“His girlfriend?” Rani asks, looking around as if she might be in the room. “Where?”
“She’s brought Artie over to see Forrest!” I tell her. “Looks like a supermodel?”
“Oh my God, that’s his sister,” Rani says.
“How do you know?” I ask, startled.
“Well, firstly because they both won the gene Olympics and are both hot as hell in a very similar olive-skinned, dark curly hair sort of way, and secondly because when I introduced myself to her, she said, ‘Hi, I’m River, Forrest’s sister.’”
“Oh, I haven’t actually talked directly to her,” I say.
“Because you fancy Forrest,” Rani says, as if she has just made the greatest discovery to ever be discovered in all of human history.
“That is not the point!” I argue. “You fancy Forrest! I’m not reading any secret significance into that.”
“Because I am not torturing myself about whether or not Forrest and I might have missed our chance,” Rani says. “And that’s why you shouldn’t go on a date with Hal.”
“Wait, what?” I’m confused.
“Look, Hal has spent more time with you than anyone else, including me for the last few years, and he realised you were missing out, so he makes himself a body.”
“True if simplistic,” I say.
“Yes, but the reason you were missing out on some of the best bits of life is because of Hal, because you were spending so much time with him in your lab. The moment you are forced into the real world, if you can call Castle Beaumont the real world, you meet a man who pushes your buttons and rings your bells. You don’t need Hal, Ava. You need time off from Hal to find out what’s out there for yourself. You’ve devoted years of your life to Hal already. Don’t sign away the rest of it before you’ve had a chance to look around.”
“I’m not singing away my life, Rani,” I protest. “We are just going to dinner, that’s all.”
“Fine, I’m coming too.” Rani crosses her arms.
“What do you mean you are coming too?” I ask. “It’s a date, Rani!”
“It’s a double date now. I’m going to get Alex, and we are coming with you. I need an excuse to hang with him a bit more anyway, because I... well, I really like him.” Rani shakes her head at me before I can protest. “No Ava, this is nonnegotiable. I am notletting you out of my sight with Terminator 2 until I am certain that you are certain you know what you want. I haven’t got you this far into adulthood to let you make out with a glorified vibrator now.”
“Rani!” I don’t know what else to say. Mostly because now I’m wondering if he has a vibrate setting.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Of course, the reason the houses are built with the upper story jutting out from the ground floor is so that the Tudor peoples could empty their chamber pots out of the window onto the street below,” Hal tells us as we stand in York’s most famous street, The Shambles.
It’s an ancient, narrow street, with a cobbled road and old Tudor buildings that jostle with each other for elbow space. It might be the only street in the world where you pick up a wand, a ghost, and an excellent pie. It is also home to a truly great Italian restaurant that doesn’t skimp on cheese. Hal is transfixed by it, stopping every other step to pause and look around.
“It’s amazing to me,” he says, “how human progression has never been in a series of straight lines of logical decisions but rather a sort of try-it-out-and-see approach. It’s one thing to read about history but another thing entirely to walk through it. There was clearly no discernible planning that went into this street, and yet it is a perfect representation of the human mind. Messy and beautiful. It makes me think I need to let myself go a bit more.”
“More than the new hair?” I ask Hal. He smiles, seemingly glad I’ve noticed.
“Yes, I had an idea of the sort of man I wanted to be, but I actually think the ideal human isn’t perfect at all. They are complicated and messy. Actually since my lab is in the stable, I’ve become rather attracted to the horses. Beautiful animals, sensitive and intelligent. I might ask LadyB if I can have a lesson.”
“You want to learn to ride?” Rani asks, intrigued.
“I think I might,” Hal replies. “The thing is, I won’t know until I try. And that is one of the wonderful things about being alive. All that is unknown.” He nods ahead. “Like what might lie around that corner.”
“Oh, I know,” Alex says, kind of missing the point. “All the tourists queueing up all day long to get in tiny quirky shops. Annoying.”
“Not for me,” Rani says. “My shop is right around the corner, and I get a lot of footfall from tourists.”
“When do we get to the cheese part?” I ask.
We are seated by the window of the upper floor of the restaurant overlooking the little lane. Alex has ordered wine and is telling us about his passion for paragliding, specifically over the Serengeti.
