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“Give Dan my regards,” I said airily, wondering at what point, exactly, it was appropriate to tell your runaway boyfriend you were betrothed to another.
“Thanks, babe.”
“Oh, and BJ ...” I stopped at a red pedestrian light. “There’s something we should talk about before—”
“Fuuuuuck!” he screamed, cutting into my words. “I just remembered! That asshole Quinton still has my good luggage. The Prada Mom gave me last Christmas? I gotta call him.”
Deep breaths. Kate and Wills. All the roads to happiness are bumpy.
“Right. Yes. The Prada luggage. Of course.”
“Gotta go, babe. I’ll see you at seven. Bye.”
The light turned green. I charged ahead, ready to rugby-tackle anyone in my way. My mobile rang again. Probably BJ wanting to know if I could pick up his dry cleaning on my way to him. Thankfully, it was Kieran.
I slid my AirPods into my ears, then swiped the screen and took the video call.
Kieran was leaning against the white-and-blue Formica of his fish-and-chips stand, a fag tucked behind his ear. He looked like an untended-to male version of me. With floppy overgrown hair and droopy violet eyes and a Joy Division tee that had seen better days. In the eighties.
“Lil sis!” he cooed.
“Stop calling me that, I’m literally five minutes younger than you.” I continued my march toward my flat, cutting through the stream of human bodies.
“You could’ve been two minutes younger than me, but no, youhadto be breech. Always so special, Duffy.” He grinned at me. I smiled back. Mum still held a grudge against me for sending her for an emergencyC-section after she’d had Kieran the way God intended. Apparently, I’d refused to cooperate with her doctor and flip to a head-down position, which earned me the nickname “Arsehole” in the family. Since I was butt down when the doctor cut Mum’s belly open and fished me out. What could I say? I’d been strong willed since day one.
“I have something to tell you.” I stopped in front of my building’s front door. Riggs was probably inside, and I didn’t want to have this conversation with him around. Unfortunately, every minute I was outside was a minute I spent sodden with sweat. Today really was unbearably hot.
Kieran pushed off the wall, greeted a client, and served them fish-and-chips while sighing, “BJ finally popped the question, huh? Took him long enough. Mum was getting worried he wasn’t serious about you.”
Kieran wasn’t insensitive per se. He was just ...Kieran. Chronologically twenty-six, but mentally a decade younger. Other than co-owning the chippy with Mum’s husband, he didn’t have one responsible bone in his body. Still, his words hurt.
“BJ didn’t propose to me.” I cleared my throat. “But Iamgetting married.”
“Bit confused here. You may want to elaborate.” He popped open a bottle of Irn-Bru.
“I’m marrying someone else.” I licked my lips, averting my gaze to the redbrick building in front of me. “To stay in the States.”
“Christ, Duffy.” Kieran coughed out his drink. “To who?”
“A man.”
“Well, that narrows it down!” he thundered. “Who? When? How? Do we know him? Is he a friend of BJ’s?”
“What does it matter? It’s not real, is it?” I tried to sound pragmatic. “He seems like a reliable chap. Very ...”Old.Chaotic. “Mature. Adventurous. And honestly, I don’t think he’s going to be around very much. He’s a photographer for a nature magazine.”
“What does BJ think about all this?” Kieran seemed somewhere between entertained and puzzled. If I was a go-getter, he was a stay-sitter. My antics always amused him.
“BJ and I are on a break,” I informed my brother, proud that my voice didn’t crack. “He’s going to Kathmandu to volunteer at a monastery.”
Kieran’s eyes were so wide and so big they looked like the mouth of a laundry machine. “Someone had an interesting forty-eight hours.”
That, I did. Saturday couldn’t roll soon enough. I needed to bury my face in my pillow and cry into Monday morning without interruption.
“Do you think Mum and Tim are going to kill me?” Tim was Mum’s husband. Actually, he was much more than that. He was like a father to me.
“Kill?” Kieran brushed his knuckles over his stubble, giving it some thought. “Seems a bit drastic. But maybe, you know, take you out of their will or something.”
“Well, don’t tell them!”
