“Shall we go for noodles?” she asks, her tone so changed from a moment ago that she sounds like a completely different person. “This Thai place recently opened near work and apparently their Pad Thai is unreal.”
“Sure. I just need a wee before we leave.” I collect my phone from the counter and head upstairs to the bathroom.
I don’t actually have to pee. Instead, I check the previous message sent by “Fern.”
My thighs are still fucking jelly from last night.
Tomorrow I’m going to end things with Eggo. This can’t go on any longer. I need to take control of my life.
Chapter 26
Finn
Friday 25th September 2026
It’s nine p.m. and Payday Karaoke is in full swing. Abs is on the stage belting out “ABCDEFU” by GAYLE as Megan and I walk through the pub doors. It’s already too warm inside Owen Bosley’s micro taphouse, so we strip off our jackets and hoodiesand any extra items of clothing we can afford to lose without bordering on public indecency.
As it turns out, Abs is not a terrible singer. I’m awful and Pi’s okay. He falls somewhere in between the pair of us, but it’s the only time outside of rugby where he’s not so self-conscious.
He’s already standing at the bar with Georgia, and when he catches my eye, my stomach does a weird jiggly dance.
“We need to end things,”he’d said to me in the old lice room five months ago.“My girlfriend is getting sus.”
I’d known this moment would come at some point. Known that sooner or later Georgia would figure this whole thing out, and it’d spell disaster for Pi and me.
“End things?”I’d said, instead of voicing my true thoughts. I’d held out a hand, palm up, like that was the first option.“Or . . . fuck my face?”
I’m pretty sure Pi made the wrong choice that morning. Actually, we both did.
And we continued to make the wrong choice at each subsequent meet-up. I mean, it wasn’t entirely my fault. I don’t know how anyone is supposed to look at that face of his and resist it.
But it definitely didn’t help matters when I’d say things like,“Just one more time,”or“Princess, when I’m done with you, you won’t even remember your own name, let alone your girlfriend’s,”or“We’ll quit next week, promise.”
Only we never did. If anything, we met up more often. As though we were trying to cram in every moment of each other’s company before it was stripped away from us.
I half want to question Megan on what she knows—and what she’s told Georgia—but we’re both fully locked into this bizarre game of feigning ignorance of our partner’s extramarital activities. She’s been spending a lot more time in Bristolrecently, and coincidently, who seems to have moved to Bristol but Lucy.
Sometimes Megs will come over to my place covered in festival glitter, or smelling of bonfire wood smoke, or sporting random hickeys. She never offers explanations for any of these things, and when I point them out to her, she acts surprised like we’re discovering them at the same time. I’ve sort of given up now, but at least she returns the favour and doesn’t ask me why I cancel plans last minute to be with him, or why the bottle of lube next to my bed depletes and replenishes itself so quickly, or why there’s an anal douche in my bathroom cabinet even though she hates butt stuff.
Still, it seems to work for us. And neither of us has any desire to upset what we’ve built, together or separately.
“What you having then, babe?” I ask as we push through the crowd to get to the bar.
“Just a Diet Coke.” Both Megan and Georgia have self-elected to be our designated drivers. More than likely so that they can hang out in the beer garden all night and gossip about everyone else while we let loose with our teammates.
“How ya going?” Pi says to both of us.
“Wasson?” I say with affected nonchalance. The girls don’t even seem to care. They’re already arm in arm and have begun a conversation in what sounds like the very middle.
“Okay, but what did Luke say?”
“Was it . . .”
“Right? God, I hate that guy . . .”
“I know, be so for real right now.”
“Here you go, me ’ansum.” I hand Megan her glass of pop as soon as the barmaid—not Owen’s daughter, someone else—has finished pouring it, but Megs hardly notices.
