‘Love a loyal friend,’ says Dan. ‘What other businesses have you tried?’
I very much like having a wingman to ask all the questions I’d like to ask.
Freya begins to speak but is interrupted by our alpaca farming host telling us that we are now ready to get to know the alpacas a little better.
It’s immediately obvious that Freya, Dan and I all like the alpacas but Lizzieadoresthem. Where Freya’s basically looking at them with dollars in her eyes, and Dan and I are looking at them with mild fondness in ours, Lizzie’s looking at them through hearts.
We feed them – I’ve got to say that you’d have to have a heart of stone not to fall a little in love with their big, long-eye-lashed eyes as they look at you when you hand them the food (grass, leaves, bark and some broccoli stalks as a treat) – and the way they hum is, as Lizzie says, several times, very cute.
‘Isomuch want you to set up an alpaca farm,’ she tells Freya after we’ve said our – reluctant – goodbyes to the alpacas. ‘So that I can come and cuddle them. And help you with them, obviously.’
‘You could offer alpaca-cuddling experiences,’ Dan says, very seriously.
‘Exactly.’
‘Fancy continuing the alpaca business development discussion over dinner and a drink?’ Dan suggests to all of us.
‘Definitely,’ Lizzie says immediately.
Which basically means that neither Freya nor I can say no.
‘Maybe somewhere nearby given that we’ve got a big journey home afterwards and it’s Tuesday and places might not stay open late?’ Lizzie sounds very keen for the evening to continue.
And so fifteen minutes later, the four of us are sitting in an Italian restaurant in Sevenoaks, and I’m surreptitiously googling what time the last train home is, while Dan and Lizzietalk nineteen to the dozen and Freya smiles at them both indulgently.
‘I have to congratulate you,’ she tells me while Dan and Lizzie exclaim loudly over the fact they’ve incredibly surprisingly found a mutual acquaintance. (It is not surprising; they live round the corner from each other and go to the same gym.) ‘I think you might have genuinely engineered a lasting-love-at-first-sight situation.’ She smiles. ‘Not me, though.’
I’m tired and we’re miles from home and I need to be up very early in the morning and I don’t want to talk to the only companion available to me right now, Freya, but I really can’t actually pull my phone out and start going through my emails. I mean, I would, but I don’t want to upset Dan and Lizzie.
I also can’t be bothered to try to think of anything sarcastic to say to Freya. She’s entirely right about this.
So I just nod and say, ‘So near and yet so far.’
9
FREYA
I’m genuinely very pleased for Lizzie about how she and Dan seem to be hitting it off so well. He seems like a nice guy. She’s an incurable romantic and she needs a bit of good luck on the dating front, and this could be it.
So Iampleased, I really am.
But now? This Tuesday evening? In Sevenoaks? With Jake’s very close friend?
Selfishly, I’d have loved this date to have been a lot closer to home and a lot shorter, and – the big thing – not involve Jake.
But it is what it is, and itislovely that Lizzie seems to be having such a good time.
She and Dan have been talking to each other, eyes locked, apparently oblivious to anyone and anything except each other, for a good half hour.
Jake and I, by contrast, have not addressed a single word to each other for a long time, at least five solid minutes, I think. We’ve each glanced in the other’s direction a couple of times, but that’s it.
Lizzie and Dan probably won’t have noticed the stony silence from our half of the table given how they’re gazing into eachother’s eyes and physically mirroring each other’s head tilts and hand gestures and generally looking besotted with each other, but in case they do, I feel as though Jake and I should make some small talk. This could be a memorable evening for Lizzie and Dan, in a good way, and we don’t want to introduce any negativity to it.
So I address Jake. ‘Great vegetables.’
‘Vegetables?’
‘The broccoli and carrots. They’re very nicely done.’
