"Let's consider this carefully," he said "This morning I was alone and you were living with Justin. Now we are saying we will live together. That is a big step. I have to admit that it scares the shit out of me. This was not in my game plan. Twice caught, never again. That was the way it was going to be. Then you storm in here. Shout at me and then tell me you are going to move in with me. We are talking very big turkeys now. This is not wham, bam, thank you ma-am, there's the door ma-am."

"Yes I am. Not for this weekend anyway. This is a big decision. One we will not be able to make moping around here all the time. Where do you fancy going?" Standing up, he strode into the bedroom.

"What do you mean?" she shouted at his back.

"We'll go away somewhere. Spend the weekend together. See if it is likely to work before committing ourselves." His voice came back from the bedroom. "Don't you fancy a dirty weekend away then?"

"But I've got no clothes, nothing with me. I can't just go away, not just like that." Her voice rose even louder.

His head popped round the door frame, "So, it's OK to move in here straight away but if we are to be seen in public you'll need clothes. Is that right? Don't you think you'll need any if you stay here?" He paused, standing in the doorway looking at her, "This is all beginning to sound very contrived. You suddenly arrive on my doorstep - and how did you know my address? You arrive, unannounced. Then give me some story about an unloving partner, and then, just like that, you tell me you are going to move in with me. I'm not sure about all this. For now, I'm up for a dirty weekend but that does not come with any great cast-iron guarantee that I will not change my mind Monday morning."

She retorted immediately, "Five minutes ago you were talking a different tune. One night stands were out, you said. You wanted commitment, you said. And now what are you saying?"

He longed to rush to her, to hold her tight. Instead he quietly asked again, "Where would you like to go this weekend?" He didn't usually misjudge this sort of situation; he had spent the months since the break-up of his relationship with Sally moving from one one-night stand to the next. He knew she wouldn't have accepted his invitation to the party or bothered chasing after him if she didn't fancy him. He topped her glass up.

"It seems a shame to miss the party." She sat back sipping slowly.

"Depends what we're missing it for."

He cursed silently; he had got a massive dose of cold feet, he was simply hoping that a weekend on neutral turf would somehow calm his fear. Steady, steady, he said to himself, I must not bugger this up.

He hoped the wine would have strengthened his resolve, but it seemed to have weakened his instinct that this was the right thing to do. He was the one who had suggested it after all. He had said the words; you can move in here, and now he was trying to turn the tables on her, make it seem like she had foisted herself on him. True she had turned up unannounced on his doorstep, but that could simply have been the process of taking their relationship one step further in the natural order of things.

"I don't want to go away for a weekend. You asked me to move in with you and I said yes."

She was at once mortified and slightly relieved that he seemed to be backing down from his offer. But mortification won the day and she now felt honour bound to labour the point. After all in her own mind she had moved on, she had packed up her stuff, waved a final goodbye to Justin and was ready to begin a new life; he couldn't make her wait until he was ready, it wasn't fair.