"I knew you had a dog called Sid." I poked my tongue out at her. "You told me that aaaages ago."

"Do you fancy me?" Fickle asked, the mischievous look on her face still there.

"You know I do," I said, lowering my voice.

"When did you first know?" Fickle lowered her voice too. "'Cos I knew pretty much straight away with you."

"Did you?" My coffee cup paused mid-way to my mouth.

"Yeah! Couldn't you tell?"

"I knew I liked you early on, but I ignored what I was feeling 'cos, I dunno, I was a bit freaked out by it, I s'pose," I said. "And I s'pose it felt weird 'cos I don't think I've ever fancied a girl before you. Well, not many anyway." I laughed, thinking how strange it was telling her all this. I'd been fine telling Joey certain things over the Internet, but telling Fickle face-to-face that I fancied her? That was a whole different thing, and it felt weird.

"You intrigued me from the off," Fickle said. "I knew you had something about you just by the way you used to talk on the message board, and I kinda knew I wanted to get to know you better."

"You used to flirt with me, didn't you?" I asked, remembering our very first MSN conversations when I wasn't sure if I was reading too much into her messages.

Fickle laughed. "Hell, yeah! But you liked it, didn't you?" She leant across and briefly linked her fingers in mine, making about a million butterflies release themselves from whatever net they were hiding in and flutter about inside me.

"I liked it a lot," I said, truthfully.

"You finished that?" Fickle jerked her head towards my cup.

"Yeah."

"Good, let's get out of here, then." Fickle stepped down from her stool and waited, holding the door open as we returned to the station concourse and headed for the exit. Once outside on the street she took my hand, bold as day. I flinched.

"Relax." She bumped her arm playfully against mine. "Birmingham's a busy place; we'll just blend in with the crowd."

I clasped her hand more firmly and enjoyed the feel of it in mine, warm and soft, occasionally gripping mine more tightly, occasionally linking fingers. We walked close to each other this time too, our arms frequently brushing as we strolled through the centre of Birmingham, not knowing, not caring where we were heading, just walking.

We ate lunch in Pizza Hut, sharing an oversized pizza between us. Fickle repeatedly cut slices or forked up bits of salad and offered them to me without any hint of self-consciousness. I even allowed her to place the last slice of pizza directly in my mouth. As I chewed, I watched her lick her fingers slowly, watching me carefully, apparently not caring if any of the other diners saw us. I warmed with embarrassment but it kinda turned me on at the same time.

It was, I figured, the ease of someone who was intimately used to another woman's company and who didn't give a shit about who saw them. And even though I had bouts of self-consciousness, I was blown away at how happy I felt in Fickle's company, and how normal and natural it felt to be with her, far more normal than it ever had with Matt. If Matt had ever tried to feed me pizza, I would have recoiled and felt so awkward, it would have been impossible to hide it.

This was how it was meant to feel to be on a date. Happy, relaxed, and, shit yeah, turned on in the company of someone whom you genuinely fancied. I thought of all the stilted conversations I'd had with Matt in the past, how pretty much every date we'd been on had dragged on, how I'd always been desperate to go home.

Not now.

This was what I'd waited my whole eighteen years for: to be with someone because I actually wanted to be with them, not because it was what I thought was expected of me. I loved being with Fickle; I wanted to be with her for as long as I could, to take in every single detail of her, to touch her, to hold her, to tell her how much I wanted her.

Because, hell, I did want her. So, so much.

I couldn't believe it when it was finally time for me to leave for my train. I could have kicked myself for booking such an early train, regretting that I'd ever considered that me and Fickle wouldn't have got on, on our first meeting. I mean, how could I have ever doubted it?

She walked with me back to the station and managed to book herself on an earlier train home too, probably thinking me a complete dumbass for booking myself a mid-afternoon train. She stood with me at my platform as we waited for my train to allow loading, standing opposite me, holding both my hands in hers, gazing directly into my eyes.

