Page 12 of Don't Fall in Love (and how to break the rules)

“I remember that,” said Chrissie. “UCL, right?”

“Yeah, London. I spent a bit of time in France as part of that, and went back after my course as well.”

“Ooh la la, Ms Rajan, très, um, exciting,” said Chrissie, her GCSE French letting her down.

“It looks to me like you need those lessons as much as the children do. Yeah, I was in Paris for a bit, which was amazing.” Nisha took a mouthful of soup. “In fact, I was wondering if we could take the kids to Paris for a short school trip? It would be an amazing way for them to try out their new skills.”

“Oh my God,” said Chrissie, “that would be awesome! Some of those children have never been outside Birmingham, let alone the UK.”

“Well, I know for a fact that Dottie went to Disney Land last year,” replied Nisha, her eyes sparkling.

“Oh my, don’t we all know about that! If I had a pound for every time she mentioned it…” Chrissie tailed off.

“But yeah, I think we could make it work. Do you reckon Dan would come with? The three of us could do it, right? It’s a small class group.”

Nisha and Dan seemed to have struck up quite the friendship since the start of term. Chrissie wasn’t sure about how she felt about it. But she knew she couldn’t control it.

“I’m sure he would,” said Chrissie. “But back to your life in France,” she pressed, curious to know what had happened next.

“So I worked there for a bit, and I met someone. Someone I fell in love with.”

Chrissie’s heart began to beat inexplicably quickly. “Someone?”

“Jake. We were working in a bar together and when we met, we didn’t really look back.”

“French?” asked Chrissie, processing the male name, her brain working overtime. Nisha was straight. Yes. Of course she was. Why shouldn’t she be? And anyway, it didn’t matter, right?

“No, from London. In fact, we both moved back to London and lived together there. We both trained as teachers, and that’s where I’ve been ever since. I was teaching in an inner-city primary school.”

“And this, um Jake,” said Chrissie, the name jagged in her mouth. “He’s in Birmingham with you?”

Nisha’s face clouded. “No. We split up a few months ago. It was all quite difficult.”

Seeing her friend’s obvious sadness, Chrissie’s empathy pushed everything else aside. She reached her hand out and rested it on Nisha’s arm. Nisha looked up at her, surprised at the physical contact. “I’m sorry, that sounds really hard,” said Chrissie.

“Mmm, yeah, it was.” Nisha wiped the final remnants of the soup from her bowl with a crust. “But it was for the best in the end. We’d grown apart. I think we both needed to admit to ourselves that it was time to move on. It just took us a little while.”

“So that’s why you came back home to Birmingham?” asked Chrissie.

“Partly. Jake and I taught in the same school. While we parted on amicable terms, it felt weird to carry on working together every day. I decided I needed a fresh start, and I saw all the gorgeous pictures and film of Birmingham during the Commonwealth Games in 2022, and I thought, well, it’s as good a place as any. I have history here.”

Chrissie nodded. Yes. History. “It sounds like you made a good job of a very difficult situation. It must have been hard,” she said again.

“Yeah. I guess.” Nisha screwed up her face momentarily. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but quickly moved on. “Anyway, enough about me. What about you?” asked Nisha, leaning towards Chrissie. “I’m guessing you haven’t spent the last twenty years doing nothing.”

“Well, no,” said Chrissie, wondering where to start. “I went to uni, obviously.”

“You were going to do psychology at Leicester, right?”

“Yeah. That’s what I did. And I’ve done all sorts of jobs since then.” Chrissie faltered. She didn’t have any tales of Paris or exotic travel. She’d come home after university and moved back in with her dad.

“But you came back to Brum? To be close to Don?”

Chrissie smiled, enjoying hearing his name. “Yeah, to be with Dad.”

“How is he?” asked Nisha. “He was always so lovely – didn’t seem to mind us camping out in the garden that summer.”

There was a pause in the conversation. It was the first time either of them had acknowledged that summer. They had mostly stuck to work talk, or small talk. Hearing Nisha mention it made Chrissie shiver, slightly. Would they have to go over that? She wasn’t sure she wanted to. But there was something else, too, a sadness she had to share.

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