‘Yeah, it’s been a good one.’ He’s grinning too.
And then they tell us some of the dates they’ve been on together since the alpaca date. Cinema. Ice skating. Cinema again. I think they mention four different restaurants. A pub quiz. And they went for a long walk together earlier today. Am I misremembering or is it not even three weeks since the alpaca date? I’ve never, ever, in the nearly fifteen years that I’ve known him, seen Dan be this joined at the hip with anyone.
I can’t really work out whether I think it’s far too much too soon or they’ve both just met their soulmate and it’s truly lovely and all their friends and family should start expecting wedding invitations.
The conversation doesn’t divide in half again; we talk as a four during the remainder of our dinner, until Dan does a cheek-splittingly wide yawn, and Lizzie says, ‘Yeah, we should get going. We haven’t had that much sleep this week.’
Freya mock-covers her ears with her hands. ‘Eeuuw, no, too much information.’
Lizzie and Dan both chuckle in an incredibly smug-couple way, which is bizarrely just sweet and not at all annoying or cringey, and I blink. I haveneverseen Dan like this before.
As we all get our coats on, I’m standing just behind Freya and Lizzie and inadvertently overhear Freya say, ‘I’veneverseen you like this before with anyone.’
Lizzie replies, ‘Iknow,’ and then they hug each other.
Wow.
On my way home, I am so tempted to message Freya to say:Tell menowthat you still don’t believe in love foreveryone. But I don’t. Apart from anything else, Dan’s great, and Lizzie seems lovely and perfect for him, and I superstitiously feel like I don’t want to jinx anything for them.
I have to say: if this works out for Dan and Lizzie, that will go some way – a long way – to making the rest of the torture worth it. Dan just seems sohappy. And, selfishly thinking about myself, I’m now finding Freya bearable in small doses, so it wouldn’t be a terrible loss on a personal level if I have to see her sometimes in group situations.
And if I’m right about Sonja’s not entirely benevolent intentions, I imagine I might derive a certain amount of amusement from seeing Freya at the team-building weekend.
‘You arekiddingme,’ Freya says for at least the fifth time three weeks later.
We arrived in Devon last night for our team-building weekend. We – the participants – were all put up in separate hotels overnight (very reality-TV-like; I do have the sensation that Freya and I have strayed into a strange world where we have become a reality show through essentially no fault of our own). We were brought here at 8a.m. this morning and have met our hosts, and are now standing in our shared quarters. Quarters is the right word, because our first bonding activity is going to be an army assault course and we’re staying in ex-army barracks.
Freya and I are sharing a two-bedroom apartment. We have our own en-suite shower rooms with a shared sitting room.
I’ve been on a lot of team-building events, and none of them have involved bonding as a team of two. I was very much not envisaging this and Iwouldbe looking forward to the weekend even less than I already was, if it weren’t for the fact that Freya is so incredibly pissed off it’s just very funny.
She points at me. ‘This is your fault.’
‘Are we back on the same argument? That I started it during the TV interview?’
‘Youdidstart it then and we both know that, but no, I’m not referring to that. I’m referring to the fact thatIplayed ball with Sonja and answered her questions, andyourefused to divulge anything, so thisentireweekend is based around whatIdon’t like. If you’d told her things you don’t like it would have been split.’ She waves the card on which our weekend schedule is printed out. ‘There could notbea weekend I would dislike more.’
I just look at her and smile. I’m enjoying this more and more.
She glares at me. ‘Oh mygoodness. Stop smiling. Stop lookinghappy.’
I laugh out loud.
She walks over to the window and looks out at our view of muddy farmland.
‘I cannotbelieveSonja,’ she says.
‘I feel like you’re gearing up to admitting I was right.’
‘You were right about this one very specific thing. Not about anything else. And you were probably only right about this because your mind is as devious as Sonja’s. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t have occurred to you that she would do this.’
I laugh again.
‘Oh mygoodness. You’re so annoying.’ She narrows her eyes. ‘Are you going toenjoythis?’
‘I think I am,’ I admit. ‘I do like an assault course.’
‘I’m so pleased,’ she says.
