Page 89 of The Love Hack

‘Even though I don’t understand men?’

‘Hey, don’t diss yourself. I’ve been reading Ask Adam every week for the past four months and I reckon you understand men a lot better than we understand ourselves.’

‘Maybe that was just GenBot 2.0.’

‘It wasn’t. Not the good ones, anyway. Those were you.’

‘Ross? Can I ask you something?’

‘Sure.’

‘What happened with you and Bryony?’

Now, for the first time since – well, since before what had happened between us happened – Ross blushed. I wasn’t sure what to make of that – had I lost the power to make him do that, but Bryony still had it?

But he said, ‘Oh God, Lucy. Not my finest hour, if I’m honest.’

I looked at him, waiting for him to carry on.

‘I mean, it was just a casual thing. I didn’t think anything would come of it, after – you know. After your sister’s hen night. But then we started seeing each other.’

I nodded. What if I’d got it all wrong, Ross was devastated by Bryony ending their relationship, and I was just a quick rebound fling? In front of me, I could see the last few people straggling on to the plane and taking their seats – if what he was about to say wasn’t what I wanted to hear, it was too late for me to run away.

‘We started seeing each other, after that,’ he went on. ‘It was just casual, really. On my side and on hers also. If I’m honest I kind of expected it to peter out after a few dates. And then I wrote that thing to Adam, so see what you’d say if you knew how I felt about you.’

‘And I didn’t say anything,’ I remembered. ‘I got the AI to write back, because I didn’t know what the answer was. I’d promised her I’d put in a good word with you, and I guess I never got around to doing that either.’

‘But when you didn’t – I mean, when I didn’t get the answer I hoped I’d get from Adam, I let it carry on. I shouldn’t have done that. I knew she and I weren’t right for each other. But it just seemed easier, somehow. Easier than telling you properly how I felt, and easier than ending it with her.’

I didn’t say anything for a moment. Ross was right – it wasn’t his finest hour. He wasn’t coming out of this particularly well. A few months back, I’d have written his behaviour off as yet another failing of the male sex – too cowardly, too passive, too willing to take no-strings sex when it was offered to him.

But what had he actually done wrong? He hadn’t cheated on her. He hadn’t treated her badly. She’d kissed other men; she’d ended things when she realised it wasn’t going anywhere. If there was one thing I’d learned in my months of being Adam, it was that men made mistakes. They weren’t perfect – they were just people. And Ross at least acknowledged that.

‘And now it’s over,’ I said.

‘Totally, one hundred per cent over. It was all totally amicable. In fact, I may have?—’

‘You may have what?’

‘When I asked Nush to deputise looking after Astro. I knew she’d be okay with it, but I had to give her an extra reason why, and I didn’t want to tell her about Dad. It felt like too much information.’

‘So you told her…?’

‘I told her you were out here and I wanted to see you. I told her how I felt about you.’

‘And what did she say?’

‘She told me to go for it. She said it was—’ he broke off.

‘She said it was what?’

‘She said it was obvious you had a crush on me.’

‘What? How did she know?’

‘So you did have a crush on me?’

‘Well, yeah. Course I did. A massive one.’

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