Page 57 of Just for the Season

‘Perfect, thank you.’ I move my letters around, quietly confident that I’m about to perform a miracle and win the game. ‘Look. Quieten.’ I manage to get the ‘e’ on the end of another word so that my genius seven-letter word goes through a triple-word-score square. Frankie’s been ahead of me most of the way through but I’m now going to win, I’m sure.

‘Wow,’ she says, before adding an ‘s’ to the end of ‘quietens’ and putting her own seven-letter word (‘sitting’) down.

‘We are unbelievably evenly matched,’ I say, doing my best to hide my disappointment that our scores are now even again.

‘Ha, ha, ha,’ Frankie says. ‘You looked so smug and now so crestfallen.’

I really want to hug her, which I’m not sure I should do, even though obviously it would be a platonic hug, so I spend a lot of time rearranging my letters.

When we’ve finished the game we still seem to have a lot of nothing to talk about, so Frankie makes us another coffee, until eventually I see her yawning and check my watch to see that it’s 2 a.m., and immediately stand up to go. Yes, we’ve had a very nice evening, but, no, I shouldn’t overstay my welcome.

There’s an odd moment in front of her door where we both lean in for a goodbye hug and our faces get a little too close, but we both kind of brush any momentary awkwardness away, and then Frankie tells me that she’ll drop round the veggie tagine she’s offered to make for us for tomorrow evening’s dinner at about 3 p.m., and I thank her quite formally and then leave.

* * *

It kind of feels like everything’s good at the moment, I reflect on Sunday afternoon when Frankie turns up with the tagine, and Ruby – Ruby, not me – invites her in for a cup of tea.

Although it does immediately appear as though she had an ulterior motive for the invitation. Even before Frankie’s seated in the kitchen, Ruby says, ‘Dad mentioned that he asked you whether you need someone else to work in the café.’

‘Simon needs to think about it and work things out,’ Frankie tells Ruby, ‘and it might not be possible, but it’s a definite maybe. He’ll get back to you as soon as he can.’

‘Cool,’ Ruby says. And then she asks Frankie about where she got her coat and then they start talking more generally about clothes, which is also nice. Not to be stereotypical about male and female roles, but I am at a bit of a loss when it comes to discussing teenage girl fashion, and, while it turns out that Frankie also isn’t entirely knowledgeable about what girls twenty years younger than her wear or where they shop, she’s a lot better at these conversations than I am.

‘You know what,’ Frankie says as I make drinks for us all and Ruby shows her three different tops on her phone, ‘I really like them all but the thing is, I’m twenty years older than you, and at my age you can just wear what you like and what you know suits you, but it’s a little trickier at your age. Plus, at your age everything suits you.’ She looks sideways at me. ‘I mean, I’m guessing there are things your dad doesn’t think you should wear, but that’s a parent thing.’

‘He still thinks I’m a little girl,’ Ruby says, also looking sideways at me.

You are, I want to shout. I manage to say nothing.

Frankie looks thoughtful. ‘You’re at an interesting age,’ she says. ‘You’re so grown-up in some ways and really not that far off being an actual adult, but also you are still really young. As in, a lot of people are still much older than you and you haven’t yet had the opportunity to live much adult-style life. It’s tricky being fourteen. I remember it.’

I wait with bated breath to see what’s going to happen next and… Ruby smiles. She just smiles.

And then she says, ‘Yes,’ before standing up and hugging Frankie, who hugs her right back.

And… wow. One of my two favourite people in the world is hugging my new… well, I’d have to say almost best friend. I’m getting a warm-inside feeling.

‘Would you like to stay for dinner with us?’ Ruby asks.

‘I’d have loved to, thank you, but I’m eating with Ellie and Jack. Also veggie tagine. I made double.’

‘Soon?’ Ruby asks.

‘That would be wonderful,’ Frankie says.

‘I really like Frankie,’ Ruby tells me when Frankie has left.

Me too, I think.

‘Yeah, she’s great,’ I say.

19

FRANKIE

‘So you’re settling well into semi-permanent Milbury life?’ Ellie asks as I spoon apple crumble into bowls for us that evening after we’ve finished our tagine and couscous. ‘Do you think you might stay a bit longer term?’

‘I do like it here a lot. It’s kind of like being on permanent holiday, plus obviously I have you and Gran and Jack, and old friends.’