Page 65 of Textbook Romance

‘Amazing, mate. So how long would I have the pooch for then?’ I ask. I’d have to lay down some proper ground rules to the mutt. Keep off my bed, stop humping my leg, but we could make it work. I’d have to work out if Frank is allergic. I’m sure the nephews would love him.

She stops and laughs. ‘You idiot. They want me to build a team to go out there with me. And strangely, your name was right at the top of my list.’

I stop for a moment and look blankly at some cooking show I’ve been gawping at mindlessly. Borneo. Conservation. The words make me sit up. I’d never really sought out work like that for myself since I left university – those jobs always felt like pipe dreams for further down the line. But there was a time when I planned to use my degree to do fieldwork somewhere. I just never got beyond that. The idea fills me with some prickles of curiosity, excitement.

‘The pity recruit,’ I joke.

‘Hardly. I believe you graduated with a First. There was a Jack I once knew who was fascinated by this type of ecosystem. Orangutans, Jack. There would be orangutans.’

‘Are you trying to use monkeys to tempt me into a job?’

‘Yes.’

‘Sarah, I’m flattered but…’

‘It’s a five-year project,’ she interrupts me. ‘I’m going to send you an email with all the particulars and links to the village where we’d stay. It’s right on the water. We’d have to sort visas and…’

‘Hold up there, sparky. Seriously. Is this your way of trying to sort my life out? I am very capable of finding a job for myself, you know?’

She laughs at the end of the phone. ‘Puurlease. I work at a university. I am surrounded by dozens of botanists who’d jump at the chance to come out and do this sort of work. It’s once in a lifetime stuff. I asked you because you’re my friend but also because you are who you are.’

‘A pain in the arse?’

She cackles in reply. ‘Well, there is that. But you adapt to your surroundings, you’re not put off by challenges and you’re a people person. The team would be better with you in it.’

I exhale gently to hear her compliment. Sometimes I can’t think as far back as my degree – it feels like a lifetime ago. But I remember Sarah and I used to talk about the work we would do; a couple of young idealistic tree-huggers with aspirations to explore and save the world.

‘I really hate blowing smoke up your arse, by the way. It feels very unnatural,’ she tells me.

I laugh. ‘Sarah, are you being serious? What about your newbuild? Hakeem?’

‘We’d rent it out. Hakeem will tag along. It’s all very new but I can’t let this go. It’s a big deal.’

‘How long do I have to decide?’ I ask tentatively.

‘So you’re considering it?’

My phone pings and I hold it away from my ear to see a text from Zoe.

See you tomorrow x

I have to sit there and take a moment. This isn’t normally what happens in my weekends. Normally, I lie here and realise I’ve spent a whole hour scrolling through TikTok and that Monday is around the corner. All that time has passed without anything happening until now. And now, life is offering up forks in the road. ‘I just need to think about a few things.’

‘Well, don’t hurt yourself, hon.’

I laugh.

THIRTEEN

Zoe

I walk into school the next day and Mia is waiting in the staff room for me, arms crossed, basically tapping her foot in the same way we do when we’re waiting for kids who are late into our classrooms.

‘Is your phone broken, you absolute cow?’ she tells me.

Ed comes rushing over from the staff room fridge. ‘I am so sorry about her, I am so sorry we did that to you. It was all her idea. I told her it was such a bad idea. I told her you’d never trust us again and we work with you. We’d have to see you on Monday…’

I look at both of them, po-faced, shaking my head.

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