“I was friends with Niamh first from uni,” she said. “We were on the same business admin course. It was why I moved to Manchester. I just wanted to leave, and she had a place there where I could live with her for cheap. She helped me cobble together some part-time jobs so I could support myself.”
“Why did you want to leave?”
She shrugged. “All my friends from school had either moved away or settled down, and I just didn’t really have a life here anymore. I wanted to start over.”
I wanted to tell her she did have friends, but I knew that wasn’t strictly true. Things between us had soured a couple of years before she’d left, and it had taken her and Jack a while to form a friendship after he’d moved home. I might have wanted a new start too if I were her.
“Anyway, Chris was friends with our other flatmates, and we all hung out together a lot. I could feel them pushing me on him, and honestly, he can be really charismatic and attentive when he wants to be. So yeah, I guess I liked him. It got weird the moment I moved in with him, though. When it was just us, it became painfully clear that we didn’t really have a lot in common. I realised pretty quickly– within a couple of months– that he was cheating on me, and honestly, I know it sounds terrible, but I was kind of relieved. I had a reason why it hadn’t worked, and I could move back in with Niamh. She didn’t need the rent money, so she hadn’t filled my room still.
“But a few weeks later I caught them together, and I realised they’d been sneaking around for a while. And when I tried to talk to our other friends about it, it turned out they all already knew.”
I fought back a scowl; it made me furious to think of people treating Amy like that. She could be spiky, sure, but she was one of the most thoughtful people I knew. It was a mystery to me how someone so wonderful could end up surrounded by people who were so awful.
“Anyway,” she said, physically shaking it off, and I resisted the urge to reach out and cover her hand with mine. “That’s why I wanted to pretend around them. They clearly got off on hurting me, and I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction.”
“I’m glad you didn’t tell me all this beforehand,” I said, my jaw still tight. I brought my hand to my chin to loosen it. “I’m not sure I could have been so civil to them.”
“Well then I’m glad, too,” she said, smiling weakly. “Your complacency was perfect. Niamh was so confused.”
“Happy to be of service,” I said. “But that kiss?—”
She cringed. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”
“I mean, I kissed you, technically,” I said with a shrug.
“Semantics. I put you in that position. I didn’t really give you a choice, did I?”
Oh, I chose, I thought. But it was too close to what Chris had said, so instead I asked, “So what now? We seem to be in a bit of a mess.”
“And look what arrived,” she said, placing an envelope on the table between us. I could tell just from the weight of it hitting the table that it was a wedding invitation. A bit of chocolate from her finger smudged onto the white paper as she placed it down.
“Fuck,” she said, hurriedly trying to wipe it off but just smearing it further.
“That was fast.”
“They hand-delivered it,” she said. “And look at the names.”
It had her name and address written in beautiful calligraphy, and then my name, first and last, added in blue biro next to it, as if it had been scrawled hastily before delivery. I laughed.
“I hadn’t expected to be invited by name.” I looked over at her and found her looking down at the envelope with a strange expression on her face. She almost looked… longing?
“Amy,” I asked, leaning forward, “do you wanna go to this thing?”
She shook her head vehemently. “Definitely not. I mean, showing them they didn’t hurt me is one thing, but subjecting myself to celebrating their love is another thing entirely.”
“Because you know I’d go with you if you wanted me to,” I said without thinking, and her gaze snapped up to meet mine. Her brow knitted together in consideration.
“You would?”
“Yeah, I would,” I said.I’d do anything you wanted me to,I didn’t say.
“That’ll be fun to explain to our families,” she said, laughing. “Once we tell them we’re not actually together, and then fuck off to go to a wedding in three months’ time.”
I laughed too, and nodded. Then I saw movement over Amy’s shoulder, and I looked up to see Ethel standing at her bedroom window, shamelessly watching us. She made a kissy face when I looked at her, and I rolled my eyes, shooing her off. Amy turned around to look just as Ethel darted away.
“Oh my god,” she said. “She’s incorrigible.”
“She’s been on my case for so long to find a girlfriend,” I said. “I think this might be the happiest day of her life.”
