The Witching Hour

Love & friendship

You’ve got to say you’ll come,” Megan said urgently. “Myles is the most gorgeous guy I’ve ever met in my entire life, and he’s invited me to his Hallowe’en party on Saturday! I didn’t think he’d even noticed me! He’s never spoken to me before. Cat, you have to come with me!”

Catriona sighed. Megan had been a friend – sort of – since they were five, but she only ever seemed to ring when she wanted something. Did she really want to spend an evening hovering in the background while Megan flirted outrageously with some new man? Another new man, Catriona mentally corrected herself. What was it that made some women on the planet think every man fancied them?

“Megan, I don’t know… he hasn’t invited me. I’d feel a bit awkward…”

“But he has! He was quite insistent. He said four times I could bring someone. He’s absolutely divine, Cat,” she pleaded. “He likes me, I could tell. Why else would he invite me? I’ve only worked in his department for about a week.”

She paused. Perhaps she sensed that Catriona’s resolve was weakening.

“I don’t want to go all by myself,” Megan said, sounding desperate. “I’d walk in and be standing all alone like a lemon. If you’re with me we can talk animatedly, and I’ll look cool. He fancies me, I know he does. Say you’ll come.” “OK,” Catriona agreed, laughing. “You’re a star! I’ve got some great ideas for costumes…”

“Hang on,” Catriona said, “you didn’t say we’d be dressing up…”

“…and they won’t cost too much,” Megan continued as though there’d been no interruption. “I’ve already checked them out. You won’t have to do anything. I thought we’d go as a couple of really ugly witches – then it won’t look as if I’m trying too hard, you know?”

Catriona’s heart sank when she saw the costumes. They were identical, and could best be described as… would tarty be too harsh?

“It’s lucky we’re both the same size,” Megan said, “I tried one on in the shop and just got two the same! We’ll look like twins! That’ll get him interested, won’t it?”

“Will it?” Catriona asked. The evening ahead was becoming a worse prospect by the minute. By the time Megan had “helped” Catriona with her make-up she had lost the will to live. Her temper didn’t improve when she saw that Megan’s own makeup was more subtle than her own.

When the front door of Myles’s flat was opened by the man himself, Cat had to admit that he was, as Megan had promised, drop dead gorgeous. Even while dressed as a vampire.

“Goodness, am I seeing double?” he asked, ushering them in. “D’you know, I can hardly recognise half the guests. Are you who I think you are?”

“We’re Meg and Mog, like the kids’ books, you know?” Megan said instantly.

Catriona rolled her eyes. Typical that Megan got to have her proper name and she got to be the witch’s cat, Catriona thought. But Myles was looking at them curiously. He’d probably never heard of Meg and Mog. “Go on through, the drinks are in the kitchen,” he said.

The flat was crowded with ghosts, wizards, zombies and even a couple of pumpkins. Catriona knew a few people, she noticed with surprise. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad party after all.

“It looks as if he’s invited the whole department,” Megan said, her eyes shining as she handed Cat a glass of white wine and grabbed another for herself before waltzing over to a group of friends from the office, and abandoning Catriona like a slice of congealed pizza.

Cat blinked at her retreating back, and was just about to go and find someone to talk to when Myles came up to her. “So,” he said, “you must be Mog.” “What makes you think I’m not Meg?”

“He must have THOUGHT you were ME,” she said CONFIDENTLY

He laughed, and the very sound made Cat’s heart start thumping in her chest. “No, you’re Mog. I can tell.” “Everyone calls me Cat,” she said after too long a pause.

Why couldn’t she be like Megan, and show this man she was – what had Megan said? – oh yes, animated and cool. Instead she couldn’t think of anything else to say, and was pretty sure she was blushing. Which was ridiculous. He was probably – no, definitely – the bestlooking man who’d ever approached her, and here she was, behaving like an idiot.

“Cat,” he said, trying the name out for size. “I like it. I’ve never been out with a Cat before.” Been out with? They weren’t out. “Don’t you have to ask someone on a date before you say that?” Cat teased.

“How about going to the cinema with me on Tuesday?” he asked, his eyes dancing. “There’s the new Spielberg on. Meet you in the foyer at seven?”

They were interrupted by a fellow guest, and Cat just had time to say “yes” when he had to go and deal with a crisis in the kitchen.

“That was nice of him, to come and talk to you.” Megan was standing at Cat’s elbow, a patronising smile on her face as she watched Myles’s retreating back. “What did he say?”

Cat hesitated. “He asked me on a date to the cinema.”

Megan stared at her. “He can’t have done. He must have thought you were me,” she said confidently.

“I don’t think he did,” Cat said. “I told him my name was Cat.” To her surprise, Megan burst out laughing.

“What? ‘I’m Mog, but call me Cat!’ He will have thought it was part of the joke. Don’t worry, Cat, I’ll sort it out. When and where did he say you’d meet?”

“At…” Cat stopped suddenly. She was not going to let Megan’s huge ego get in the way of this date. “We hadn’t fixed it.”

Megan looked at her suspiciously. “He’s by the drinks. I’ll go for a top-up.”

Catriona was just about to follow her when someone spoke. “Cat! I didn’t know you’d be here!” Cat dragged her eyes away from Megan and greeted the newcomer, and next time she looked around Myles had disappeared. It didn’t matter. She had Tuesday to look forward to.

