwards onto the sand and he lowered her gently down and lay next to her.

‘Lyssa,’ he said, and then he kissed her again.

He wanted to stop but he couldn’t. His hands were roaming over her shoulders and along her back. He felt her bra strap and started to undo it.

‘No,’ Lyssa said, and sat up.

‘Sorry,’ he said and kissed her again.

She froze in his arms. ‘I have to take it slow.’

‘I know,’ he answered.

And for once he did understand. Hell, he needed to take it slow. Every girl he’d been with had turned him on, but this wasn’t just sexual – it was something more, and he couldn’t work out what. It was like he wanted to take Lyssa in his arms and protect her.

Lyssa’s long arms went around his neck and they kissed again, deeply. He heard himself moan. She was so incredibly sexy and innocent at the same time. He felt himself become so hard he thought he might burst.

He reminded himself to be careful, to be slow, to be gentle. He kissed her shoulder and then lay on his back and stared at the stars and the moon.

And he knew everything had changed.