Tato Potato, thank you so much - I'm really happy you're enjoying it. I love Cal's and Ethan's personalities (though not just their personalities) so it's lovely to know I'm getting those right!
beckyboogle, thank you for your review. I'm glad you like the soup joke. It's not the most original, but I couldn't resist and I didn't think Ethan would resist either!
Tanith Panic, finally, I've written something feminist! I'm really glad you like that part. I think I'd like your brother-in-law! Thank you for your review and your very kind words.
CBloom2, thank you for your review. I agree about Cal needing real happiness with a girl- he's been denied it so far in my stories as well as on TV! He needs to sort his attitude out a little bit, but maybe Sarah can tame him.
X-Sammii-X, thank you for your review - I'm really happy you're enjoying it. I'm trying to keep the action fairly evenly between the two couples - I'm glad it's working!
ETWentHome, I'm glad you like the similarities between the couples - often it's more interesting to see opposites attracting, but I thought the similarities would work better for this story. Thank you for your review!
Cal was smiling as he drove away from the restaurant. He knew he'd got something very special lined up for Sarah.
It was just a shame he wasn't going to enjoy it. He'd much rather be taking her to a club where they could drink like fish, dance like crazy and then go back to his flat for some extra fun, but he wanted to make Sarah happy. She'd told him one thing she really enjoyed when they were in the hospital and that was what they were going to do.
"What's so funny?" said Sarah. "If I've got something stuck in my teeth, I'm going to kill you for lying when I asked you if I had something stuck in my teeth."
Cal shook his head. "Nothing like that. I'm just looking forward to seeing your face when you find out where we're going."
"Just to warn you," said Sarah. "If you're expecting me to squeal with excitement and smother you with grateful kisses, you're going to be disappointed."
"Well, I hope there might be some kisses later on," said Cal. "And maybe even some squealing too."
Sarah gave him another look.
"But obviously, the squealing won't be taking place tonight," said Cal quickly. "We can save that for another date."
"If I want to go out with you again."
"If you want to go out with me again." Cal felt a little bit sad.
Sarah patted his arm. "Don't worry! I haven't completely decided against a second date. I just think we should concentrate on enjoying tonight and let the future take care of itself."
Cal nodded in agreement. That was a sentiment he would usually have identified with. One date was usually enough for Cal Knight. But he had a feeling it would be different this time.
"Here we are," announced Cal as he drove into a car park.
"Oh, we're going to the cinema?" said Sarah.
Cal nodded smugly. "But we're not going to see any old film. We're going to see Calavo Din-Hero."
There was a smile playing around Sarah's lips. It made Cal want to kiss them. "Do you mean Cavalo Dinheiro?"
"Yes, that's what I said," said Cal. "There are lots of different Spanish accents, you know?"
"Portuguese," said Sarah.
Cal laughed. "Just testing you."
"Right." Sarah continued to look amused, but it didn't last. "Hold on: you brought me to see a foreign film?"
Cal smiled. "Yes, I did."
There was a pause. Then: "Lovely," said Sarah.
Ethan was nervous. The place they were going now really wasn't his sort of place at all and the thought of going there without Cal completely terrified him (even though he invariably lost sight of Cal as soon as they entered). He also couldn't quite imagine Emma being into this sort of thing, but he knew he couldn't expect his tastes to agree with Emma's in every particular. The fact they were both on the shy side, had a similar sense of humour and enjoyed medical discussions was more than he'd dared hope for.
"I hope you'll like where we're going," said Ethan. "I've never actually been there myself… though of course I've been to other, similar places. But I've heard the facilities are excellent."
Emma stared at him.
Ethan began to feel nervous. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Oh, right: I get it now!" said Emma. "Sorry. You said the facilities were excellent and I thought you meant, you know, the loos. So I was a bit surprised. But facilities can mean other things too."
"Oh, right, yes. Sorry. That was a very bad choice of words," said Ethan, blushing. "I was thinking more of the, um… well, I'm not quite sure what I mean really."
"It doesn't matter," said Emma. "We'll find out when we get there."
Ethan parked the car some distance from the venue and they walked down the road together. His hand brushed against hers. "Oh, I'm sorry!" he said untruthfully as he started having palpitations (in the colloquial rather than the medical sense).
"No, it was my fault," said Emma.
"No, really, it was mine," said Ethan. "I was… Sorry. Anyway: here we are!"
Emma looked shocked. "We're going clubbing?"
Ethan nodded, trying to look enthusiastic. "You said in the hospital that you liked clubbing. And so do I. Obviously. I… love a bit of clubbing. There's... there's nothing like getting so drunk, you forget you can't dance."
"Oh. I mean, thank you very much for bringing me here," said Emma.
Sarah was dying of boredom. The film must have been on for at least eight hours and Cal hadn't tried to grope her once. Not that she'd been planning on encouraging overmuch groping, but she'd hoped he'd at least hold her hand or give her a cuddle.
