What Might Have Been Read Online Free PDF

found himself thinking it was the best surprise he’d ever had.

5
    E van lay in the semi-darkness and watched Sarah sleeping, the duvet clutched protectively to her chest, remembering a quote he’d read in an Oscar Wilde anthology about all American women behaving as if they were beautiful and that being the secret of their charm. From what he’d seen so far, Sarah behaved as if everyone else was. He’d already decided it was one of the things he liked best about her.
    Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue was playing softly in the background – she’d set it on ‘repeat’ when they’d gone to bed – and he contemplated getting up to switch it off, but she was looking so peaceful next to him that he didn’t want to do anything to disturb h er.
    He gazed around the unfamiliar bedroom. Apart from their clothes, which were strewn across the floor (and in the case of his boxer shorts, he was embarrassed to note, hanging from one of the light fittings), it was pretty tidy – tidier than his, at least – but without the usual personal touches and adornments he’d come to expect whenever he’d spent the night at a girlfriend’s house. If anything, it looked almost temporary, like some hotel room, and as if the occupant was just passing through, and Evan found himself hoping that wasn’t the case.
    The glow from the clock on the bedside table caught his eye – four a.m., he noted disappointedly. Not that he had anywhere to be – at least, not until his audition – Evan just didn’t want what had already been the best night of his life to end. They’d left Secret straight after they’d kissed – to a round of applause, which had embarrassed Sarah a second time until he’d reminded her it was probably for her singing and not the kiss – and driven back through the still-teeming streets, Sarah wide-eyed at the late-night life in this part of London, stopping only to pick up Turkish food from a stall behind Borough Market, which they’d taken back to her flat to eat. Though it was still sitting in its container on the hallway table – the only hunger they’d felt when they’d got home had been for each other.
    He was a little surprised to find that sleep wouldn’t come, especially given the intensity with which they’d leapt on each other once they’d shut the front door, and Evan smiled at the memory. He’d somehow known sex with Sarah was going to be good, but couldn’t have imagined it’d be that good, and – unless Sarah was as talented an actress as she’d turned out to be a singer – pretty incredible for her, too.
    Suddenly thirsty, he reached for what had been a half-full bottle of Moët that Sarah had retrieved from the fridge on their way to the bedroom. Finding it empty, he slipped out of bed and – careful not to wake her – made his way out of the bedroom. He padded along the hallway until he located the kitchen, feeling slightly self- conscious as he walked naked through someone else’s flat, and fumbled for the light switch.
    ‘Don’t mind me!’
    Evan wheeled around in shock. Leaning against the worktop, eating ice-cream straight from the tub, was a blonde girl about his age, dressed – barely – in a vest-top and pyjama bottoms, and strikingly pretty which, for some reason he couldn’t fathom, seemed to make his predicament worse. He quickly flicked the kitchen light off, and grabbed the tea towel from where he’d spotted it hanging on the front of the oven.
    ‘Sorry,’ he said, covering himself with it as best he could, before cautiously switching the light back on with his elbow.
    ‘No need to apologise,’ said the girl. ‘Unless you’re here to burgle the place?’
    ‘Naked?’
    ‘You never know. I’ve watched C.S.I. You might simply be trying not to leave any fibres. People have been caught and convicted on less.’
    ‘I’m not here to steal anything, honest,’ he said, his heartbeat slowly returning to normal. ‘After all, where would I put it?’
    ‘Now there’s