Rani has been gazing at him the whole long time, her chin resting on her hand, for the entire length of his honestly very long monologue about how he swooped down on a herd of zebras and scared them into running, and I’m wondering if she is hearing the same thing I’m hearing, or just looking at the way his chestnut brown hair offsets his hazel eyes.
“What would happen if you crashed?” Hal asks when Alex pauses to take a sip of wine.
“Oh, I never crash,” Alex says. “I am really good at paragliding. If it was an Olympic event, I’d be a gold medallist.”
“But say there was a freak gust of wind or a rainstorm,” Hal says, “and you crashed to the ground in the middle of nowhere and were injured and a pride of lions came across you?”
Rani and I turn our gaze to Hal. Is Hal throwing shade at Alex?
“Ha, right, yeah. I mean of course I take all the safety precautions. I have a support team following me in a jeep, and they are armed. So in the unlikely event that I’d crash, they wouldn’t be far away. They’d shoot any animal threatening me.”
“Like dead?” Rani asks.
“Well yes.” Alex chuckles. “One doesn’t want to get on the wrong end of a lioness, darling.”
“No one does,” I say, looking at Rani, who avoids my eye.
“But I’d never ever hunt an animal for sport,” Alex says. “I find that practice abhorrent. Men and women standing over the bodies of animals, utterly disgusting.”
Rani gives me an “I told you so” look and I have to admit that although I don’t see the point in flying about on a glorified kite, Alex doesn’t seem to be a bad person.
“And yeah,” Alex says. “I know that being the son of a lord means that learning to paraglide on another continent is a privilege that few people get. That’s partly why I’m so proud of the Beaumont Foundation. Of course there’s the big prize, that you two are up for, that’s the one that gets all the press. But the foundationgenerates and pays out smaller grants all around the world, all year long. We just gave one to some people who are regenerating coral reefs around Australia. So, I’m not only an insufferable twat who doesn’t know when to stop talking, Hal.” Alex smiles. “Sorry about that. I can go on.”
“I like it when you go on,” Rani says. “Your posh voice is, well, sexy.”
“It makes a change from Rani going on about dresses,” I say.
“Well, why don’t you tell us about you, Ava,” Alex says. “I’ve read your bio, but I don’t know anything about your life before science. How did you meet Rani here, for example.”
“Oh.” I smile at Rani. Her hand reaches for mine across the table. “We met in freshers week at university. The rule is that you make panic friends with whomever you happen to be living with. We were in this flat of girls, and they were...”
“Not like Ava,” Rani says.
“Pretty, and loud and outgoing and confident,” I say.
“Well, you are pretty,” Hal tells me. “I always wondered what you would look like, and your face is just as beautiful as I thought it would be.”
“Hello,” Alex says with a self-conscious chuckle. “Man’s a player.”
“Well anyway,” I say, suddenly able to look at Hal. “We all hung out as a flat for a bit, and then one night one of these girls came to my room and said they were going out to a club, and they weren’t inviting me.”
“What?” Alex says. “That’s a bloody poor show.”
“They said, ‘No offence, Ava, it’s just you’re not really compatible with our vibe.’”
“These young women felt the need to boost their own ascendency by belittling you,” Hal said. “Because of the internalised misogyny manufactured by the patriarchy.”
“Yeah, that,” Alex says, making a fist. “I’m a feminist too.”
“Well, I said fuck that,” Rani interjects. “And I told Ava to tell them to fuck that too. But Ava wasn’t quite able to, so I said, ‘Fuck that, you shallow, boring identikit Barbie dolls. Ava would rather be dead than be compatible with you fuckers.’”
“Yeah,” I say, raising my glass to Rani. “Too right. So, we moved out of halls that night, and went and found a dingy, damp, and quite dangerous basement flat to live in. And we’ve been friends and flatmates ever since. Only now we live over Rani’s shop.”
“You stood up for Ava.” Alex kisses Rani’s hand. “I really love that about you.”
“Thank you,” Rani said. “But I just showed her that I had her back and she always has mine. Ava is the archetypal chaotic genius, and yes, I am her emotional support human who helps her when everything gets a bit much. But she is mine too. Aren’t you, Ava?”
“Yes.” I nod proudly. “Rani needs me. We look after each other. Which is why I’d prefer you to not hurt Rani, Alex, as I’d be honour bound to retaliate in some way.”
