‘I hate surprises,’ I said, because I did. I didn’t get the joy that others got in surprises.
‘My nerdery,’ he said, climbing out the car with a smile.
‘Nerdery?’
‘You seemed a little embarrassed by your Pokémon room. Well, I have something similar that I wanted to show you.’
‘Okay,’ I agreed, and climbed out of the car too, slamming the elephant-sized door behind me. Andrew lived in a modern townhouse complex. At least, the townhouses were freestanding and did not share boundary walls. I looked down the side to see how big the gap between the buildings were. I estimated four meters.
‘What’re you doing?’ Andrew looked at me curiously.
‘I was just looking at the gap between you and your neighbors.’
‘Nothing like yours, but it’s sufficient for me.’
‘I don’t think I’d manage here,’ I said, looking up at the neighbor’s windows and wondering if they could see me right now.
‘It’s perfect for me, since I’m not here that often.’
‘That’s true,’ I said, watching the next-door neighbor’s window while walking to the front door with him.
Andrew walked in and turned on the lights. The place was sparsely decorated, with just the essentials. But the essentials it did have were good quality; you could see that he’d furnished the place well and put thought into it. We walked into the lounge, and I couldn’t help notice the massive TV screen on the wall and the games consoles next to it. It seemed very man-cave to me. I followed him into a passage with three doors, all closed, except for one. I immediately peered in. A large bed dominated the room, but what struck me most were the piles of clothes strewn around the place. I stopped.
‘I did not picture you as messy,’ I said.
Andrew quickly closed the door, as if embarrassed.
‘I’m not, uh, messy. Generally. At all.’
I pushed the door back open and pointed. ‘Yes, you are.’
‘I had some trouble deciding what to wear tonight.’ He said this quite softly, and if I hadn’t leaned in, I might have missed it.
‘Why?’ I asked.
He shrugged in a manner that told me he was trying to brush this off.
‘Wait, why?’ I asked, but Andrew continued walking down the passage. I studied the back of him. He looked so good tonight, but it hadn’t crossed my mind that he might have put any effort into looking like that. But clearly he had. Had he put in so much effort because he was meeting my parents? Or had he put in so much effort for another reason entirely?
He stopped at the bottom of the passage and turned to me.
‘You ready?’
‘Ready for what?’
‘A glimpse into my life.’ He pushed the door open enthusiastically.
I walked inside but wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing. It looked like a toy-plane graveyard crossed with an electrical workshop.
‘I make RC planes and race them,’ he said. ‘I belong to a club. We meet on the last Sunday of every month and race our planes.’
I peered down at the plane lying on the bench.
‘I’m trying to make the wings a bit lighter and the engine a little bit more powerful, if I do that, I think I stand a good chance.’
‘The last Sunday of the month is tomorrow.’ I inspected the complicated wiring and remote control.
‘You want to come?’ he asked, and I swung round.
