‘I want to go to Porto,’ she says. ‘I don’t want to wait until she’s back. I can’t wait. I have to tell her now.’
‘Oh, this is soWhen Harry Met Sally!’ says Todd, but CJ doesn’t know what that means. He presses, ‘When you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start right away? No?’
CJ shakes her head. ‘Never seen it,’ she says.
‘Oh, for god’s sake,’ Todd tuts. ‘Never mind! Move on! We’re going to Porto?’
‘We?’ says Luis.
Miguel laughs. ‘Obviously,’ he says. ‘The great ice queen Catherine Jane Hall finally lets herself both fall in love and admit to it? We all deserve front-row seats.’
CJ looks at him, hurt. ‘Excuse me?’ she says. ‘This is my actual life?’
‘I think,’ Todd says, trying to defuse the situation, ‘that he means he’s obsessed with the narrative arc of your love story, both the love you have for yourself, and now with the beautiful Ash. Right, baby?’ He shoots a look at his husband, and Miguel nods along.
‘Yes,’ Miguel says. ‘Yes. Exactly. Sorry. That was insensitive. So … Porto? I’ll drive?’
‘Let’s check Guilherme is OK to lock up the café tonight? On the way?’ says Todd.
Luis throws up his hands. ‘OK, fine!’ he decides. ‘I’m coming too! I will ask the cleaner if they will be on call for any issues at CoLab. I’m sure it will be fine.’
CJ takes this all in. ‘I guess I’ll go pull Jorge out of school,’ she says. ‘I kind of want him to see hismamãebeing brave?’
‘Co-signed,’ says Todd. ‘All right, then! Let’s do this thing!’
Everyone bundles out of the apartment fizzing with excitement. CJ is thankful for it. If she was going to let herself suffer from any doubts that this is the correct plan of action, the collective energy carries her, makes her believe that what she is doing is right and good and important. The smallest voice in the back of her mind asks if she’s disregarding Ash’s boundaries at all, going in to her holiday with Willow, all guns blazing. But she doesn’t want permission to show up, an intellectualisation of what is, essentially, CJ’s first (but perhaps not last) grand romantic gesture.
‘Can somebody try to find Willow on Ash’s social media?’ she says, as they frogmarch up the hill to Querido, on the way to the car. ‘I don’t want Ash to know I’m coming, but maybe we should check in with her best friend, just in case I’ve totally misread this?’
‘I follow her,’ says Luis.
CJ shakes her head. ‘Of course you follow Ash’s best friend who you have never met,’ she says playfully. ‘Obviously.’
‘Hey,’ Luis says, opening his arms wide, no flies on him.‘She followed me first. I think Ash must have told her some wonderful things about me.’
‘Urgh,’ says CJ. ‘Spare me.’
Luis laughs and they loiter on the street as her cousins fuss about in the café, lining everything up for their departure. It was their day off anyway, but they’re normally nearby just in case they’re needed, or at the very least at the end of the phone. And if they’re not around, CJ is. For them all to be a three-and-a-half-hour drive away is unusual, so it makes sense the boys would want to double-check everything is as it should be.
CJ runs a hand through her hair, lets the sun warm her skin. She watches her cousins through the glass of the café window, and then when her eyes shift, she realises she’s being observed by a woman.
‘Mona?’ CJ says, confused. ‘I thought you’d gone home!’
‘CJ!’ Mona says, getting up from her empty coffee cup. ‘Hello, darl!’
‘Does Ash know you’re here?’ CJ says. ‘Did you … not leave?’
‘Came back, actually,’ Mona laughs. ‘Two nightmare travel days took me back to where I used to call home, and within ten minutes I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there. There’s nothing for me back in New Zealand. Not really. So I packed a few more things and then turned right back around and got the next flight back here. I know I’ve been gone a month but, it feels like I’ve done nothing but sit on a plane. I’m exhausted! So no, I’ve not told Ash I’m back yet. This is my first venture out at a normal hour since landing back onterra firma.I’ve got a bit of an investment opportunity for her, actually. Something I can’t stop thinking about. I need to see her asap.’
Luis offers, ‘She’s in Porto, with her friend Willow. CJ just understood that she is in love with her, so we are going to drive up there to tell her.’
CJ looks at him. ‘Are you going to pin that information on the community news board, too?’ she says. To Mona she offers, ‘Sorry. That’s probably too much information. Ignore him.’
‘Ignore him?’ Mona hoots. ‘How can I ignore him! This is excellent news! I was wondering when one of you would cotton on to your feelings. I’ve got to say, I didn’t think it would take this long.’
CJ narrows her eyes. ‘You … knew?’
‘Knew?’ chuckles Mona. ‘Of course I knew!’
