Page 135 of Oar Than Friends

I shrugged. ‘That’s okay. You deserved that win. I’m so fucking proud of you, Katey.’

‘You can try again next year.’

I was about to tell her that there were other things I now wanted to win more than next year’s Boat Race, when Will’s words shot back into my brain. In the commotion of the race, and seeing her again, I’d almost forgotten them.

‘Will told me you’re leaving,’ I blurted out. ‘Tell me that’s not true. Please.’

She opened her mouth, then closed it. ‘Um …’

All the adrenaline I’d burned through the race once more coursed through my body, coupled with a heavy dose of panic that I’d blown everything and she was going to slip through my fingers before I could stop her. For the last month I’d been working through a plan for our future, one which would keep us together, but her leaving Cambridge was throwing a very large spanner in it.

Good job I could think on my feet.

‘Okay, okay. You’re leaving. Well, okay. That’s fine but bottom line is wherever you’re going, I’ll come too. I can come. I can travel. Wherever you go,’ I announced, my words shooting out in rapid succession, while I attempted to mentally plot out a hundred solutions to my problem. ‘You can leave, but I’m done with being apart. So, yes. That’s what I’ll do. Where are we going?’

She waited in silence, making sure I’d finished with the firing line of words I’d shot her way, then her brows dropped, and a sly curl edged up her lip. ‘Oxford.’

‘What?’

‘Oxford. We’re going to Oxford.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I thought I’d come to Oxford to study, while you’re becoming Britain’s best-known classicist.’

I scratched my head, trying to make sense of what she was saying. Her coming to Oxford was not one of the scenarios I had plotted.

‘Are you telling me you’ve transferred your course to Oxford?’

She shook her head slowly. ‘No. I’ve quit my course. I’m going to do something else instead.’

‘You’re not studying medicine?’

Her shoulders sagged as she smiled up at me, and let out a long, heavy sigh. ‘You were right. I didn’t love it, I’ve never loved it. It wasn’t my dream to pursue, it was Jake’s.’

I blinked, not really believing what I was hearing. Not daring to hope what I was hoping. ‘So, what are you going to do instead?’

She grinned wide, almost blinding me with how beautiful she was, and let out one of her giggles I loved so much, and had missed even more. ‘I’m going to business school in Oxford. Now we’ll be in the same place. We can be together.’

I heaved a sigh of relief that could have been heard over the still cheering crowds and my grin turned into a laugh. A loud laugh. ‘Oh man …’

Confusion fell across Kate’s face. ‘What’s so funny? Aren’t you pleased? I thought you’d be pleased.’

‘I am,’ I grabbed her shoulders, ‘I am. I’m so pleased for you, but the thing is … I’m not going to be in Oxford.’

She stepped back, her arms crossed over her chest. ‘What? Where are you going to be?’

‘Well … um, actually … I thought I’d come and join a winning team instead.’

‘What … what does that mean?’

‘I’ve been accepted onto the teacher training course at Cambridge. And I was planning to try out for the Cambridge crew, seeing as my girlfriend is the winning coxswain.’

Her mouth dropped open again, though this time it didn’t fill me with the panic I’d experienced before.

‘But … what about your father? What about your future as a classicist so you don’t have to leave Oxford and go into politics?’

‘Well, I realized something.’ A droplet of water ran down the side of her face, and I brushed it away. ‘I realized that you’re my future, if you’ll have me. If it’s not too late.’

---