That thought buoyed her up for the rest of the party, the whole of Sunday and at least an hour of Monday morning.

At which point her phone rang. Cat looked at the screen. It was Megan.

“I’m just ringing to say you don’t need to worry. I mean, it would have been really humiliating to go off on some date with the fabulous Myles and find he was

really expecting to see me, not you at all. Not unless you went in your witch costume again,” Megan said with a laugh that sounded more like a cackle.

“What do you mean?” Cat asked, but a shiver was already running up her spine.

“I just saw him. At work, I mean. And I said thanks for asking me to the cinema, and what time were we meeting?”

“What did he say?” Cat croaked, her rising despair and fury making it hard to speak. Had Myles had second thoughts?

“He just laughed and said he’d let me know. So that’s all sorted,” Megan said happily. “Anyway, I’m supposed to be working so better go,” Megan giggled.

Cat put the phone down. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right. It simply didn’t ring true either, but what could she do?

She could ring him, Cat thought, but she didn’t know his number. Or she could simply turn up at the cinema on Tuesday and confront him. But what if he was there with Megan? She wouldn’t let her so-called friend humiliate her like that.

By the time she’d finished work Cat knew what she was going to do. She knew where Myles lived. She could go there and ask what he was playing at. She dashed angry tears from her eyes. She’d been fighting tears all day.

Before she could repair her make-up, there was an angry blast on her doorbell, followed immediately by another.

“A bit of patience wouldn’t kill you, would it?” Cat was muttering under her breath as she opened the door, but she didn’t get a chance to say it aloud. Myles strode into her flat, already talking.

“You could have just told me yourself if you didn’t want to go out with me,” he stormed. “You didn’t need to cook up that idiotic pretence, getting Megan to pretend I’d asked her to the cinema. What are you playing at?” He stopped and glared at her. “Hang on, are you all right?” he asked more quietly, looking at her with sudden concern. “Your eyes are… blotchy. A bit. Just a little bit. Not very. As if you’ve been… crying?”

“I was just going to wash my face,” Catriona said, aware that his sudden sympathy was making tears rise to the surface again. She wanted to escape before they spilled over, but he caught her wrist.

“I’m sorry I shouted,” he said, “but why? Why the charade with Megan?”

“I was going to ask you the same question,” she said as coolly as she could. “Megan says you got us mixed up, and that when she asked what time she should meet you at the cinema, you said you’d let her know.” Then a thought struck her. “Wait a minute… how did you know where I live?”

He waved the question away. “Someone at the party. But I asked you out. You know I did.”

“You could tell us apart then? Even with the purple hair and green faces?”

Myles was gazing at her in consternation. “Of course I can tell you apart. You’re not that alike, actually. And besides Megan was never going to let you be the witch and her be the cat. She’d always insist on being the star.”

“But… but… well, Megan said you’d invited her specially.”

“With the whole of my department at work you mean? I could hardly leave her out, could I?” He paused. “Look, Cat, I know she’s your friend, but I’m not remotely interested in Megan. And I am, very definitely, interested in you. Couldn’t you tell?”

Catriona beamed happily. “So we’re still going to the cinema on Tuesday? Tomorrow, I mean?”

“Well we could,” he said. “But why don’t we go tonight instead? And then tomorrow there’s this great little restaurant I thought we could try, and on Wednesday we could…”

He was interrupted by the insistent ring tone of Cat’s mobile.

“Hi Cat, it’s me! I’ve just been asked out by this amazing man!” Megan shrieked, so loud that even Myles could hear her. “He’s called Phil and he’s a million times better looking than Myles! You’ve got to come and help me decide what to wear. Come round right away!”

“Sorry Megan but I’m going out tonight,” Cat said, looking up at Myles.

“You can’t be,” Megan said incredulously.

Myles narrowed his eyes and took the phone out of Cat’s hand.

“I’m sorry Megan, but it’s true,” he said. “And Cat’s busy tomorrow and Wednesday and, well,” he added, raising his eyebrows at Catriona, “every night for the foreseeable future. But hey – have a great time with Phil, OK?”

There was a pause, then Myles handed the phone back to Cat. “She wants to speak to you,” he said, smiling.

“How did you wangle that?” Megan asked in a strangled voice. “And where are you, anyway? How come he’s with you? Are you at home?”

Catriona opened her mouth to reply, but Megan carried on.

“Oh. I get it. He came round to explain about getting us mixed up and maybe he was going to apologise. But then I suppose he heard me saying he wasn’t as good-looking as Phil... Me and my big mouth!” There was a pause. “Well he’ll have to take you to the cinema now, obviously. But seriously, Cat, do you really want to go out with someone that vain? I mean… think about it!”

Catriona shook her head and ended the call. What was it that made some women think every man on the planet fancied them? She didn’t know.

She was just glad that one man at least – and the best-looking man in the world, as it happened – she thought, smiling up at Myles, had chosen her.

FICTION EDITOR KAREN SAYS…

Find more romantic stories in our Christmas Special, plus catch up with Life and the Wadhams. On sale now.

“Of course I can TELL YOU APART,” he said, “You’re not that ALIKE.”