Page 114 of You Float My Boat

I watched her rush off to the bookshelf across the bar, ease the box of Scrabble out from under the boxes of other board games and rush back.

‘Now it’s proper student life.’

She shook the lid off the box, laid out the board and placed a tile holder in front of me.

‘Okay,’ I threw all the letters into the drawstring bag, ‘but we’re playing English scrabble this time. I never win at French, I don’t know enough words.’

‘Très bon,’ she replied, and reached into the bag for seven tiles. ‘So, how’s Charlie and his broken brain?’

‘Good, I fixed it up nicely,’ I winked.

‘Honestly, you looked so hot in that dress. I’m not surprised it broke, to be honest. We should rename it the brain breaker. I’ll try it out next.’

‘Like a science experiment?’ I chuckled.

‘Exactly,’ she replied, reaching into the bag for a tile which she held up. ‘M’.

I did the same and pulled out the letter D. ‘Me first.’

I laid down five tiles. ‘Phone. Double word, twenty-six points.’

Stella pulled up her phone and typed it into the notepad we always used to keep score. By my calculations she’d recorded four years’ worth of games. She’d won our last two, because we’d played in French, but that had only brought her up to my tally.

We were currently even for the win/lose percentage.

‘God, Vi, did you ever in a million years imagine you’d be with Charlie, having sex all over campus? Remember when we joined your names together? Violie. I think we should bring it back.’

‘Let’s not,’ I laughed, watching her place five tiles down so they interconnected where the H lay. She added twenty-six points to the note.

‘I dunno. I think it’s got a good ring to it.’

‘Maybe, but I’m not sure it’s something Charlie needs to know about me just yet,’ I replied, peering over my letters as I sipped my wine. Using the Y from where she’d placed down HAPPY, I spelt out PYLON.‘Ooh, double letter and double word. Another twenty-three points.’

‘Are you afraid he’ll take away all the orgasms he’s been giving you?’

‘What? No.’

‘Okay –’

‘I’m not,’ I protested, though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was protesting against or why Stella was trying to wind me up. ‘Sounds like you need to start finding some orgasms of your own, though.’

It was only when Stella didn’t respond, or place any tiles on the board, that I looked up to find her sipping wine. None of that was unusual, it was the prolonged silence and the fact she was clearly avoiding meeting my eye which told me something was afoot.

‘Is there something you want to tell me?’

‘No, just thinking about which of my letters to play.’

‘Because –’

‘ACROBAT. Ugh, it’s only eleven points. Bollocks.’ She reached into the bag to pull out more letters and I couldn’t help noticing that she still didn’t meet my eye. ‘Oh hey, did I see the Boat Club has a race at home next weekend?’

I nodded, biting down my smile at the very obvious subject change. ‘Yeah, against Bath. Shall we go and watch? Charlie said it should be a good race. It’s the last one before the Boat Race.’

‘Yes, that’ll be fun, especially as it’s the start of the Easter holidays. Everyone will be out to support.’

I glanced down at my tiles as a familiar voice calledour names. The pair of us spun around to find Cecily dodging a waitress clearing away dirty glasses, and she rushed towards us. Her long red ponytail was swinging behind with as much force, because the girl didn’t know how to take things slow.

‘Whoa. This place got busy.’

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