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Daniel catches her under the ht and no one wants to go to sleep yet, everyone tipsy and loose and picking fights about things they don’t care about For the sheer pleasure of picking fights He kisses Miranda She lets him

It’s sort of a present for Elspeth, Miranda rationalizes It’s sort of because she knows it’s ridiculous, not kissing Daniel, just because she wants to be kissing someone else instead Especially when the person she wants to be kissing isn’t really a real person at all At least notthe shirt Miranda , Daniel is too hungover to drive her down to the village to catch the bus Elspeth takes her instead Elspeth is wearing a vintage suit, puce gabardine, tri Miranda itches to take apart, just to see how it’s made What a tiny waist she has

Elspeth says, "You know he’s in love with you"

"He’s not," Miranda says "He loves me, but he’s not in love with me I love him, but I’m not in love with him"

"If you say so," Elspeth says Her tone is cool "Although I can’t help being curious how you’ve coe"

Miranda flushes

"You know you can talk to me," Elspeth says "You can talk toMiranda There’s a boy, isn’t there? Not Daniel Poor Daniel"

"There’s nobody," Miranda says "Really There’s nobody It’s nothing I’ain It was such a lovely Christmas"

"Such lovely snow!" Elspeth says "Too bad it never lasts"

Daniel co Twohim He shows up at the door with a bouquet of roses Miranda’s aunt’s eyebrows go almost up to her hairline "I’ll make tea," she says, and scurries off "And we’ll need a vase for those"

Miranda takes the roses fro here?"

"You’ve been avoidingyou? We don’t live in the same place," Miranda says "I wasn’t even sure you knehere I lived" She can hardly stand to have hi in the spotless foyer of her aunt’s sealow

"You knohat I mean, Miranda You’re never online," he says "And when you are, you never want to chat You never textto invite

"Don’t bother with the tea, Aunt Dora," she says loudly, "We’re going out"

She yanks at Daniel’s hand, extracts him violently from her life, her real life If only

She speed walks hies, all the way to the dreary, dingy, Midlands-typical High Street Daniel trailing behind her It’s a long walk, and she has no idea what to say to him He doesn’t seem to knohat to say, either