Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating by Eleanor Prescott Page B

morning until the postman’s been and gone. Business is bound to suffer!’
    ‘Of course!’ Audrey agreed vigorously.
    ‘You know as well as I do, Audrey, you can’t be in the business of creating love at work unless you’ve got love at home. Else it’s like a vicar losing the Lord, or a policeman waking up one day and deciding he’s going to be an anarchist. Without a happy home life your matchmaking mojo’s gone. We owe it to our clients to make sure our own domestic situations are in order. A happy marriage makes for a happy bureau makes for happy clients; that’s what I say!’
    ‘Quite! So, you think Nigel’s lost his matchmaking mojo?’
    ‘I’d put money on it!’
    ‘Heavens!’
    ‘But where there are losers, there are also winners; Sheryl’s really cleaning up! You’ve got to admire her!’
    Audrey made a small coughing noise that could be taken as a rough approximation of agreement.
    ‘Of course, we’ll have to be terribly discreet at the next Society meeting and pretend we don’t know. Mum’s the word!’
    ‘Absolutely, Mr President,’ Audrey gushed.
    ‘Anyway.’ Ernie moved glibly on. ‘I hear you’re bringing Alice Brown to the ball as your “matchmaker in the making”.’
    Audrey’s senses went on high alert. She strained to hear mockery in his voice.
    ‘Quite right too!’ Ernie continued emphatically. ‘I hear great things about young Alice. She’s quite the rising star!’
    Audrey looked across the office towards Alice. She was wearing another of her porridge-coloured cardigans with what appeared to be her mother’s blouse. Surely Ernie couldn’t mean it. He had to be pulling her leg.
    Audrey put down the phone, feeling unsettled. There was a knock at her glass door and Alice inched gingerly in, manoeuvring a heavy bouquet.
    Audrey raised her hand to her chest in theatrical surprise.
    ‘Oh, that silly man!’ she said in her best fluttery voice. ‘He’s such a hopeless romantic. I keep telling him to stop, but he keeps on sending them!’
    ‘They’re beautiful,’ smiled Alice. ‘Your husband must love you very much.’
    ‘He does.’ Audrey shot her a peculiar look and clutched the flowers to her bosom. She dismissed her with a wave of her hand. She needed to think and that cardigan was giving her one of her heads.



KATE

    Kate slammed the front door of her city-centre apartment and hurtled down the stairs. She hated being late.
    Although she’d planned to leave work at six, take a leisurely bath and slowly apply her make-up, there’d been a last-minute client crisis and she hadn’t left until nearly 7.30. She’d been too late to pick up her carefully selected outfit from the dry-cleaners, so was going to have to make do with an old favourite standby. Her fantasy preparations scuppered, she’d grabbed a quick shower, sprinkled her hair with talc and then spent her last valuable minutes ransacking her bedroom, frantically searching for her tummy-tightening pants. It hadn’t been an ideal start to the night.
    As she powered in the direction of The Privet she tried not to dwell on the fact that this was her first date in nearly two years. Sebastian was a terrifying reintroduction to dating; every time she thought about him her stomach buckled with fear. When she’d opened her email from Alice she couldn’t believe what she saw. Sebastian wasn’t a man; he was a god! His photograph had been takenprofessionally, and he was looking to the left as if he was being called by a group of glamorous friends. The angle perfectly showed his straight nose, immaculate jaw and dark, luxuriant hair. He looked like he should be dating a film star, not wasting time with a size-14 nobody with talcum-powdered hair and support pants.
    With a flush Kate remembered the photo Sebastian had been sent of her. It was a snap from a package holiday she’d been on with Lou five summers ago. It had been taken from quite a way away and was a bit blurry, but she’d picked it because the