“Mate, I’m just sorry I didn’t think of the signal issue to begin with. And this spot’s way better anyway.”
He took the tongs from me when I was done, then handed me the pot of beans he’d decanted. Camping food wasn’t glamorous, but I was looking forward to a jacket potato after a long day. All we’d had for lunch had been peanut butter sandwiches and crisps, so I’d packed two potatoes each for dinner. I hadn’t been the one to have to carry them, after all.
“It’s a good spot, isn’t it,” I said as I looked out at the dock, where the others had set up their chairs to avoid the smoke. The sun was still high– it was nearly the solstice, so it wouldn’t set until nine-thirty-ish– but we were headed into golden hour, and I couldn’t help but watch Amy as she tipped her head back and laughed at something Chloe had said. She looked over then, and she was far enough away that I couldn’t be certain, but I was almost sure she was looking right at me.
I could feel her eyes on me more than ever, and it was hard to know if that was new, or if I was only just now noticing it because I was spending more time looking at her. It reminded me of that summer a few years ago, which I didn’t love, but it was also exciting. I mean, I’d literally caught her checking me out earlier, which had felt… nice, maybe? I didn’t actually need her to be attracted to me, but it didn’t hurt.
I could feel everyone else’s eyes on us, too. They weren’t being obnoxious about it, and I didn’t blame them. I’d never brought a woman around them before. It also didn’t bother me as much as I’d thought it would, maybe because it was a performance rather than the real deal. But the scrutiny didn’t go unnoticed.
Once the potatoes were done and the beans were bubbling away, we called everyone over for dinner, and they all dragged their chairs back up the hill.
“No cheese?” Grey asked, the last one to emerge from the water to get their food, turning the corners of their mouth down.
“Do you fancy a hunk of cheddar that’s been sat outside for thirty-six hours in a heatwave?”
“True,” they said, happily accepting the beans and spring onions they were offered instead.
Amy sat in front of Chloe, who plaited her hair into pigtails as they waited for their food to cool down a bit. Fatima was scrolling on her phone, also appreciating the signal, and the volume was low enough not to be obnoxious. But whatwasannoying was Chloe echoing every sound as it came up.
“How is there even signal out here?” Amy asked.
“It’s the 5G chip implanted in my head, obviously,” Grey said, sitting down next to her on a towel on the ground.
“Of course,” Fatima said without looking up. “Because you’re a government experiment, not a real person.”
“Damn right,” Grey said, blowing on their food. “And don’t you forget it. I’ll be invaluable in the inevitable robot uprising.”
Jack came over with a round of drinks, and Chloe squealed and nearly spilt her hot beans down Amy’s back when she realised it was cans of her favourite mead.
“Careful,” I said. “That’s my girlfriend you nearly scalded.”
“That’s so weird still,” Chloe said, but I saw her check over Amy to make sure she hadn’t actually spilled anything on her.
I caught Amy’s gaze and tried to decipher what I was seeing. She looked caught, like a deer in the headlights. For someone so self-assured, she would need to work on her acting skills if we were going to get away with this for three whole months. This was light work; our friends could have been much more ruthless with their teasing, and I suspected they would be at some point. And if she caved and told one of them…
Funny, every time I’d thought about things going wrong, it had been between Amy and me. I hadn’t thought about how everyone sat around me would feel finding out we’d been lying to them. If I found out any of them had pulled this, I’d be miffed at the very least. Chloe would be pissed, that was for sure, considering how annoyed she’d been that we hadn’t told her we were together.
“Hey, look at this,” Fatima said, looking down at her phone. I assumed she’d found another possible option for next year’s group holiday. After we’d enjoyed last year so much, we’d decided to go to another Renaissance Faire in America. But I would have to break the news to them at some point that I couldn’t go after all. Ethel needed me too much these days.
“Have you seen these?” Fatima asked, passing her phone to Chloe.
Chloe watched the video for a few seconds. “Oh yeah! They look amazing.”
Amy held her hands up over her head without looking back, her hair still half-finished. “Lemme see!”
Chloe passed the phone to her. “It’s one of those fantasy balls where everyone puts on big ballgowns and dances to orchestral covers of pop songs.”
“They have them in big manor houses and stuff,” Fatima explained. “Even castles sometimes. This company is the one I keep seeing. They’ve just announced their dates for the second half of the year.”
I’d seen videos of them– they looked incredible, if a bit like a thinly veiled excuse for cosplay content. But who would appreciate solid costuming if not me?
“That’s sick,” Grey said, leaning over to watch the video with Amy. “We should go.”
“When are they?” Morgan asked.
Fatima took the phone back and scrolled for another moment. “Looks like there’s one in Manchester in September, London in October, France in November, and Scotland in December.”
“Ooh, Manchester!” Morgan said with a gasp, looking at Fatima. “We could go see Greg’s new game shop!” Greg was a friend of theirs with a shop in the city; Morgan had helped design his branding last summer.
