He moved to open the driver’s side door as Oliver went round to the passenger side.
“How come you ended up with this van?” Oliver asked as he climbed inside and buckled his seat belt.
Ed frowned, confused for a minute until he remembered the advertising emblazoned across the sides of the van. Oliver had probably seen it parked outside the bungalow for the past few weeks. “Aiden—the guy who owns the van and is currently in charge of doing up my kitchen—is my best mate.”
“Ahh, I see.”
“I’m just borrowing it for the day to save me hiring one.”
“Fair enough.”
Ed put the van in gear and headed out of the cul-de-sac. “Tip first, if that’s okay? Then over to my old house.”
Oliver nodded. “Yep, it’s all good with me.”
They settled into silence for a couple of minutes before Ed felt the need to fill it. “Thanks again for helping me today. Have to say I wasn’t looking forward to doing it by myself.”
“It’s no problem, honestly. And please don’t take this the wrong way, but how come you haven’t got friends or family helping out?”
Ed raised an eyebrow at the question but swallowed back his initial instinct to take offence. “It’s my own stupid fault. I thought I’d be all done by this point, so I didn’t think to ask anyone. Aiden let me borrow his van at the last minute, but he had to work. I do have other friends, just so you know.”
Oliver laughed. “I’m sure you do.” He shifted a little in his seat. “And according to Betty, you have sisters too. She and Elise talked about everything,” he added.
Ed could well imagine. “Yes, I have two: Ruth and Sarah.” He glanced over at Oliver. “What about you?”
“One brother,” Oliver said, eyes dancing with amusement. “Who you’ve already met.”
“Sergeant Walker?”
“Yep.”
Heat rushed to Ed’s cheeks, and he quickly faced the road again, rolling his eyes at Oliver’s resulting laughter.
“Oh, come on.” Oliver reached over to nudge him. “We’ve got to laugh about it at some point.”
“Hmm.” He was right, but the embarrassment was still as raw as it had been a few days ago.
“Too soon?”
Fuck it, he was behaving like a child. He could well imagine Aiden’s face if he could see him now. “Nah, it’s fine.”
They pulled into the recycling centre, already decorated for Christmas, and Ed snorted at the collection of gnomes now sporting tinsel scarves and fairy lights.
“There’s so many of them,” Oliver mused, following Ed’s gaze. “I’ve always thought it was weird.”
“Me too.”
There must have been at least forty gnomes of various sizes lined up along the back. Ed had always wondered if they were things people had brought to throw away or if they’d been bought on purpose. Either way, Oliver was right. It was a bit weird.
After reversing into a space, he turned to Oliver. “I’ll just be a sec.” He got out and went round to the back of the van, surprised when Oliver met him there.
“What?” Oliver raised his eyebrows. “You didn’t think I was going to wait in the van, did you?”
“Well I—”
Oliver rolled his eyes and reached to pull open the doors. “Come on, it’ll be faster with two.” His small smile had Ed smiling back.
“Thank you.”
