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Claire reaches over and steals one of my chips. “You know what I mean.”

I don’t know what she means. My ears are warm. I think I’m blushing. But then the first question is read out and I have to concentrate. After all, there’s a girl to impress.

“Oooh I know this one,” Claire says after the quizmaster finishes reading it out. She turns to Kath. “You must remember this too, it was our history GCSE topic.” Then she nudges me. “You helped us revise, you did flashcards with us one afternoon.”

“Yeah.” I vaguely remember that. I was back from university for the holidays and Claire and my sister were sitting at our kitchen table, scowling at textbooks and quizzing each other. I ended up testing the pair of them, and going through some past paper questions as well.

“I’m pretty sure you’re the reason I passed,” Claire continues. “And your excellent mini lecture, accompanied by chocolate bars, is the reason I know that the answer’s 1917.”

“Correct.”

“Question two,” the quizmaster starts. “Which king was executed in Whitehall in 1649?”

I know it before he’s finished the sentence, but I catch Claire’s eye instead. “You know this one, it’s the guy Kath kept getting mixed up with his son.”

“Charles the First.”

The history round continues like that. Claire remembers more than she gives herself credit for, and between the two of us we manage to drag the team through most of the questions before Josh can suggest that Oliver Cromwell was a king.

“Close enough,” he argues.

“It’s literally the opposite of close enough,” I refute.

Claire slides closer to me, and then stiffens, casting a quick glance at Kath before shuffling further away. I frown, but don’t say anything.

By the end of the round we’re sitting in third place. Third. Out of nearly twenty teams. I’ll take that.

“Bronze medal position,” Sam says happily.

“Another one for your collection, Aquaman,” I tease him.

“Pride of place.”

Someone from another table looks over and does a visible double take when they spot Sam. They turn and start whispering to a friend. Busted. In fairness we’ve been here for over an hour and the Olympic round might have got them thinking about it. Though ironically none of the answers to the Olympic questions were “Sam Fletcher”, which is surprising. Given his records and extensive medal collection he usually comes up at least once. Kath had her pen hovering, ready to write down her own boyfriend’s name, and looked disappointed to be denied.

Claire glances at her phone. “I hate to do this, but I need to head off.”

“What?” Josh looks genuinely offended. “We’re winning.”

“Firstly, we’re not winning,” she tells him. “Secondly I have to get up at 5 a.m. for a work thing tomorrow so I need an early night.”

She starts gathering her things and then pulls on her coat.

“Thanks for the wine,” she smiles at me.

“No problem.”

For a second I think about asking if she wants someone to walk out with her. Or if she wants to get coffee sometime. Or dinner. Or smoothies. Literally anything. But I’m currently sat at a table with my sister, her boyfriend and one of their school friends. Now is not the time.

So instead of asking her out I just say, “Good luck with the early morning alarm.”

Wow. Excellent work, Tom.

Claire laughs. “Thanks.”

“See you around?”

“Yeah.” She smiles. “See you around.”