Pippa:Okay.
Jennifer:You’re on the spectrum. It makes relationships harder; it does not make them impossible. It’s only going to hold you back in relationships with someone that isn’t right for you and doesn’t appreciateallthe parts of you. One day you’ll find a person that loves all those quirky little things about you, that doesn’t run from them, and even thinks they are the best things about you. You can never show a person like that too much of yourself. In fact, the more you show of yourself, the more I bet they’ll fall in love with you.
Pippa:That is a terrifying prospect.
Jennifer:Life is terrifying.
Pippa:We agree on that!
Jennifer:That’s why we’re friends.
Jennifer:And on that note, I don’t think you’re as bad as you think you are with relationships. How long have we been friends?
Pippa:Fifteen years.
Jennifer:Exactly!
Pippa:My relationships usually fall apart around date five. And this was fake date four with Andrew.
Jennifer:So then don’t let it fall apart. Go and talk to him.
I looked around, I actually hadn’t seen where he’d gone.
Pippa:Okay. I will.
But when I got back to our table and found him talking animatedly with Delia and Tertia and the other men, as if nothing had even happened, I didn’t say a word to him. I also didn’t say a word to him when we bid each other a very awkward goodbye at the end of the evening, after having spent the rest of the wedding not talking and deliberately not looking at each other.
CHAPTER34
‘City Tower, this is Flightbird Six Zero Zero.’
His voice came through cold and unfeeling. It was the first time he hadn’t said hello to me. In fact.
‘Good morning, Flightbird Six Zero Zero. How’s the view?’
I tried to insert our usual banter into the conversation, but it didn’t work.
‘Inbound to Johannesburg Airport, heading over the golf course. Request vectors for ILS. Flightbird Six Zero Zero.’
‘Flightbird Six Zero Zero, turn left heading two niner zero.’
‘Copy, City Tower, turn left heading two niner zero. Flightbird Six Zero Zero.’ His tone was so different today, and I didn’t like it. Everything felt different since the sex.
‘City Tower, this is Flightbird Six Zero Zero, established ILS, runway zero seven left.’ He didn’t even comment about the runway.
‘Flightbird Sex Zero Zero, you are cleared to land on runway zero seven left.’
‘What did you just say, City Tower?’
‘Flightbird Sex Zero Zero, you are cleared to land on runway zero seven left.’
Silence.
‘Did you hear me?’
‘Copy, City Tower. Cleared to land on runway zero seven left. Flightbird Six Zero Zero’
Barry, who was sitting next to me, shot me a peculiar look.
