‘That’s very kind but I’ve already acceptedwaytoo much help from you today and I’ve already texted Marisa and she’s going to meet me at the station and come in an Uber with me.’ She does a little gasp. ‘Oh my goodness.’
‘You’re going to struggle to get out of the station without me, so Marisa will see me?’
‘Yep.’
‘Perfect, though, for boyfriend fakery? On top of the photos today.’
‘Oh, very true actually. Thank you.’
‘We have to stop thanking each other. We’re just friends helping each other.’
She opens her mouth and then clamps it shut, and I laugh.
‘Can’t say anything without a thank you?’
‘Pretty much.’ She starts typing into her phone. ‘Just occurred to me that I need to explain why I asked Marisa to go with me and not you. You’ve got a flight to catch at 6a.m. to somewhere glamorous, I think. Good jobIwasn’t supposed to be catching a flight tomorrow.’
‘Hopefully if you do have a broken ankle it’ll heal quickly and won’t impact on any plans.’
‘Well. Given that we have an hour on the train and it’s throbbing and I’m not enjoying it, I might list my ruined plans for you in a cathartic-wallowing-in-self-pity way.’
‘Go for it.’
Nadia’s in the middle of a description of the padel class she’s joined that shereallydoesn’t want to miss because she (in her words) is not as fit as she should be and is loving it and doesn’t usually stick at exercise, when she suddenly interrupts herself and says, ‘Oh for fuck’s sake. Ilikethose shoes and I’ve left them in Carole’s room.’
‘You’ll be able to meet her to get them and, at the risk of not cheering you up at all, it doesn’t seem that likely that you’ll be able to wear them in the very near future.’
Nadia heaves a very big sigh. ‘True. Very, very true. Honestly, it’ssoannoying.’ She rolls her eyeshugelyand then says, ‘Well. It is what it is. Tell me something funny.’
So I read her highlights from the one hundred and thirty-nine messages I just found on my family chat relating to a mouse that ran across the kitchen earlier this evening while my incredibly mouse-phobic mother was making a soufflé. (Panic over; my father tempted it out from under the oven with cheese and caught it under a bowl – to everyone’s admiration – and my mother won’t tell us what happened next because, even though she hates mice, she doesn’t like animals being killed unless they’re going to be eaten.) I hadn’t told Nadia before because she seemed quite focused on being pissed off about her ankle.
‘Iloveyour family,’ she says when we reach the end of the messages. ‘And Iloveyour mother’s sweariness. She knows some seriouswords.’
‘She’s an English lecturer.’
‘Oh well that explains it.’
‘Yeah.’ I grin at her and then say, ‘So tell me about the wedding singer thing. Twenty a year’s a fair number? An actual business?’
‘Yep, I started with the wedding of some friends who were very brave and trusting, but mainly skint and out of any other options, and went from there with word of mouth, and it just kind of escalated. I only do weekends because I work full-time, which is kind of limiting, because I have to turn down offers, and also it takes up a lot of my SaturdaysbutI do love it. I love the singing and you meet a lot of fun people and it’s so nice to be involved with their happy day. I honestly haven’t had a single bad experience.’
‘What,none?’
‘I mean, stuffhappensoccasionally, but it’s always okay. Your average person is nice. There are always enough of those people around to help on the odd occasion that somethingnearlyhappens.’
I decide not to dwell on the somewhat terrifying thought of Nadia’s trust possibly being misplaced. It’s nice,lovely, that she’s so glass-half-full.
We chat about inconsequential stuff for the rest of the journey until we get to Clapham Junction.
We do a hop-carry combo to get out of the station. Marisa’s waiting with a taxi and they hop straight in. (I mention that pun out loud – it sounded better in my head – and Marisa looks at me pityingly while Nadia gives me a bless-you-it’s-cute-how-bad-your-humour-is smile.)
It feels weird waving them off.
I feel as though it should have been me going to the hospital with Nadia.
13
NADIA
