Page 64 of Textbook Romance

First we call the sex ‘chicken’. Now it’s ‘overtime’.

I’ll put your name down then.

Please do. I’d like that very much.

Thank you again, Jack. Can I say that I’m glad our paths have crossed?

You can say that. I like hearing it x

I put my phone down on my chest with a huge smile on my face, sipping at a cup of tea whilst I lounge in my front room. I’m glad Zoe messaged first. I’m glad that despite her family dramas, I still linger in her thoughts because she lingers in mine – and she wants to keep seeing me. In two weeks. I can wait two weeks and in between I’ll get to see her at school, every day if I’m lucky. I don’t think I’ll mind that one bit.

I left Dom and the boys last night and crawled back here to pass out. Dom still thinks this place is some single man’s twenty-four-hour party palace when, in reality, I came back to Frank playing Call of Duty with a set of online friends I don’t think he’s ever met in real life, and Ben in bed with a box set and cold meds. I can hear them both through the ceiling now. One sniffing for his life, the other yelling like he’s in the middle of actual warfare, trying to get someone to cover his six. It’s midday and strangely, I feel a little lost. I don’t know if I’m tired or need to do some laundry. The answer is both but for now, I will continue to lounge, put on some mindless television, scroll through the corners of social media where I can keep updated on current affairs but also see what all my friends had for dinner last night. Such is my very single life. My phone ringing gets my attention.

‘Hello hello.’

‘Jack Attack,’ Sarah replies, very calmly.

‘I owe you.’

‘You do.’

‘Sorry I didn’t call yesterday. I should have checked in and done that properly. It’s been a strange twelve hours.’

‘No harm. Can I say, though? What a nice young man. A sad young man but very polite.’

‘I wouldn’t know. Did he say much to you?’ I ask her.

‘Hakeem just distracted him with football talk. They created their dream team. Once I requested Jack Grealish so I could just stare at his calves, I was cut out of the conversation.’

I laugh. ‘What a way to cheapen and sexualise a very good footballer. I am disappointed, Sarah.’

Sarah is silent which makes me wonder if she’s waiting for me to volunteer more information or whether she knows already. Perhaps the old university hotlines have been burning.

‘You’ve spoken to Ed, haven’t you?’ I ask.

‘We may have had a conversation. His new wife is fuming, by the way, that you haven’t updated them on what’s happened there.’

‘Really?’ I say, defensively. ‘The Ed and Mia who quite brazenly set me up.’

‘You slept with her, didn’t you?’ she asks.

‘A gentleman never reveals…’

‘Gentleman? Who’s that then?’ she jokes. ‘Did the lad get home? Is he OK? I kept asking him that, but he didn’t really reply, and I didn’t want to dig.’

‘He’s with his mum, he’s home. It was a family matter and I’ve left them to it.’

I’m not sure how much more to tell her.

‘Then we did a good thing then, eh?’

‘You did. Thank you.’ I knew I could call Sarah and she’d help. She was the reliable sort at university, the one who you’d call if you were stuck in the kebab shop and your payment method had been declined. Of course, this never happened to me. And despite a small feeling of judgement over my life choices, there is friendship there. Friendship without question.

‘Well,’ she says, shifting tone. ‘Seeing as we’re talking favours, I may have something I’d like to lay down at your door. If you’re interested?’

I sit up on the sofa. ‘Is it Bowie? Did you need another dogsitter?’

‘I’ve been offered a job. It’s quite a big conservation project out in Borneo, they want to me to lead it and project manage. It’s the dream job, it really is…’

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