He opens the boxes as he starts jabbering on about his article, picking the mushrooms off his pizza and placing them onto mine.
‘It’s a little tongue in cheek but I’ve highlighted all the major selling—’
‘Why are you giving me your mushrooms?’
He pauses. ‘Because you love mushrooms and I don’t?’
‘Since when did I love mushrooms?’
He squints at me suspiciously. ‘You must have mentioned it. Did you eat them at breakfast?’
‘Nope. I haven’t eaten or mentioned mushrooms this week. It’s really weird that you would assume I love them.’
‘Sorry!’ He reaches over to remove them, but I push his hand away.
‘You weren’t wrong,’ I say, biting into my pizza. ‘Just odd that you knew that.’
He laughs. ‘Spooky… though pretty impractical info to be fair; your PIN number would have been more useful.’
I smile, but inside I’m a little freaked out. In the shower I said I wanted someone who knew what I liked without having to ask. Do fungi count as some sort of sign? It might be a silly coincidence to him but to me, it feels like more. It feels like he knows me – really knows me. Is this a soulmate thing? Twin flames? Did the universe conspire to bring me mushrooms?
‘We should probably head down to the loch,’ he states, unaware that I’m silently questioning the esoteric significance of a pizza topping. ‘I think this is the part where they do the human sacrifice. Might be fun.’
‘Can you believe this is our last meeting?’ I say, taking my pizza with me. ‘Tomorrow we’ll never see any of these people again.’
‘Hmm, I dunno,’ he replies, holding the door for me. ‘I get the feeling we’ll see Paul onCrimewatchat some point.’
I laugh. ‘Wanted in connection to a tethering incident?’
‘Exactly.’
We shuffle off to the loch-side, munching on pizza while speculating what will become of everyone after we leave. We decide that Nish will marry someone totally unsuitable, Meg will get lost in the rainforest and resurface twenty years later without having aged a day, Allison will have a least two husbands who will die in mysterious accidents, Russell will get hair plugs and Jillian will hopefully continue to donate her dresses to me.
‘What about me?’ I ask as we approach the water. Everyone has already begun to gather. ‘What will become of me?’
‘At fifty, you’ll marry a twenty-six-year-old Tunisian waiter who definitely loves you for more than a UK passport.’
‘Sounds reasonable,’ I reply, ‘although your future doesn’t look much brighter.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because you’ll marry Allison.’
His dimples accompany us towards the loch.
CHAPTER31
The bonfire is burning brightly behind us as we line the bank of the loch, sitting side by side. Anna instructs us to close our eyes and take a deep breath in. Holding Will’s hand in my right and Meg’s in my left, I comply, feeling the cold air rush in through my nostrils before warm air escapes slowly past my lips. I smirk as I imagine how ridiculous we must look – forty adults in hats and scarves, sitting cross-legged in the dark with our eyes closed – but it doesn’t feel ridiculous. It feels like an appropriately unusual end to a very unusual week. I came here expecting the worst and now here I am, expecting the best. Tunisian waiter aside, I’m eager to see what my future holds. In only six days I’ve been a lover, an inspiration, a friend and a Prom Queen. I’ve laughed until my face hurt, cried until my heart hurt and I wouldn’t change a single thing.
By nine thirty, music is playing, we’re all sipping hot chocolate and enjoying the bonfire, which is providing much-needed warmth. Will is deep in conversation with Anna and Kenneth, while I chat with Brad. There’s a real upbeat revelry and I get the feeling everyone will be a little sad to leave.
‘I know it’s probably nothing, but Will just sat there, giving me his mushrooms like it’s something we’ve always done.’
Brad laughs at the confused expression on my face. ‘It’s not nothing, far from it! You’re connected, plain and simple. Jeez, Nora, we could see it from day one, I’m not sure how you keep missing it.’
‘I’m not very in tune,’ I reply. ‘I mean, for a brief time I thought you were into me! I cannot read any signals correctly, I’m hopeless!’
‘Oh, Nora, Iaminto you! I was drawn to you like bees to honey. You read the signals correctly, but you assumed it was a sexual thing because why else would a man be interested, right?’