It was starting to get worrying. Cal was usually so tactile.
Then Sarah wondered what was wrong with her. Who said it was up to the man to make the first move? True, she didn't want to stroke Cal's ego any more than he was doing himself, but maybe he was a bit shy underneath all that swagger. Men who seemed as confident as Cal very often weren't.
Maybe his broken heart had affected him more deeply than it seemed.
Sarah put her hand on Cal's knee. Cal didn't respond.
Oh, great. He must be so engrossed in the film, he'd forgotten she was there. But she was sure she could remind him. She moved her hand up his thigh just slightly.
Still nothing.
"Cal, you aren't asleep, are you?" said Sarah.
Cal jumped. "What? Am I asleep? No. No, of course not. Definitely not. No. I was just lost in the film."
Sarah sighed. Cal had seemed so perfect. He'd seemed fun and flirtatious and possibly even as good-looking as he thought he was. Dinner had been great. But it was bad enough sitting through foreign films with Emma without having to go with her boyfriend too. You couldn't choose your twin sisters: you could only love them as they were and Sarah definitely loved Emma. She was glad that foreign films made Emma so happy. But with your boyfriend, you could at least try for perfection.
She tried putting her hand on Cal's knee again, but he was lost in the film once more.
Emma had never felt so uncomfortable. It was bad enough going clubbing with Sarah. She didn't really enjoy being squashed into a mass of sweaty bodies while she tried to move her body in ways it was never meant to be moved. But it was worth it to make her twin sister happy.
She now discovered clubbing was a million times worse when she was dancing with someone she really wanted to like her. She knew he probably couldn't tell if she could dance or not: the flashing coloured lights made it very difficult to see anything properly and even Ethan looked like quite a bad dancer in this lighting.
Every so often, he shouted something into her ear that she couldn't catch. She'd tried asking him to repeat it, but he was still too quiet so Emma had resorted to nodding and smiling. She actually quite liked it when he leaned close to her as he was wearing gorgeous-smelling cologne and she could feel his breath on her ear, but it bothered her that she had no idea what he was saying. She could be agreeing to have sex with him in the alley for all she knew – though she had to admit it didn't seem very likely. Not with Ethan.
Ethan leaned close to her and shouted again. Emma smiled and nodded. Ethan put his hand lightly on her arm and guided her through the swaying bodies.
Oh God, thought Emma. I hope we're not going out to the alley.
She was very relieved to find they were heading for the bar instead.
Ethan shouted again. To her surprise, Emma found she could understand it. "WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DRINK?"
"MINERAL WATER, PLEASE!" Emma screamed back.
Ethan smiled. "I'M HAVING MINERAL WATER TOO, BUT PLEASE DON'T SHOUT ANY MORE THAN YOU HAVE TO. I DON'T WANT YOU TO HURT YOUR THROAT."
Emma smiled at him gratefully. Ethan really was so kind.
It took a while to get the drinks. Ethan seemed too polite to push and shove like everyone else, but eventually, he realised he wasn't getting anywhere and became a bit more aggressive.
A man swung round. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE PUSHING, SHRIMP?"
"OH, UM, NO-ONE," said Ethan, who was a good foot shorter than the guy. "WELL, UM, YOU, I SUPPOSE, BUT I DIDN'T MEAN TO. MY GIRLFRIEND IS THIRSTY. NO. NOT MY GIRLFRIEND. I MEAN MY DATE. I'M TERRIBLY SORRY. I REALLY CAN'T APOLOGISE ENOUGH."
Emma watched in horror. What if the man tried to fight Ethan? She couldn't imagine Ethan being any good in a fight, unless he was treating everyone's injuries afterwards.
The man looked at Ethan for a moment, then he laughed and patted him on the shoulder. Then he turned and grabbed a couple of the guys in front of him. "OUT OF THE WAY, LADS. GENTLEMAN COMING THROUGH."
Ethan was blushing cutely as he made his way to the bar, nodding and smiling and thanking each of the guys on the way. Emma decided that he probably hadn't been clubbing with a girl before. It was more usual to go with your mates. Cal seemed like the type to enjoy clubbing.
There were no empty seats in the bar area, but Emma was quite happy to stand up. She and Ethan stood together and shouted at each other (though Ethan encouraged Emma to nod and save her voice wherever possible) till they'd finished their drinks.
"DO YOU FEEL WELL ENOUGH TO CONTINUE DANCING?" said Ethan.
Emma hesitated. She knew she could say no. Then she wouldn't have to dance anymore.
But she didn't want to lie to Ethan. She didn't want to disappoint him either and she thought she probably did feel well enough to dance. She nodded her head.
"RIGHT. GREAT. LET'S GO BACK AND DANCE," said Ethan.
Emma sighed. A few moments later, Ethan was throwing shapes on the dancefloor while Emma bobbed up and down awkwardly on the spot.
She liked Ethan. She really did. But if Ethan wanted to go clubbing all the time, maybe they weren't right for each other after all.