Obviously, the first person Georgie saw when she walked into the pub three hours later was Raf.
‘How’s your head?’ he asked, with a definite smirk. But also a twinkle in his eye, which was good, because there was a strong chance she was going to need him on side, and after the vomit this morning he’d scarpered quite quickly and she’d wondered if he might avoid her forevermore.
‘Surprisingly, totally fine. The run and vomit plus some carbs worked wonders. I feel completely normal and I haven’t even had to take any paracetamol. How are your trainers?’
‘They’re totally fine.’
Hmm. They couldn’t be, even if they were washable. She was definitely going to have to buy him some new ones. She hopedthey weren’t super expensive ones but had a suspicion they might be. Raf justlookedexpensive.
‘When did you vomit?’ Max asked from behind her.
‘Hello. I’m Raf.’ Raf put out his hand.
In two seconds flat, Max seemed to grow about three inches in height, a couple of inches across the shoulders and four years in age. He put his own hand out and shook Raf’s. ‘I’m Max.’
And he’d deepened his voice, too.
‘Max is my son.’ Georgie did not want to discuss the vomit with either of them. ‘Max, why don’t you go and find the others?’
‘So Mum vomited?’
Georgie looked at Raf. Raf looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. Georgie sighed, and waited to see what he’d say.
‘Only a little bit,’ said Raf. ‘And it was understandable.’
‘Why?’
‘I got the impression it was your mum’s first run for a while. It’s always hard work the first time. Next time she goes it’ll be a lot easier.’
Georgie mouthed, ‘Thank you,’ and sighed at the thought ofnext timeshe went running.
She really needed to chat more to Raf to try to gauge whether or not she could maybe just ask for her envelope. But not in front of anyone else.
‘How long are you over here for?’ she asked instead.
‘Another few days. Why, do you fancy going running together again?’ He chuckled at his own (weak) joke and Georgie rolled her eyes at him.
‘Really not. Just wondered. You need to tell me your shoe size so I can get you new trainers.’
‘You are not buying me new trainers.’
‘Obviously, Iamgoing to buy you new trainers, so you might as well tell me which ones you want so I don’t buy ones that youdon’twant, because that would be a total waste of money andyou’d feel really bad about being ungrateful and wasteful if you didn’t wear them.’
‘No, I’d just think you were silly to have bought them when I told you it was completely unnecessary.’
She’d have to ask Noah to sneak a look at Raf’s shoes and tell her his size. Although that would mean admitting she’d vomited on the trainers.
That would have been an appropriate level of secret to have written down, had it already happened before last night.I once vomited on someone’s trainers. A small, non-earth-shattering kind of secret. There were so many things she could happily have put. Eating chocolate spread straight out of the jar with a spoon every evening when Max was in bed. Lying about stealing her mother’s lipstick when she was nine. Lusting after Simon Cowell.
Why had she been so stupid?
‘Why do you want to buy new trainers for Raf?’ asked Max. ‘And why did you ask if they go in the washing machine? Mum. Did youvomiton Raf’s trainers?’
‘Didyou?’ Ankita, who’d just appeared from behind Max, sounded very gleeful.
‘Did she what?’ Poppy, Declan and Daniel were behind Ankita.
‘Vomit on Raf’s trainers.’ Ankita could be very annoying at times.
