“Manchester could be good,” Jack said. “Morgan and I are away for a lot of October.”
“And it would be easier than trying to go far in November or December,” Fatima said. “I imagine they won’t line up with school holidays. But they’re on Saturdays, so we could easily get to Manchester and back in a weekend.”
I caught Amy’s eye again, trying to judge if the mention of going back to Manchester was triggering anything, but she was just pursing her lips in consideration.
“When in September?” she asked.
“The seventh, at eight p.m.”
Amy and I widened our eyes at the same time. It was the same day as the wedding. It was also the week our fake relationship was due to end.
“Whad’ya say?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t see why not?”
“RIP your fingers,” Fatima said to me, and I froze.
“Sorry, what?”
“Come on,” Chloe said, “all that will be infinitely easier than the stuff he’s making for the festival. Chain mail? I mean, come on.”
“Or you could just buy your dresses like normal people,” I suggested. I genuinely hadn’t thought about the fact that I’d set a precedent, and they’d be expecting me to dress them every time we went to one of these things. I wished I could go back to the me of last year and throttle him for offering to make all the Ren Faire costumes. I’d had so much spare time then, but Ethel took a lot more time and attention to care for these days. Between her and the costumes I was already making for the festival, I wasn’t convinced there were enough hours in the day.
“Fine, I’ll buy my own dress then,” Jack joked. “But actually, this sounds amazing.”
“I can get tickets now if everyone wants,” Fatima said, pointing at her phone. “It’s still early bird, so they’re forty quid each. They’ll sell out, so we can probably resell them if we can’t work the rest out.”
Everyone took their phones out then, even Jack, checking they were free. We all were.
“You sure about this?” I asked Amy, trying to give her one last out.
“I think so?” she said, but she didn’t sound sure.
I wasn’t sure if her doubt was stemming from the wedding– maybe she actually wanted to go, after all– or from making plans with our friends so close to our breakup date. I smiled as reassuringly as possible. “I’ll do whatever you want to do.”
“Awwwwww,” Chloe cooed, “this is still really weird, but so cute. You in then, Ames?”
Amy nodded in response, but she was still looking at me, still smiling, when she answered. “I’m in.”
* * *
Back at home,Amy and I kept up the daily texting. We were swapping lore drops more and more, but now that we’d covered the important bits like timelines, they were getting increasingly ridiculous. By Tuesday, we’d added half a dozen new gems to the Our Lore note, including the fact that I’d apparently once promised Amy a kidney if she needed one.
We did the pub quiz again on Tuesday, and we came in second place yet again, securing our drinks for the next week. The PDA felt more and more natural each time, though we had a near miss when saying goodbye at the pub. She turned to kiss my cheek, and her mouth ended up dangerously close to mine. It was all I could do not to turn my face to kiss her for real.
We saw each other again on Thursday for D&D, after another few additions to Our Lore, and the updates to Amy’s character were perfect. I tried not to feel too proud that she’d done exactly what I’d suggested.
Then our first Saturday night as a couple came around, and with Anil still on the break from his course, I told her I wanted to take her out. It only felt right for our first date night, especially knowing most in the future would be spent at home with Ethel. And whilst this wasn’t a real relationship, I had an apparently quite posh predecessor to outdo, so I made a booking at the most Michelin-esque restaurant in town.
AMY
When you say “out out”, what does that mean in terms of wardrobe?
PHIL
I’m wearing something other than jeans and a T-shirt.
AMY
