‘I can try.’
‘It’s about Andrew.’
‘Aaaah,’ he nodded. ‘And your budding relationship.’
‘How do you know about that?’
‘You make social plans with him over the radio, in front of other airline pilots. Everyone knows that you’re dating.’
‘We’re actuallynotdating. Not in the real sense of the word, anyway. We’re fake dating.’
‘Fake dating?’
I nodded.
‘Like,fake dating? As in “rom-com trope” fake dating?’
‘I suppose you could put it like that.’
‘For what purpose are you fake dating?’
‘My parents are always going on about me getting a boyfriend and settling down, and his friends and parents are always asking him when he’s going to settle down, so we solved each other’s problems by being each other’s fake partners.’
‘You know, in all the romcoms, the fake relationships eventually all turn real, right?’
I lowered my head. ‘I suspect that might have happened somewhat.’
‘Have you fallen in love?’
‘I’ve never been in love. I wouldn’t know.’
‘Oh honey, you’ll know if you’re in love. Tell me how you feel?’
‘How I . . .’ I paused, and then closed my eyes, trying to get in contact with the feelings that I knew I’d been having. ‘I have this constant feeling inside me – in my stomach, specifically – when I see him and talk to him. It’s like an itch I can’t scratch. He’s all I can think about, and being near him and talking to him is the best part of my day. And when I have to say goodbye to him I miss him, physically, like someone might miss a phantom limb.’
Blessing burst out laughing and I flicked my eyes open. ‘You’re in love.’
‘Am I?’
‘One hundred per cent, head over heels in love.’
‘Head over heels is a forward roll. I’ve never understood how you can be “forward roll” in love.’
Blessing walked around the reception desk and stood in front of me.
‘When you do a forward roll, there’s a point at which you can no longer stop your forward momentum. There’s a tipping point that, if you cross it, you’re going to roll, and at that stage, there’s no stopping it from happening. That’s like love. You can’t stop love from happening either. And it can sneak up on you too, believe me.’
‘Love can’t sneak,’ I quickly corrected.
‘You’re wrong. Love does it all. It does your head in.’
‘Sounds awful. Why do we want to be in love if it does our heads in?’
‘Because it’s also the best feeling in the entire world,’ he said, looking into the distance as if he was now thinking about someone he loved too.
‘He said he’s in love with me,’ I added.
‘What did you say back?’
