I saw Emily and Beth look at each other.

"Seriously, no!" I raised an eyebrow at them. "Joey's a mate. So's Twiggy, she's another one I talk to online."

"Joey and Twiggy, huh?" Beth nudged Emily.

"And Betty Blue Rinse, and SpyderWoman, and Chatte Noire, and HoBo..." I paused, looking in amusement at them both. "Do you want me to go on?"

"No." Emily grinned. "I want you to go and talk to that girl!"

"I can't," I said. "I dunno what to say to her."

"Well, durr, start by asking her if she wants a drink," Beth said, nudging me in the ribs.

I guessed it was pretty pointless coming to a singles night if I wasn't going to at least make the effort to try and meet someone. Reluctantly I got up and made my way over to where the girl was still standing, holding her drink and surreptitiously watching me.

"Hi." I nodded nervously, a bit like those nodding toy dogs that you see in the back of cars.

"Hi." The girl smiled at me. She looked as nervous as I felt.

"Busy here, isn't it?" I said, jerking my head in the direction of the dance floor.

"Yeah, yeah it is." The girl nodded.

"I'm Imogen," I said, just stopping short of offering her my hand. "Immy."

"Nic," the girl said.

"You want another of those?" I pointed vaguely at her glass.

"Thanks," Nic said, turning to face the bar. "You get this one, then I'll get the next one."

"Sure," I grinned, now standing next to her at the bar.

I ordered us two more drinks then, seeing a table become free, followed her over to it, briefly looking over my shoulder to see Emily, Beth, and the girl who had been sitting with us, all grinning and giving me the thumbs up. Suddenly embarrassed, I wandered over to the table and sat down opposite Nic.

"Have you been here before?" Nic asked, taking a large gulp from her drink. "Dutch courage," she said by way of explanation.

I laughed.

"Need some of that myself," I said. "Yeah, been here once before, few weeks back. But never to a singles night."

"Me neither," Nic groaned. "It's a bit like a cattle market, isn't it?"

"A bit," I agreed. "You here alone?"

"No, my ex-girlfriend's here somewhere." Nic smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I know it's weird, but we're still friends."

"I'm here with my friends." I jabbed my thumb behind me in the direction of Beth and Emily and laughed as Nic looked past my shoulder to them and raised her glass.

"So how long have you been single, Immy?" Nic asked.

I thought back to Fickle.

"Not long." I laughed. "Last girlfriend did the dirty on me, so I'm cautious now, to say the least."

I figured it wasn't a lie calling Fickle my girlfriend. I thought that's what she'd been, anyway.

"That's rough." Nic pulled a face.

"Yeah." I sipped at my drink and looked at her. "I'm ready to meet another girl, but I'm not desperate, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Nic smiled at me.

"It's like my mate Joey says, it'll happen when it happens." I nodded.

"Is Joey one of your mates over there?" Nic jerked her head over to Beth and Emily.

"Oh no." I leant back in my chair. "She doesn't live in Oxford. Anyway, I don't really think this is her sort of thing. Not one for dancing, is Joey..." My voice trailed off.

Nic nodded. "I see."

We chatted for a while longer, and over another round of drinks, Nic started telling me about her previous girlfriend, about her job and a little bit about her family. She was nice, kinda quirky, and all the time I was talking to her, I could practically feel Beth and Emily egging me on from behind me.

I told her some more stuff about Fickle, and about how she'd been the first girl I'd properly fallen for, and how she'd broken my heart. I didn't tell her I'd met her online; I guessed I thought she might be a bit weirded out by that, I dunno.

"But I'm totally over her now," I said hastily. "Joey, she's been brilliant through it all, helping me get over her..." My voice trailed off.

"Do you want another?" I pointed to her glass, which was now empty.

"Dance first, then a drink, yeah?" Nic asked.

I didn't want to dance one little bit, me being the sort of person who has two left feet and feels dead self-conscious when I get anywhere near a dance floor, but before I'd had a chance to protest, Nic had pulled me to my feet and had practically dragged me into the crowd of people already dancing.

"I'm a crap dancer," I shouted in her ear, kinda feebly.

"Me too." Nic winked. "We'll have fun!"

We danced a bit and, yeah, I felt awkward, gawky and shy, but Nic's enthusiastic dancing, if not always conventional, at least made it difficult for me to feel too uncomfortable. By the third song I was out of breath and dying for a sit down, but just as the music stopped, a slower track came on.

"I'm done!" I laughed, mock fanning my face and turning to go.

"I'm not," Nic said, reaching out and grabbing my hand, pulling me towards her. She pulled me in close to her so that I could feel the heat from her body, and wrapped her arms round my shoulders, starting to move against me as the music played on.

I put my arms round her waist, feeling her hips moving against me, and tried to stop feeling so nervous. The music and the heat and the noise were swirling round my head, and all I was aware of was Nic, pressed up against me, her brown eyes gazing into mine.