"So," she looked kinda sexily down at her feet, then slowly back up at me, "you wanna do this again, or now you've met me, are you gonna head for the hills?"

"I wanna do it again," I said, squeezing her hands slightly. "I definitely wanna do it again."

"Good." Fickle chewed on her bottom lip. "I think you're neat, Immy. I think I could fall for you in a big way."

The butterflies fluttered again as I stared into her eyes while time stood still. We were the only two people left in the world right at that moment.

"I think I've already fallen for you in a big way," I said, willing the train doors to stay shut so that I didn't have to get on it, away from her.

"I'll text you later, yeah?" Fickle pulled me towards her and for a fleeting moment I thought she was going to kiss me. Instead, she wrapped her arms tight around me in a hug, pressing her body hard against mine. We remained like that for a few seconds, me enjoying the feel of her soft body against mine, savouring the musty smell of her leather jacket.

Finally I pulled away and reluctantly headed towards my train, turning to wave as I reached the train door, feeling like my heart would break at the sight of her, so small and lovely, waving good-bye from beyond the platform's barrier. I sat heavily in my seat and stared unseeing out the window as the train pulled away from the platform. Away from Fickle. How it was possible that our date could be over so soon?

I flipped open my phone and saw that I'd had a text from Joey, sent earlier that day. It just said: Good luck today, chickeroo. I'll b thinking of u.

I smiled to myself and sent her one back. It said: Just had the best day of my life. Think I'm in love!!!!

I held my phone in my hand a while, lost in my own thoughts, and had just placed it back in my bag when it beeped at me again. Thinking it would be Joey replying, I couldn't help the soppy grin that spread across my face when I opened it and saw that it was from Fickle.

I love you, it simply said.

I stared at the words over and over again, thinking hard about the word "love" in my head, shaping each letter as if to try and etch its image into my brain. I read the message as a whole again.

I love you.

She loved me, and I realised that until that moment I hadn't actually figured out that I really did love her too, that I'd never felt that way about anyone before, so happy, so complete. I sent her one back, telling her I loved her too, and she replied, like, thirty seconds later asking me when we could see each other again.

I settled back in my seat and rested my head against the window, enjoying the cool of the glass against my forehead. Content.

She loved me.

I arrived home shortly after six p.m., floating on air. Fickle and I had texted each other a few more times on the journey home, telling one another what an awesome time we'd had and how neither of us could believe we could be so lucky to have met someone as perfect as each other. I told Fickle that never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I could fall for someone so hard and so quickly over such a short space of time as I had done with her and that I had to pinch myself in case I was dreaming it all.

"Someone's had a good day." Mum smiled at me as I came into the kitchen, dumping my bag down on the kitchen table and opening up cupboard doors in search of something to eat.

"Yeah, s'been good," I replied cryptically. "What's for dinner?"

"Spaghetti carbonara. How was Beth?" Mum was stirring something bubbling in a saucepan.

"Yeah, good." I crossed my fingers briefly to ease the guilt of lying.

Beth. Suddenly I felt like I wanted to tell her about Fickle, tell her that her fears about meeting someone from the Internet were unfounded. Tell her I'd just had the best day of my life and that, in my opinion, my life was about to get a hell of a lot better.

"How long till dinner?" I jerked my head towards the stove.

"Twenty minutes."

"Where is everyone?" I asked, craning my neck to peer out the kitchen door and into the lounge.

"Your dad's slumped in there in front of the twenty-four-hour news." Mum lifted her chin in the direction of the lounge. "And your sister's eating over at Melissa's tonight."

I nodded, figuring it would be safe to talk on my phone or on Skype up in my room without being interrupted by Sophie, and left the kitchen heading straight up to my room. I shut the door tight, flung myself down onto my bed, and rang Joey. I wanted to tell her about my day, talk to her about Fickle, tell her every minute detail of what happened.

