Rose had gone home, thinking she should at least mention this to her step dad and ask him if he remembered Alec Hardy. Pete assured her he did indeed remember him.

"That's quite a coincidence really, that he should end up in Broadchurch, he seemed fine staying in Glasgow. Did he say what he was doing there?" Pete asked.

"Winding up poor Ellie, he's her new boss and she thinks he's a pain in the backside. Seriously though, I don't know why he's here but I'm going to find out. It's the local dance on Saturday night and he's my sort of date."

"What? You've actually got a date this year," Pete laughed. "Wait until I tell your mother, she'll start making wedding plans for you."

"Don't you dare tell her yet. It's not actually a date sort of date, I offered him my extra ticket in return for him keeping the local creep from trying to get me to dance with him again, I got fed up with fighting him off last year and I wasn't going to go but Alec Hardy accepted the ticket in exchange for pretending he's my date for this creep's benefit."

Pete was still amused by this. "Well, he seemed a decent bloke when I met him. He'd just found out his wife was having an affair with another work colleague and she had left and taken their daughter with her, poor man was devastated and there he was, at a conference discussing Cybermen. I felt really sorry for him."

After giving her love to everyone, she said goodbye and would let him know if the not a date went successfully or not. Now she knew that Alec Hardy must have got divorced but what had prompted his wife to have an affair? Was he insufferable? Ellie thought so. Was he a workaholic, was he never at home? What was she letting herself in for? He seemed nice, he was very good looking in a scruffy manly sort of way but there was a significant reason she had dared to offer him a ticket to the dance, he looked like someone she used to love - a lot. She was not going to let that get in her way though, she needed a break from thinking like that which was why she had got away from London and moved here. She had told everyone, including Ellie that she was doing work for her stepfather but would that fool Alec Hardy? Did it have to?

Ellie called her the next day, saying her boss wanted her phone number so Rose said she supposed it was ok. He never rang though, all week she had expected a possible excuse for not going on Saturday night but it never came, not even a 'can I pick you up' from him so what had been the purpose of getting her number? To add to his collection? Thinking no more about it other than hoping he was going to turn up so she could show him off this time, that she was not going to turn up without a date again this year.

Saturday morning, Rose decided she would buy a new dress for the occasion, now she had someone to impress and went to her favourite dress shop up in the town. The assistants all knew her, she like to spend money and they knew her by name.

"Good morning Miss Tyler, are you looking for anything in particular today?" the youngest assistant asked as she was browsing the rails.

"Oh, good morning, yeah, something for the school dance tonight, nothing too fancy."

"Oh I'm going as well, persuaded my new boyfriend to take me. Are you going with anyone?"

Rose wasn't sure to say yes and who with, since he was new in town and hardly anyone knew of him except maybe the town police force had a new DI. "Yes, actually, I'm meeting someone there but he's not my boyfriend, just someone I know."

She picked up a blue knee length dress and held it in front of herself, eyeing the mirror image staring back at her. Then she picked up a black one and went to try them on, asking for an opinion. She chose the blue one, low v-neck but not too low, just enough.

She decided to get a taxi rather than drive, the car park got a little crazy and if she left early she would only have trouble getting her car out and there was no way she was going to damage it. As usual, she was early and had to wait for someone to arrive to leave the ticket with.

"Hi, Sarah," she greeted the school secretary who was on the door along with one of the teachers. "I want to leave this ticket for someone. His name is Alec Hardy, the new town DI."

The woman looked surprised, both that Rose had actually got a date and who it was. "Oh, I heard about him, he's from out of town. He's your date for tonight?"

"He's not my 'date' he just wanted to get to know people since he's just arrived in town and I had a spare ticket. He didn't want to come in an official capacity."

She was getting tired of denying he was her date since when the dance got going, she was going to be sitting and dancing with him. Maybe no-one except Nigel would take notice. Little did she know that was not going to happen. One by one people began arriving, sitting in groups of three or four. Ellie and Beth were sat with their husbands and Rose went to talk to them. Ellie took her on one side and said she hoped Hardy was going to turn up and she had warned him not to upset her. Rose couldn't believe Ellie would dare challenge her new boss because of it.

She had just left them, on her way to see if Hardy had turned up, watching the door from the school hall. She heard someone behind her and turned, thinking he had got in without her seeing him. It wasn't him, it was her worst nightmare. He just didn't get it, wouldn't take no for an answer.

"So, Rose, you gonna dance with me tonight then?" Nigel asked with a goofy smile.

Rose just wished the floor would swallow her. "I don't think so Nigel, I'm waiting for someone, my date."

"You got a date? I don't see you with anyone. You could dance with me while you're waiting?"

He stepped a little closer and Rose was tempted to smack him in the gob but Ellie would have to arrest her if she did. Instead, she turned away. Nigel grabbed her arm and she pulled it free and was about to turn back to really slap him when she saw Alec at the desk.

"Get off Nigel, my date is here, DI Alec Hardy." Alec walked towards them and Rose stepped forward to meet him, put her arms around him and kissed his cheek and said, "Hi darling, you're late but I'll forgive you if you come and dance with me right now."

Nigel just stared and Alec tried not to looked too dazed as she led him to the dance floor, every pair of eyes in the room on them as she whispered to him, her arms still wrapped around his neck and said, "Thanks for coming and for playing along." She held him tighter and Alec Hardy never stood a chance.

TBC