She suddenly looped her hand behind my head and pulled me in to kiss her, her lips feeling warm and soft against mine. It didn't feel like kissing Matt; this felt different. She was soft and tender, allowing her lips to gently brush against mine, making me tingle. I liked the feeling of it, far more than I had ever done with Matt. I kissed her back, enjoying the taste of her, loving the feeling of the warmth and softness of her body pressed against mine, so much nicer than the hardness of Matt's body that I had only ever been used to before.

Finally she pulled away and grinned at me.

"You're a good kisser!" she whispered in my ear before kissing me again.

I felt like my head might explode, like it was filled with a million party poppers all going off at once. So this was what kissing was supposed to feel like! This was how good it was supposed to make me feel!

We pulled away from our kiss again. Grinning, I took her by the hand and led her back to the bar, holding her hand all the while as we negotiated our way through the other dancers and away from the dance floor.

"Now for that drink." Nic laughed, fishing a 10 note out of her pocket and waggling it at me.

I turned and looked over to Emily and Beth, both still sitting at the same table as they were before, both with grins on their faces like a pair of Cheshire cats. I noticed the girl who'd been with them had now gone, so I jerked my head at them both, as if to say, "You two all right?"

Still grinning, they nodded in unison, Beth raising her eyebrows in Nic's direction, a playful look on her face.

"Beer please, mate," Nic was now saying to the bar guy. "I'm parched," she said, turning to me, as if to explain.

I nodded.

"Joey's choice of drink, like, always." I laughed, then stopped myself. "So she says," I added, kinda weakly.

"Joey, huh?" Nic winked.

"I'm sorry?" I looked sheepishly at Nic.

"No matter." Nic laughed. "You still on the vodka?"

"Yeah, thanks." I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, taking in details of her.

Nic handed me my vodka, watching me closely as she did so. We were still at the bar, the table that we'd been sitting at before our dance now taken by a group of four or five women, all chattering and laughing excitedly.

"Avanti!" Nic laughed, raising her glass to me and taking a large gulp of her beer.

She placed her glass back down on the bar and looked at me.

"You talk about this Joey girl quite a bit," she said. "Did you know that?"

"Do I?" I said, kinda airily. "I didn't know I did."

"Uh-huh." Nic nodded, smiling. "You like her, don't you?"

I took a sip of my vodka, looking at Nic as I did so.

"Yeah," I said. "She's a mate."

"Is that all?" Nic asked.

"Oh God yeah, I..." I stopped myself. "I..."

I was stuttering. An image of Joey swam into my head; an image of Joey as I'd seen her dozens of times before on Skype, pulling faces at me, larking around, poking her tongue out at me, sitting with a baseball cap on back to front or something, just 'cos she knew it looked daft and it would make me laugh. I could see her face, her eyes, her hair cascading down round her shoulders. I could hear her soft voice talking to me, giving me advice, making me laugh, calling me "chickeroo, kiddo, chick", all the things she called me which, unbeknown to me until now, had made me feel something. It had made me feel safe and wanted. Joey made me feel safe and wanted.

I looked back at Nic and guessed the expression on my face told her everything she needed to know. She smiled at me and suddenly drained her drink.

"I think I'm gonna go." she said, touching my arm.

I shook my head.

"No, wait," I said. "I thought we were getting on well?"

"We are," Nic grinned. "But I'm still gonna go."

"Oh," I said, feebly. "Why?"

"I think you like this Joey girl more than you'll admit," Nic said. "But I do have to go, honest. I have a seven a.m. start tomorrow."

"Can I see you again?" I asked halfheartedly.

"Get this shiz sorted out with Joey first, then call me, yeah?" Nic said.

"There's no shiz, as you call it, to sort out with Joey," I said, taking her hand in mine. "Now, gimme your phone number." I grinned at her.

I took out my mobile and put her number into it as she was reading it out to me, telling her I'd call her in the week, if she wanted me to? She smiled at me, then suddenly leant in to me and kissed me quickly on the lips before turning and making her way around the tables in the bar and out of the door.

I stood at the bar, kinda numb, a tingle still on my lips from where she'd just kissed me. I wanted to touch my lips, you know, like they always do in the movies? But then I figured Emily and Beth were still watching me, and thought again. Sure enough, the pair of them was still seated at the table, deep in conversation over something. I wandered over to them and plonked myself down on the chair next to Beth.

"That was quite a show, wasn't it?" She grinned at me.

I felt my face start to go red.

"Come on, then," Beth added. "Spill. Name? Age?"

"Nic," I said, looking at the door that Nic had just gone out of. "Oh, age? I dunno, I never asked her."

"So, did you get her number?" Emily leant across the table to me.

"Yeah," I said, waving my phone in the air as if to confirm it.

"And you're going to call her, right?" Beth asked. "You seemed to, uh, you seemed to be getting on well."

Emily looked in amusement at Beth.

"Yeah, of course I'll call her," I said truthfully.

I would call her too. I knew I would.

"Try to at least look a bit happier about it then, Immy!" Emily frowned at me. "Aren't you pleased? I thought this was what you wanted?"

I looked at Emily.

"I am pleased, 'course I am," I smiled. "Nic's wicked. I really like her."

I looked at Beth and Emily.