"All right, trouble?" Joey's cheery voice sounded at the other end.

"Whatcha, Joe," I said happily, lying back on my pillow.

"I take it it went well, then, judging by your texts?" Joey laughed.

"More than well!" I kicked off my Airwalks, which clattered onto the floor.

"And you got on?" Joey asked.

"Yeah. We couldn't stop talking, it was brilliant," I said. "Just wished the day had been longer, thassall."

"So you're seeing her again, then?"

"She's already said she wants to see me again."

"And it feels right?"

"It feels perfect, Joe."

"That's good."

Good? It was bloody fantastic!

"You had a good day, Joe?" I asked, staring up at the ceiling.

"Not bad, yeah. Not bad," Joey replied, kinda stilted.

"You sound tired," I said, meaning it. She sounded weary, kinda flat. I hadn't ever heard her like that before.

"Do I?" Joey sounded surprised. "I've just had a long day, thassall."

"Up to much?"

"Just thinking 'bout stuff, really."

"About Claire?" I immediately felt guilty for being so cheerful about Fickle when Joey'd only recently been dumped. I didn't want her thinking I was rubbing salt into wounds.

"Yeah, about Claire." Joey paused. "And other stuff."

"Oh," I said. "Wanna offload?"

Joey laughed.

"Nah, thanks. I'm heading out into town in a minute anyway. That'll take my mind off things."

"Anywhere nice?" I asked, absentmindedly, my thoughts already heading to Fickle later.

"Just out for a few beers. I think I need to get out." Joey laughed, kinda hollowly.

"Beer drinker, huh?" I said, tucking a hand behind my head.

"Every time, kiddo." Joey paused. "Now, can you imagine me drinking cocktails?"

"Hmm, nah!" I imagined the priceless look on Joey's face if anyone ever presented her with blue drink with an umbrella sticking out of it.

A brief silence ensued, and I was just about to break it when Mum called up the stairs, telling me dinner would be ready in five.

"Ah, gotta go Joe," I said, hauling my legs over the side of the bed and wriggling my feet into slippers that were waiting conveniently just next to me on the floor.

"No worries, chick," Joey said. "I'm glad you had a nice day with Fickle. Now you've met her for the first time, it'll just get easier and easier."

"Yeah, I reckon it will," I said, standing up and making for my bedroom door.

"I won't be back late tonight, it's just a quick drink. So, you wanna Skype later?" Joey asked.

"Sure!" I replied, wanting to talk to Fickle on MSN as well, but figuring I could do both. "My bratty sister's out and my 'rents'll be downstairs for the duration 'cos there's some programme on the telly tonight that they both watch, so I should be okay to talk."

We said our good-byes and I headed downstairs again, jerked back into the reality of my sensible life by the sight of my parents sitting at the table, sucking up bowls of stringy pasta.

Dinner dragged on for what seemed like forever. I was desperate to go back to the sanctuary of my room where, I dunno, where everything seemed to make sense right now. I knew Fickle would probably be waiting for me on MSN, wanting to talk to me about our day, probably desperate to arrange another meeting. I certainly was. I'd only left her a few hours ago but I missed her like crazy already. Hell, I'd been texting her telling her that since I left her.

After I'd helped with the dishes, talking to Mum about nothing in particular, I finally managed to escape back upstairs again, switching my computer on eagerly, excitement and anticipation building inside me, which rose the second I saw Fickle's name appear on MSN.

Barnaby Rudge: Hey!

Fickle: Hey, sexy!!

Barnaby Rudge: You good?

Fickle: Never been better, thanks to you!

Barnaby Rudge: Flatterer.

Fickle: I mean it. Haven't stopped thinking about you since I got home.

Barnaby Rudge: Me neither. About you, I mean.

Fickle: I need to see you again, Immy. Sooo much.

Barnaby Rudge: When? I so wanna see you again too.

Fickle: Saturday after next? Give me a chance to save up for the train fare!