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“Is this the competitive cousins?” Jo interrupts (and bless her for remembering the nuances and the politics in my dreadfully pushy family).
“The posh asshole?” Liss asks, and I nod at them.
“My mom rang to chase me about going to ‘The Wedding.’” I make air quotes. “And all my lovely brothers and sisters are bringing their partners …”
“Hang on, Javier’s gettingmarried?” Liss says.
“No one would marry him,” Jo adds. “Wait, what do you mean,allyour siblings are inviting their partners?Georgieis seeing someone?”
I wink at Liss, and she frowns at me. “Come on, I’m not as rebellious as your baby sister,” she says, and I’ll give her that. Georgie takes rebellion to an art form.
“Oh, I’d love to see who she brings,” Jo sighs. “I bet he’s going to make your parents’ hair stand on end.”
Liss nods. “Dreadlocks, do you think? Was your mom ranting about Georgie’s man?”
I pause, frowning. “No actually.” Hmmm. Interesting. “Anyway, I felt so much pressure to live up to their expectations that I said I was bringing someone.”
“What?” Jo says, groaning, but Liss beams at me. “Oh! Great! Who’s the lucky man?”
Jo frowns, and I shake my head. “That’s the point, Liss, I don’t have anyone to take.”
“Oh well, that’ll be easy. You’re stunning and smart and any guy would be happy to go with you.” Her eyes sweep around the café as if she’s sussing out who we might ask, right here, right now.
“I’m flattered you think that, Liss, but trust me, I’m stumped.”
But she claps her hands. “I’m thrilled! I love the fact I’ve just got back, and this is the problem I’ve got to solve.”
“Is there anyone at the hospital?” Jo asks, humming.
I shake my head. “I’m not friendly enough with any of them. They’d just think it was weird of me to ask.”
Liss tuts. “I’m sure they’d be delighted to be asked by you, Kate. What about exes?”
I roll my eyes, but I know what’s coming next out of her mouth.
“What about David?”
I sigh. Liss liked him better than Jo, and, like me, she’s a bit of a sucker for that kind of guy. Jo is much more logical and demanding; she always wanted someone who would support her career and was incredibly picky at college.
“He called me a couple of weeks ago.”
Jo’s eyes go wide as Liss says, “Well, then, that’s perfect.”
“Liss. He asked me to marry him and then cheated on me,” I say as scathingly as I can.
“And it wastwo yearsago, Liss,” Jo says, rounding on her indignantly, “and we really don’t want to be opening up that can of worms again.” She turns back to me. “What did he say?”
“Not a lot, just asked me how I was. I was at work and couldn’t really talk to him. He told me to call him back, and I didn’t.”
“Good,” Jo says.
The sharp ache takes me by surprise. After we split up, he tried so desperately; I would come back to the apartment and find roses laced through the handle of the door, notes pushed under it. And the poems … God, his poems. What disturbs me most was that I liked it: After the devastation of finding that card in his pocket, I wanted anything to prove that I hadn’t got it so wrong. He would accost me outside lectures, and so I stopped going and watched the recordings instead. God, I scraped through that year. Some of the things he gave me are still buried in a box in my cupboard. Should I be keeping them?
I come back to the conversation with a jolt to find both of my closest friends observing me with matching expressions. They were wonderful through the whole David thing. I wave my arm at them.
“I’m fine, you guys. Stop looking at me like that. I’m over it. I’d just like to have that again with someone someday.” And God, I miss it. I miss the chat, the giggling in bed. It’s the most depressing thought in the world that I might not find that again.
“Oh yeah definitely,” Liss sighs, looking down at her hands. There’s something about the way she says this …
