Page 40 of None of This is True

Alix throws Walter an uncertain glance. But he nods at her and says, ‘Yeah. I’d like that. If it’s all right with you?’

‘Yes. Absolutely. You coming, Josie?’

Josie smiles. ‘No,’ she says. ‘That’s OK. You go. I’ve already seen it.’

Alix leads Walter through the garden, which is all lit up with solar lamps and fairy lights. She unlocks the studio door and flicks on the switches.

‘Wow,’ says Walter. ‘This is pretty cool.’ He eyes every detail of the room and asks her questions about the wiring and the electrics which she cannot possibly answer.

‘You’d have to ask Nathan,’ she says. ‘He was the one who had it all done for me.’

They share a dry exchange about the general lack of Nathan and then, finally, Alix finds the impetus to ask Walter the question she’s wanted to ask him since the day she met Josie.

‘May I ask you, about you and Josie? About how you met?’

She sees Walter blanch slightly, before recovering himself and taking a slow sip from his beer bottle. ‘Depends what she’s told you, really.’

‘Well, I’d really like to just hear it from your side.’

He shrugs and sighs. ‘I knew Jojo from when she was a kid. I was friends with her mum at first. Then Jojo and I started hanging out a bit. She was too mature for people her age, you know? Found them tedious. Comes from being an only child, I think. I was the same. Always preferred the company of grown-ups. And yeah, one thing led to another, and it turned out that somewhere along the line we’d fallen for each other. And I suppose it must look weird to some people, me being so much older than her. But it’s never felt weird to us. Not once.’

Alix nods, slowly, hypnotised slightly by the bass monotone of Walter’s voice, the way he makes opinion sound like fact, the lack of nuance, space, dichotomy in the way he speaks. Yes, she thinks, yes. I can see that. I can see how that might happen between two people. But then she snaps out of it, remembers that this man bought a fifteen-year-old girl a gold bracelet for her birthday, took her to the pub and poured vodka in her lemonade. All while married to somebody else.

‘And your ex-wife,’ she continues. ‘Was she much younger than you?’

‘No. Not really. She was ten years younger than me.’

‘And how old were you when you met her?’

‘Oh, God.’ He scratches at the back of his neck and screws up his eyes. ‘I must have been late twenties, I suppose.’

Alix lets the maths of this pronouncement float between them, unremarked upon.

‘You know,’ Walter says, thoughtfully, peering at Alix through narrowed eyes, ‘she’s a tricky one, my Jojo. She gives this impression, doesn’t she … of being … simple.’

‘Simple?’

‘Yes. You know. Like there’s not much going on in her head. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned about her over the years it’s that there is actually too much going on in her head. She’s not who she makes out to be. Not at all.’

His words sit there, like ticking bombs. Alix nods and says, ‘Yes. I think there is more to her than meets the eye.’

‘That’s putting it mildly,’ he says.

‘Would you …’ Alix begins, uncertainly. ‘How would you feel about talking to me a little? For my podcast?’

‘This birthday twins one?’

‘Yes.’ Alix pinches her bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger and eyes him anxiously.

‘But what would it have to do with me? I’m not your birthday twin.’

‘Well, no. You’re not. But you’re married to one. And you’ve shared most of her life journey with her. It’d be great to get a few nuggets of insight from you. Just for context.’

She watches him for a reaction. It comes slowly, as a shake of the head. ‘No,’ he says. ‘I think not. But for what it’s worth from my side – Jojo’s got what you might call an elastic relationship with the truth.’

‘Elastic?’ she repeats.

‘Yeah. She, er … how can I put it? When she doesn’t like the reality of things, she finds a reality she prefers.’

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